


Precious Mudblood

by Magentasouth



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abuse, Anal, Angst, BDSM, Bigotry & Prejudice, F/M, M/M, Multi, Multiple Partners, Torture, Violence, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-09-17 03:04:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 81
Words: 569,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9301247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magentasouth/pseuds/Magentasouth
Summary: Hermione awakens in a cell. The final battle is over. The light fell.





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> reviews/comments motivate me to update. I have dozens of chapters just sitting here waiting to be uploaded...

The world returned gradually: Shallow echoing sounds, clinking; scraping. 

A sense of coldness; 

A feeling of rough gritty stone beneath her splayed fingertips and against her cheek; 

the sense of imponderable heaviness in her entire body. 

Her closed eyelids felt like old parchment, crackly and fragile. Her mouth tasted coppery sharp and metallic and there was a pervasive stench of rotten meat and urine in the air.   
She floated in the faintly disquieting void of mindless sensation for a while before suddenly sharply returning to herself, gasping, awareness pushing in uncomfortably on all sides in the unnatural sensation peculiar to ennervation. 

“rouse yourself, mudblood” a rough male voice spat from somewhere to her left.   
“it’s time to go. Mustn’t keep the Dark Lord waiting.” 

The voice sniggered softly as pain bloomed in her like the return of spring.   
Her chest ached, the side of her head throbbed, breathing felt like inhaling needles. 

She forced her eyes open, peering into the dimly lit space before her. Stone block walls and manacles, Indeterminate filth and body parts in one corner. Not the most encouraging place to awaken. 

She took stock of herself. She was still in her uniform from the battle, her skirt damp and itchy around her knees.   
Her blouse blackened and gaping open over a large livid burn stretching from her right shoulder to her navel, exposing her breast.   
Dirt and blood covered her, both her own and that of others, but her injuries, uncomfortable as they were, were minor, she realised, relieved.   
Pushing against the floor with arms as weak as rubber she managed to sit up. 

Obviously not fast enough for her guard, she thought as a hand gripped her upper arm, violently wrenching her up to her feet and dragging her backward, stumbling and dizzy.   
She would have crashed back down to the ground again if the hand had not maintained its crushing grip on her. 

A man’s face floated into view. Wavy dark brown shoulder length hair hung limp and unkempt. His olive tinted features were broad and angular, eyes dark in the gloom and he was unshaven. Dark, swarthy and leering unpleasantly in a most stereotypical manner – yes this was certainly the very image she had of what a death eater would look like behind their mask. A brute of a man, he probably woke in the morning, gargled with firewhiskey and tortured, raped and killed things for the rest of the day before quaffing himself into a stupor in the early hours with a scree of other similar Neanderthals. 

A creature of appetite, thinly shackled in obedience to a mad snake-faced master. 

He smirked, apparently amused. “what do you think you know of me, little dirt-child? Or of the Dark Lord, for that matter? You’d be wise to take care with your words here. Your place in the world has changed.”   
He stepped closer to her, still holding her in an iron grip. She felt the heat radiating off him even through the black robes he wore. His eyes trailed down her face and across her exposed, damaged body. 

She could almost feel his gaze crawling across her skin. 

His free hand trailed up her abdomen to brush beneath her naked breast gently, teasingly.   
Shocked she jerked backwards, her hands flying up to push him away. She didn’t even see him move but his hand had released her shoulder and he had captured her at the wrists and secured her arms behind her back, holding them there with one arm. He drew his wand and muttered a spell to bind them there.   
Dragging his wand up her body he pressed it against the side of her throat lazily, his other hand returning to her bared breast and gripping now, squeezing, not unkindly although her burnt flesh flared in agony at the pulling of her skin, the pad of his thumb rubbing circles around her nipple, which rose at his ministrations, quite against her will. 

She blushed in shame and twitched slightly, beginning to panic.   
Was he going to rape her now? Oh Merlin. Stop it, body! Was he going to rape her?!!   
He’d said he was taking her to Lord Voldemort. There wasn’t time for him to do anything, was there? 

She tried to reassure herself and remain calm. He wouldn’t want to piss off his already intolerant and vicious master and risk drawing punishment upon himself.   
But the reassurance only twisted and threw her full tilt into the black panic she was trying to escape.   
Oh gods... she was going to be taken before Lord Voldemort. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.   
Where was everyone else? Were they perhaps as close as the next cell?   
Were they somewhere free and trying to find her? 

...were they dead??! 

She bit this idea off immediately. 

She had been fighting on the slopes stretching down to the forbidden forest on Hogwarts grounds, where the final battle had erupted, hoards of death eaters pouring from the trees and still more apparating as the wards must have fallen.   
The sun hung low and red in the sky, painting everything in garish surreal tones, letting glow the blood that was shed all around her as witches and wizards fought and fell to horrible curses.   
She and Harry and Ron had drifted apart in the chaos. She had seen Ron off in the distance and he seemed to be holding his own against a large blonde grinning wizard. Ginny was off to the right some way away fighting with a witch in green robes. 

She had seen Tonks fall and had then turned and found herself confronted with four combatants where before had stood two and had cast a high level shield spell and tried to withdraw to find cover in order to stand a chance against those odds... 

She didn’t remember what had happened next. 

The others... what had happened in the battle? Did one side retreat? 

What happened to Harry and Ron? Were they here? Would they be coming for her? 

God... going to Voldemort now, she thought panicked, “The order won’t have time to save me before then. 

“There is no one left to save you.” Her guard growled softly. 

She froze. ‘he can hear my thoughts.’ Her mind whirled. She had tried to learn occlumency from books but it proved a wasted endeavour. It appeared that legilimency and occlumency were something you had to learn through doing and she had had nobody to practice with. 

When Harry had been learning occlumency he had, at first, come back to the common room each night and told Ron and herself everything about it. But then something had happened, Harry would never tell her what, and after that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore and wouldn’t be persuaded to practice it with her.   
After a while she had decided that there was no point spending time on the activity when there were many other areas to which she could be applying herself with far greater results. 

But that was then, when things were clear and they were going to go to battle, kick Moldy short’s butt and be home in time for tea.   
Things looked much simpler back then.   
And now...she was actually IN Voldemort’s lair.   
Alone.   
Being felt up by a death eater so proficient in legilimency that he apparently did not even require eye contact. 

If she had known that this was where things would end up she would have spent a lot more time and effort on somehow forcing someone to teach her occlumency. Or on developing her wandless magic. Or at least taken some martial arts classes or something so that she wouldn’t have ended up bound and helpless quite so effortlessly. 

‘oh gods... what if he’s telling the truth’ her mind supplied suddenly. ‘what if Voldemort won and there’s nobody left out there?’ 

Her stomach roiled and she flicked her eyes back up to the face of the man still pawing her casually,   
he looked amused, eyes half hooded,   
his hand was skating feather light over her skin and she wanted to be sick because against her best efforts to ignore the sensation, it felt pleasant. ...enticing. her body was informing her that it liked the sensation - and it clearly shouldn’t! 

Her breathing was becoming shallower and she felt hot and uncomfortable. This was like a nightmare. There were actual dead people in pieces in the room behind her.   
This horrible animal was the first man to touch her breast - ever – she had been a ‘good girl’, all this time. Pushing Ron away when he had wanted to do more than kiss her – losing him to lavender for doing so. Ignoring the advances of other boys in her year she knew didn’t really care for her. saving herself... for this?! 

And she was probably shortly going to be tortured and killed by Voldemort, and as easily as that idea rolled across the mind, it was only because the reality was beyond her current powers of comprehension. 

The death eater, now holding her almost pressed against him, plucked at her nipple gently, and she gasped, arching slightly.   
Silent tears slid down her cheeks in shame.   
He leaned into her slowly and his face brushed against hers... dropping to graze his lips against her throat lightly.   
Her heart sped even more at this. She felt a strange cold breath. ‘did he just...sniff me?! Ugh’.   
She felt him smirk against her skin. 

The man pulled back again, true amusement written across his face. “you need to watch that mouth of yours, pet” 

She blinked. Feebly she tried to clear her mind but it was like trying to hold water in her hands. Her mind just kept producing commentary and reaction on the sensations of her body, on the looks and person of the man in front of her, on the possible condition of her friends, on what might happen to her soon. She felt overwhelmed. Helpless. Like a ship at sea without a rudder. 

The death eater laughed low at her frustration. The sound was not unpleasant.   
“You’re going about that all wrong, but you’ll learn soon enough I think. You are good at that, aren’t you? Learning? That’s what you’re ...famous... for. So, pay attention”   
He fixed her with a hard expression and his dark eyes suddenly seemed icy glinting stones. 

“obey.” 

His hand stopped groping her and slid up to grip her arm tightly again. 

“Do not fuck around with anyone you meet here – especially the Dark Lord. At this stage, you are nothing. No – to be nothing would be better – you are filth; the mudblood whore of the enemy.”   
“If you displease the Dark Lord he will kill you. Slowly. It will be greatly entertaining for all. You have no idea how...inventive... he can be when it comes to suffering.” 

“If you want to avoid that fate - do whatever he says and do it immediately.”   
“Bow and prostrate yourself before him. Do not look him in the eye unless he commands it. Beg for your worthless little life! You will find that your pride will only bring agony upon you.” 

“Should you by some happy chance survive this night, know that If you offend any death eater in any way - although they will not kill you, you will likely beg them for death between your screams and sobs.” 

“The life that you had before is finished mudblood. There is nothing to return to. There is no escape. Resign yourself to your fate.” 

He stepped back suddenly and she could only sway suddenly in the inexplicable cold of his absence, icy fingers gripping her heart as he pulled open the heavy oaken door. 

 

He dragged her briskly down seemingly endless stone corridors, past doors through which faintly resounded screams and moans, up a narrow stone staircase and through another door, emerging into an opulent, if sombre foyer.   
Dark marble floors with blood red veins were broken at regular intervals by black stone pillars intricately carved and inlaid with precious stones.   
The ceilings receded into blackness, invisible above, while strange spherical lamps floated suspended in the air.   
They were of shattered crystal charmed to appear to be exploding outward from a central point from which emanated soft white light. 

A black carpet ran down the centre of the long room between the lines of pillars, culminating in large imposing black doors. As she stepped onto the carpet with the death eater, the sound of their footfalls vanished and she felt herself sink marginally into the luxurious surface. 

The doors, as they drew near, appeared to be composed of some dark kind of stone with a surface like slate and as they came within a few paces, her ‘guide’ released her arm briefly and, tossing back the sleeve of his robe, touched his wand to the dark mark on his left arm, before immediately gripping her once more. 

She felt panic rising inside her like a kind of madness. 

‘MerlinMerlinMerlin someone help me. This is really happening. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to go in there. Don’t make me go in there. Please!!’ 

Her eyes darted left and right looking for something, anything that might offer an escape – she had not seen any other doors since they had climbed out of the dungeons.   
She looked at the man next to her, whose eyes were firmly fixed on the doors before them. Whimpering softly under her breath and tugging weakly at her arm, caused him only to tighten his grip and press his lips together slightly, his expression darkening, but still not looking at her. 

After interminable moments, there was a crack sound and the doors began to swing inward silently.


	2. Chapter 2

She did not know what she had been expecting   
– perhaps a dim and chilled crypt-like cavern where row upon row of black robed and masked death eaters stood staring toward her or perhaps staring diligently toward a stage where the snake lord himself stood in state upon a raised dais, watching her dragged implacably down a central aisle toward him. 

What she had not expected was a ball. 

As the doors opened, music spilled out and the bright yellow light cut a path through the black foyer.   
Men and women in dazzling finery danced in the central area of the ballroom while groups of others mingled and conversed.   
She could hear laughter and clinking of glasses. Elves wandered around with trays of various delicacies and refreshments. 

The scene fairly sparkled and everyone seemed to be having a jolly old time. There was a bright, almost Christmas-like atmosphere. 

It jarred against her mind sharply, as if she had stepped into an alternate universe suddenly, or been transported back to the Yule ball at Hogwarts.   
These people did not look like death eaters at all, they looked like...well... people. Respectable people. There were couples; there were even some small children in their best party dresses and suits trying to behave next to their parents.   
It was otherworldly to her. 

She was suddenly painfully aware of her own current appearance. Doused in mud and gore and partially exposed.   
She wished more than anything that she could bring her arm up to cover her nakedness – a sudden modesty returning that only minutes before had seemed no longer necessary, in light of her present position.   
But her arms were bound behind her and her breast, with its raised pink line of burnt skin tracking across it downward, was plainly on display to all. 

As the guests nearest the door turned to notice them standing there, the room slowly began to stop its activity as the news of their presence spread like a wave, attracting more and more attention.   
Hermione blushed bright red, hearing the sound of derisive laughter and low discussion in the crowd.   
A man who looked faintly familiar, perhaps she’d seen him in Hogsmeade, looked her up and down and leered at her openly as he sipped his champagne. Looking around she could see more than a few others reacting similarly. 

Then her guide stepped forward with her, the groups parting before them as he half marched, half dragged her through the room, moving across the now frozen dance floor and, progressing to the end of the room where, indeed, there was a raised stone dais with four shallow steps leading up to it, upon which stood a black carved throne.   
In the throne (she swallowed with difficulty, feeling like her throat was closing up) lounged Voldemort.   
‘Lord Voldemort’ she corrected herself quickly. 

He scrutinized her with an unreadable expression as they moved ever closer. 

He was...   
...she had known how he looked.   
She had seen him very briefly at the final battle - hardly long enough to make out much, but Harry had, in the room of requirement, shown Ron and herself a memory of the events in the cemetery after the Triwizard Tournament.   
She had seen his face – that disturbing flatness where a nose should be, those red slitted eyes like no creature on earth, seen the unnatural pallor of his skin, even seen the frighteningly graceful way he moved, as if gravity did not quite hold him.   
But she was not prepared for his presence. 

He exuded power. 

It washed off him in dark intoxicating waves, like a kind of heat.   
She felt suddenly, shocked, that she could understand perhaps a little of what motivated his minions to follow him, to offer their skin up to his mark. 

He was overwhelming.   
He sat in the throne splayed in lazy majesty, his mastery of this domain unmistakeable.   
His voluminous black robes held a sheen beyond silk, a quality like that of oil or liquid onyx. They were dazzling.   
His skin stood out against them like marble. 

He rested his chin lightly upon one hand, his finger stroking his thin lips pensively, elbow resting upon the arm of the throne. His other arm draped elegantly across the other arm of the throne, long slender fingers slightly curled. 

 

They had reached the floor a couple of metres from the bottom step of the dais and the death eater next to her tugged her to a halt.   
She stared, mesmerized, up at Lord Voldemort, unable to drag her eyes away. 

In her head the words ran around and around in circles. ‘don’t look at him don’t look at him, rude to look at him. Look down. Bow or something. ...he’s going to kill me... everyone’s dead. If there’s nobody left then maybe it’s better if he does kill me. But the pain! He’s going to hurt me and keep hurting me. Merlin I’m still looking at him. Stop!! Look down! kneel!!! Stop looking at him!’   
the thoughts raced around in circles in abject terror. She couldn’t quite tear her eyes away from him. 

He watched her obviously struggling with herself and for a fraction of a second he appeared amused, then his gaze shifted from her to the death eater at her side.   
The hand on her arm tightened and threw her down to the ground to land upon her knees on the marble floor.   
She yelped at the shock and, recovering, bent, folding herself down upon her thighs, her toes pointed behind her and laying her forehead upon the cool stone; her arms uncomfortable at her back, stretching the burnt skin across her chest. 

She tried to stop shaking. 

Her brain was confused, now shunting between the images of a circle of death eaters in the cemetery with Voldemort cruciating Harry and images of dancing with Viktor at the Yule ball.   
It seemed to be trying to construct a scene where a Voldemort was holding the cruciatus curse on someone at the Yule ball, trying to remind her of the immediate and extreme danger she was currently in, irrespective of the fine ornamentation of her surroundings. 

“Hermione Granger” Lord Voldemort’s voice was high and reedy with peculiar little harmonics in it that she had not noticed in the pensieve memory. 

She shuddered and wasn’t sure whether to remain as she was or direct her gaze toward him. 

“look at me” he spoke and there was the sound of quiet footfalls as he descended the steps slowly. 

She raised herself up onto her knees cautiously, raising her head finally to look up at him as he approached her. 

He stopped a metre and a half before her, looking down upon her. He seemed impossibly tall and imposing.   
His eyes fairly glowed.   
She saw that he held his pale sharp misshapen wand in hand and could not stop herself from shaking like a leaf. 

He smiled thinly, a knife blade at her terror. 

The death eater that had brought her stood still at her side and Voldemort turned his attention to him momentarily and spoke, surprisingly deferentially to him 

“Excellent, my servant, I am pleased. You may withdraw.” 

The man bowed sharply, then stepped back, turned and stalked away into the crowd.   
She wondered briefly, confusedly, why he left and didn’t stay to watch.   
It was unnatural that she was bothered by his departure, wasn’t it? He bloody molested her after all! 

It occurred to her that she had no idea what his name was. Judging by the number of people in the room, if even half of them were death eaters it was possible she’d never cross paths with him again.   
That is, unless Voldemort – Lord Voldemort (right, right) – actually threw him in her path for whatever reason. 

She jumped at this and turned her attention back to the outside world where Lord Voldemort fixated her with something between amusement and irritation. 

“now that I have your attention once more mudblood”   
His voice was frosty. 

She cowered slightly, hating herself for her weakness. If it was true and the light had lost then this wasn’t a world she really wanted to be a part of – she should at least stand up and show some Gryffindor backbone and spit in his eye before she died.   
But she didn’t.   
As close as he was now it was like bathing in the heat emanating from a dark sun.   
The magic radiated from him.   
She both wanted to veer back away out of it in terror and to lean in still closer to take in more of it. 

Her eyes slipped closed momentarily and she swayed, feeling almost drunk on the sensation of his proximity.   
And then, as if he knew it, he moved even nearer and she felt she might actually faint from the power washing through her, reacting off her own magic. 

“I find that I am in a most generous mood this night, mudblood. I have achieved so many of the things I have wanted already. I have destroyed my enemy, I have liberated Hogwarts and the magical community. I have many new toys to play with...”   
At this her eyes flickered open once more and her eyes darted to his wondering who his ‘toys’ might be, whether any of her friends or fellow order members might still live   
“and the party is not yet tedious” 

A few faint polite titters echoed through the room. Voldemort briefly smiled indulgently at the crowd before his attention focused back down upon her. 

“I had not planned on doing so but I believe I am going to offer you the choice that none of your friends and compatriots had. I will allow you, within a certain range of options, to decide your own fate. In fact, I will even show you precisely what is entailed by each ...option, in order that you might be fully informed in your decision.”   
“Despite your ...unfortunate birth... Miss Granger, I would be remiss not to acknowledge your usefulness – something which I happen to value highly.” 

“Thank you Lord Voldemort” she replied softly. It was the best she could do.   
She had a feeling that she should call him “my Lord” but she just couldn’t do it.   
Thanking him at all made her feel sick and confused. She saw Harry’s face in her mind.   
Voldemort looked at her consideringly. “come now my dear, I think a little more graciousness than that is required, don’t you? Show me that you appreciate the boundless generosity that I am bestowing upon you” 

She flinched. What did he want?! A sonnet? He was offering her some choice that would probably amount to horrid death, horrible fate worse than death and horrible fate marginally preferable to death. It was hardly as if he had said ‘oh I’m feeling generous, here – have your friends back and here’s a portkey – feel free to go back to your little life and there’s no need for any more nightmares! 

Her thoughts were interrupted when Lord Voldemort flicked his wand impatiently and she felt her hands unbound from her back. She pulled them to her chest, working her wrists in circles to relieve the ache.   
He was looking at her...   
‘do something, do something’ her mind prompted. 

An idea occurred to her.   
It was repugnant.   
She suddenly knew without any doubt that it was what he wanted. - It was why he had released her.   
The strange certainty filled her mind like lead. She could refuse... but then she might as well stand up and spit in his eye after all. This was the moment that decided her fate.   
She discovered she still wanted to live. 

Shuddering she inched forward on her knees, the force of his magic now nearly overpowering. With shaking hand she reached for the hem of his robes haltingly, forcing herself to continue. She grasped the silky fabric and bent low to the ground, pressing her lips to it once swiftly before scooting backwards a pace or two, her eyes lowered, sickened at herself. 

Murmuring flashed around the crowd gathered behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut, hot bitter little tears escaping and flashing down her cheeks silently.   
She felt a hand on her head stroke her filthy matted hair gently.   
‘Oh Merlin. The Dark Lord is petting me’ she thought 

“Much better, Miss Granger” she heard him say above her. “now you are showing the proper... attitude”. 

As if she were switched off, he turned and walked back up the steps, standing before his throne. “Severus! Lucius! Rodolphus!” he barked. She recognised Professor Snape and Lucius Malfoy as they separated themselves from the throng. She did not see the third man who emerged from the other side of the room. 

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at her former Professor.   
He was elegantly clothed and appeared considerably more relaxed than he had in the entire time she had known him.   
No trace of a scowl at all, in fact he appeared energized by the surroundings. His hair was glossy and healthy, his skin pale but by no means sallow. 

‘traitor’ she thought venomously. ‘We all trusted you!’ 

Bitterly she conceded that what she meant was ‘I trusted you, professor’ and she felt a small place inside she had locked away ache just a little.   
She had had the most unreasonable crush on Professor Snape all throughout her fourth and fifth years.   
Finally at the beginning of last year she had forced herself to be sensible and stop thinking about him as it was stupid and childish to worship a teacher in this way. 

Logically – if he ever gave her what she so desperately wished of him, he would have endangered his position in the school – more than that he would have endangered his position with the order – and thereby endangered the entire wizarding community.   
The future of the world was a little bit more important than her ridiculous hormones – or even her ridiculous heart.   
She told herself this in her firmest inner voice and after a while she did stop thinking about him, throwing herself more than ever into her work and into helping Harry prepare himself. 

Seeing how well he looked here...now... after everything...   
after killing headmaster Dumbledore and running away like a lying cheating traitorous coward!!, her mind hissed.   
it was shocking. 

Of course, she had always found him attractive. It was his dark eyes, she thought. They were so deep and they seemed to see right inside you.   
Oh, and his hands... and the way he moved. The grace and skill he exhibited in everything he did and his sheer blinding brilliance in potions and dark arts.   
She wished that she might have had a chance to learn more about the area he was rumoured to be most passionate about, but Hogwarts had particular ideas about the place of dark arts in a school – i.e. firmly restricted to defence-against it, preferably with all knowledge safely abridged and fit for ‘innocent’ minds. 

She appreciated his rather cruel sense of humour too, although that she felt slightly guilty about in light of the fact that many times the butt of his jibes would be one of her best friends or herself.   
She didn’t mind his insults really. Or at least... she was used to them. They were normal.   
No... that was a cop out. He could say anything in that voice...it was dark and rich like bitter chocolate, it seemed to promise forbidden pleasures.   
It was even better when he was saying something awful. She enjoyed his cruelty and his unapproachable dominance. 

But a large part of his appeal to her had been, she had to admit, knowing that despite his apparent cruelty and coldness he was a hero – that he was a spy who risked himself for the good of all, that he was shunned and suspected by those he fought to protect.   
She had lost track of how often she had berated Harry and Ron to show him the respect due a professor when they ridiculed him in spite for some cruel thing or other he had done to them in class. 

Now it seemed that that had all been a lie. He was the worst kind of traitor and now Harry was almost certainly dead if all these horrible people were celebrating and she couldn’t even tell him she was sorry for making him call Snape by his proper title. 

Voldemort addressed the three he had summoned from the crowd “Join me in my chambers.” He then fixed his blood red gaze upon her once more “Miss Granger. rise and come to me.” 

She looked up at him and found that actually what she most wanted to do was to curl into a tight little ball right here and have someone administer a quick pain free Avada. Instead she found herself raising one creaking knee and shakily pulling herself to her feet. 

She could feel the weight of the stares behind her and she could feel the air across her unclothed breast perversely, her nipple still hardened from the touches in the dungeons.   
She curled her arms protectively over her chest, hiding her nakedness. 

Her legs were unsteady as she climbed the steps toward the waiting Dark Lord, stopping beside him, keeping her eyes fixed upon the floor. 

“Miss Granger” he said quietly, these words clearly meant only for her. “perhaps in time you will come to know Severus somewhat better, should you live long enough, and then you might better interpret his motivations and his actions. Until that time you will show him the respect you would show my own person. Do you understand?”   
“Severus is worth more to me than any other here and I will not allow him to be insulted and accused by a mudblood slave. You will modify your attitude toward him. If I catch you thinking ill of him again, I will lose all patience with you...” 

His eyes burned at her like coals and she blanched. 

She whispered “I have tried! I just can’t control my thoughts. I want to! Please! How can I do that if its beyond my control...” she trailed off, trying not to cry again.   
There was no way she would be able to give him what he wanted. The feelings of disappointment, anger and betrayal were too fresh.   
She actually felt his disapproving glare upon her without needing to raise her eyes. It was like a pressure upon her. She wondered if she would be cursed and trembled, waiting. Finally Voldemort turned, hissing at her “follow me mudblood” and stalking off. 

 

She skittered to keep up with him as they passed through a black panel door in the rear wall and into beautifully appointed silver and black corridors hung in black and white portraits and landscapes. Doors entirely without handles interrupted the walls. 

They reached a door indistinguishable from any of the others and Voldemort placed his hand upon its surface.   
It flared gold momentarily, clicked and swung inward at his touch. 

She followed him into a study, walls lined in bookshelves full of thick ancient leather tomes.   
It was wonderfully warm, far warmer than the ballroom and the corridor leading here and she wondered whether it might be a reptile thing, then kicked herself for thinking it. 

“it is” Lord Voldemort stated shortly, moving further into the room to seat himself in a dark green leather wingback chair near the fire. 

“Come here Miss Granger” He spoke softly. 

She hesitated for only a fraction of a second fearfully before padding over and standing before him. 

“I wish you to sit at my feet.” he instructed mildly, gazing up at her, his expression indecipherable. 

She tried not to react with horror. She hoped her face didn’t look as appalled as she suddenly felt. She tried not to think at all but the idea of sitting at the Dark Lords feet and looking up at him just made everything so real. The little obedience she’d shown thus far – obedience not in response to pain but obedience in response to the mere veiled supposition of possible pain.   
He had not made her do anything.   
Had not required her or punished her in any way so far. She was simply a coward.   
Harry and Ron would despise her if they could see.   
Emotions flashed across her face. Shock, anger, shame, dread. 

“Miss Granger” Voldemort drew her attention from the place she had gone to in her mind where all the order stood watching as she betrayed them all.   
“What do you think I might do if you refuse to obey me?” His eerie high voice was neutral, not admonishing or threatening, merely enquiring. 

The answer flashed across her mind in letters ten miles high. ‘hurt me. Force me to do it anyway. Find someone I care about and hurt them too. ...kill me.’ She bit her lip. He spoke again 

“And what do you think will happen to you if you choose to sit at my feet?” Her eyes flashed to his face stunned. 

‘choose’   
He had said choose.   
He wanted her to acknowledge that she did it of her own free will. She couldn’t do that. It was one thing for him to force her to do it but another thing entirely if she just decided to do it. NO. No no no no. She would never do that.   
Where were the others?? She wanted to be with Harry and Ron. Even if they were dead, she wanted to be where they were. They would never forgive her if she did this. She would never forgive herself if she did this. She’d always know. 

Voldemort smirked and observed quietly. “Such a small thing I ask of you and you make this degree of unreasonable fuss. What would you do if I required you to kill one of your little friends?!” 

She was almost certain that this was not a rhetorical question. 

She weighed up the outcomes of sitting at his feet versus refusing to sit at his feet and decided that feeling bad about herself was preferable to feeling blinding agony or being forced to harm others. She lowered herself to the floor and sat cross-legged in front of his chair. 

“Closer” he gestured to the space directly next to his legs. 

Reluctantly she shuffled forward, facing his legs and leaning her side against his chair, looking up at him warily. 

“Well done, Miss Granger. Now there, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he smirked again. She felt his hand come down gently upon her head, stroking her hair again and she flinched.   
“Now then, we must fix you up. You are looking quite a sight” he waved his wand hand vaguely and effortlessly transfigured her ruined clothing into a plain black woollen robe. It was a relief. She no longer felt quite as exposed and vulnerable. Thankfulness warred with shame.   
A scourgify rippled over her hair and then she felt his thin cold fingers scratching lightly against her scalp again and was jarred by the entire situation.   
She was not a..a... cat. Or a pet of some kind. Did he have to keep touching her?! Was it just to show her he could?   
Did he enjoy it? What the hell was going on here? 

The Dark Lord removed his hand from her head, looking at her evenly, tilting his head as if in internal debate   
“What am I going to do with you, Miss Granger? You appear so compliant but I have the feeling you are going to be difficult” He sighed.   
Sighed!!   
“Alas, it cannot be helped – Come, I’ll tell you about the wonderful choice I am going to give you between horrible options, as you say. As you have correctly guessed – you do have the right to die, if you feel there is nothing at all worth living for – not even the avoidance of a truly horrible death – and I assure you – it will be horrible. Terrible beyond your wildest imagining in fact.” 

She couldn’t prevent a shiver racing up her spine. His voice was colder than it had been. 

“You are a popular girl, Miss Granger, although you have likely never realised it. There are many dozens of death eaters who would most eagerly take part in your untimely demise. It would be unfair of me to leave any out when they are so very hopeful. Imagine cancelling Christmas!” 

“Many have already offered me quite considerable boons for the right to participate more actively in the great event. Oh it would be a glorious thing – a tribute to the depth and breadth of dark knowledge my death eaters possess, and of course to the considerable skill in healing my healers are wont to employ in order to prolong their enjoyment for as long as possible.”   
“I do believe, if I were judicious in monitoring the proceedings and ensuring that nobody gets too carried away too early, I could manage to preserve you for many days in near continuous exquisite torment - There are so very many things we could do; so many delightful ways to explore you, Miss Granger.” 

Hermione watched the Dark Lord’s face in terror. His eyes were hooded in lust, gazing into the fire with a faraway wistful expression, his mouth twisted into a cruel little smile. It was obvious he was imagining her suffering in some detail and deriving pleasure from the notion.   
His eyes slid back to her slowly, taking in her horror and dismay. 

“Do you know that Lucius Malfoy actually created a curse specifically with you in mind, Miss Granger. That is almost a form of flattery, you know.” 

She couldn’t help herself. Heard herself asking in morbid fascination as if she were listening to someone else in the room. “wh” her voice cracked. “what does it do?” 

His smile widened and he reached out to stroke her hair once again, resting his hand there as if upon a faithful hound. 

“it’s actually a rather benign... even generous... gift, I thought. Hardly what I would expect from Lucius. He is quite sadistic you know. I throw away more pretty young things on his extreme appetites than on almost any other death eater. 

He just doesn’t stop, you see. When the average child realises their toy might break, they pull back in order to save what they have, but Lucius – I went to school with his father, as you no doubt have learned, and I have to say, I believe that Abraxas ruined Lucius. Lucius has always known that no toy was irreplaceable. He would destroy his things just to spite other children who desired them. ...And so, it is with his playthings here, I suspect.” 

“So you can imagine I was quite shocked when he told me of his curse created specifically for you, Miss Granger.   
It is a form of transfer spell. The individual upon which it is cast is forced to experience the amplified emotions and physical sensations of the caster.” 

He broke off and watched her put the implications of such a spell together. 

“Oh god” she whispered in unfurling horror. ‘He wants to destroy me and he wants me to enjoy it? Oh my god!’ 

The Dark Lord’s face showed his pleasure at the reaction she was obviously broadcasting, his hand upon her head scratching lightly and winding itself in her hair. She shivered and tried to move away from the feeling.   
His hand suddenly tightened, gripping her hair in place. It stung and she winced very softly and stopped moving. 

“Yes, my dear. Exactly. And if you are unwilling to concede that it is not entirely unpleasant to be stroked and petted by myself, in a private and, if I may say, quite comfortable room, where no one will know it but we two, how much more wonderful will it be for your...pride... to moan and climax and beg for more when Lucius is peeling the flesh from your frame in a packed amphitheatre.   
I assure you – to that show ... I could sell tickets. There are so very many desirous of attending.”

She closed her eyes, trying to force them to stop burning and filling with tears. 

“No no, do not hold back on my account, Miss Granger. Cry if you want to. I enjoy your tears. You have been a thorn in my side for so long now and I had almost begun to despair that I would ever have you...here...at my feet...where you so rightly belong.” 

“I thought you might escape me into death in the final battle. I thought you might suffer some kind of mental break and emerge from your little stasis a shell of the girl you once were.” 

He paused and she kept her eyes closed, steeling herself and remaining still against the sharp pull in her hair.   
When he continued his voice was softer. Almost haunted. Eerie. 

“I felt it, you know, when you destroyed my horcruxes. When you ...killed... parts of my very soul! I felt whose hand cast those curses. ...”   
“Were Harry and Ron unable to cast it, I began to wonder... Were they unwilling? Did they lack the resolve... the darkness... to carry out such a vile act as to knowingly destroy part of a human soul utterly?” 

She shuddered and now tears actually did begin to fall. She had begged Harry and Ron to help her. To do more... but Ron had refused to say the spell after he had seen the book she had taken it from. Harry had tried but the spell had apparently not worked for him.   
She had wondered whether there was something wrong with her that she could do it when they couldn’t or wouldn’t.   
They didn’t discuss it.   
After she had succeeded the first time the boys avoided her eyes and went off together to talk. When they came back, they seemed back to normal and no further comment was made.   
After that, they had just silently and unanimously decided that Harry and Ron would hold the containment spell while she handled the horcrux. 

She tried to always phrase it that way in her mind. As if it were just an object she were breaking and discarding. Like shredding paper or crushing aluminium cans before recycling. 

She didn’t want to acknowledge to herself too often that what she was doing was casting a spell originally created by a very dark and evil wizard in order to destroy a person’s living soul within their body and thereby doom them to an unthinkable fate, an eternal unredeemable suffering that went beyond physical pain, that she was actually killing a person piecewise in a way that was far deeper than even death could ever be. 

It was worse than torture or murder; worse than blood magic or the unforgiveables. It was the blackest kind of magic that existed: a little known branch of an area generally referred to as necromancy. Soul magic.   
Being found with the book in question would have landed her immediately in Azkaban for an indefinite period certainly spanning decades rather than years.   
That was irrelevant. It was suited to their purposes.   
There was no other way.   
She tried to remind herself of the goals they were following. 

They had to rid the world of this dangerous man who was torturing and killing so many and threatening the destruction of all muggleborns, threatening the halls of government of the entire wizarding world - threatening them for ever.   
An empire of the Dark Lord Forever, for he was immortal.   
The man who had killed Harry’s parents and her own, who had killed Ron’s brother and, indirectly through professor Snape - her heart twinged again - the man who had killed their much beloved Headmaster and the leader of the light, Professor Dumbledore.   
This same man, whose fingers had released the tight pinching grip upon her hair now and returned to lazily stroking and scratching her head in a manner she refused to acknowledge was quite relaxing, calming even.   
She resisted with all her withering strength the urge to tip her head forward and offer the back of her neck up to his soothing fingertips. 

‘get a grip! This is the Dark Lord. He is fucking around with you here and you’re letting him! What is wrong with you?! Wake up! Get a backbone!!’

“Yes... quite the little thorn” he murmured. “But now I have you” his voice seemed to brighten “and the war is over. I have time to repair all that you destroyed, little mudblood necromancer.”   
There was a note of dark humour in his words. And now his fingers really were slipping down the back of her neck further, tilting her head gently, brushing against the bones of her neck and crux of her shoulders, massaging the tightness there. 

She fought to remain still and not arch her shoulders into it. Fought a losing battle to hold herself unaffected by his touch. Wondered suddenly how she could stand his hand upon her when outside in the ballroom his mere proximity had been almost suffocating. 

“Mmm... I’m restraining my magic at present, little one. You appeared so... affected... earlier. I felt it wise, considering the conversation I wished to have with you” 

At these words that thick choking power returned suddenly and she gasped at it flaring out at her. 

It was like curling up in the centre of a roaring forest fire. 

It shut down all thought almost immediately and she could only whimper, falling limply against the chair and trying to breathe.   
His hand upon her was like a hot knife against butter, like a magnetic bar against metal filings. The faint soothing pleasure she had been feeling was suddenly cranked up to a level of intensity where it was indistinguishable from pain. She felt like someone had removed the string from her spine. 

Lord Voldemort laughed softly. The power receded and she returned to full awareness slowly. “you see my point, hm?” she nodded silently against his hand.   
She wondered suddenly if it affected everyone this way. Did everyone know? Again he responded to her thoughts, sighing

“no, little one. Not everyone is affected so strongly by my magic. Certainly, every wizard, and even every muggle, is affected, to varying extents, but you experience it more ...intensely... than most others, it seems. Perhaps we shall explore that in greater depth another time.” 

His hand withdrew from her head and she told herself that she was relieved. She was relieved, in a way. It had been confusing and increasingly difficult to ignore her own responses and she hated herself for it. Her guilt returned. She wondered yet again what had happened to Harry and Ron. Were they dead? How had they died? What had happened at the final battle?! 

“My dear, your incessant questions are beginning to tax my patience” the Dark Lord muttered above her. She opened her eyes and looked up at him hesitatingly, trying not to think anything else and failing. ‘Again, this order not to think. How am I supposed to not think?! It happens by itself. It’s not like I’m actually asking them. The polite thing to do would be to ignore another person’s private thoughts, even if you do hear them.’   
She stopped, shocked at herself, wanting to bite her tongue but she hadn’t spoken. 

The Dark Lord seemed faintly amused once again and she relaxed fractionally. “you will learn to either guide or to guard your thoughts, Miss Granger. You have no understanding at present, of the boundless tolerance I am showing you at this moment. It is almost without precedent. You should be writhing in pain at the end of my wand. That is your place. If you prove unable to learn any other way, I have no doubt that is where you will indeed be. But at present I am willing to consider... other methods. You have not bored me yet.” 

She was appalled. 

“Returning to the matter at hand.” He stated with an air of distraction, “You may choose a ‘horrible death’, if you wish. Although it would be a waste, it would still benefit me, as I have explained.”   
“Failing that – you will serve me in some capacity.” 

She dropped her eyes immediately, her shoulders tightening protectively. ‘serve Lord Voldemort?! He must be mad. I won’t serve him! I can’t. Even death is preferable to that. I’m not like them. I won’t be a death eater.’ 

His response was cold. “Correct, Miss Granger, you will not be a Death Eater. I was not offering you that great privilege. My death eaters come to me of their own free will and request the honour of serving me. Not every request is accepted. Only those I consider worthy receive my mark. At present you do not number among the worthy. You are merely ...entertaining.” 

She glanced up at him briefly. His face showed no traced of amusement. 

“No... Little mudblood, there are many other ways of serving Me and you are graciously being offered your pick of them. I shall have my most faithful servants show you exactly what your life would consist of in each capacity. How much more can you possibly ask, Miss Granger? Your good fortune is unheard of in my dealings with my enemies and more than rare in my treatment of my most valued servants. But ...after all... it is an extraordinarily auspicious day today. I believe I can afford to be a little charitable.” 

She snorted at this under her breath, the concept of a charitable Lord Voldemort was an oxymoron. 

The Dark Lord shifted and began to rise from the chair. Hermione scooted backward to make room and craned her neck up at him, expecting to stand and follow but thinking it better not to tax his, apparently, very good mood. 

“See Miss, Granger, You are learning already” he intoned and motioned with one hand for her to rise. 

“Come along. We shall introduce you to your ...tour guides... for those portions of my domain which may come to pertain to you.”


	3. Chapter 3

They moved to the other darkened end of the dimly lit study and passed through a door into a smaller room where Professor Snape, Lucius Malfoy and the man who had retrieved her from the dungeons, Rodolphus, she realised, sat upon leather lounge furniture, around a low black glossy table drinking and speaking quietly.  
As they entered, the three broke off their conversation,placing their drinks upon the table and standing.

They each bowed in the direction of the Dark Lord.

She noticed that Professor Snape bowed slightly less deeply than the others,  
although his eyes, like theirs, remained lowered.  
She turned her attention away from him quickly, scanning the room and hoping to distract herself from any thoughts that might upset the Dark Lord.

The room was small but elegant and comfortable. Embossed patterns on the walls were difficult to identify in the dimness but were suggestive of twining serpents.  
The room was a mix of pale blue, silver and black, in contrast to the study which had shone in forest greens and browns in the firelight.

This room felt cooler. She wondered if the Dark Lord hadmade it so for the comfort of the three men around the table.

Sit, gentlemen, the Dark Lord spoke, warmly. I regret the necessity of pulling you from the evening's festivities for this small discussion. Professor Snape barely blinked at this announcement, but nodded almost imperceptibly. 

She watched Rodolphus eyes flick from the Dark Lord onto her momentarily, scanning her, and then return to the Dark Lord.  
His posture betrayed a faint tension, reminiscent of a thing restrained. A kinetic potential energy held in check at present.

She turned her gaze upon Lucius Malfoy and almost shied backward in shock. His face fairly glowed in ill concealed eagerness. He leered at her blatantly and even in her  
more concealing black woollen robe she felt exposed and uncomfortable, trying  
not to fidget and shuffle at the Dark Lord's side.

"Lucius!" Lord Voldemort said quietly, reprovingly "you are too bold. You are unsettling our...guest"

There was a faint snigger from Rodolphus at the word and Lucius forced his face into an expression of polite obesience, returning his eyes to the Dark Lord.

"My apologies, My Lord. I did not realise."

"Quite alright" Lord Voldemort replied absently. "You were not to know. It is hardly standard practice to offer this measure of beneficience to one so utterly undeserving."

He paused, seemingly thoughtful, turning his red slitted eyes upon her once again. 

She attempted to maintain a neutral expression but could not quite manage to prevent all traces of relief and gratefulness at his correction of Lucius from stealing across the lines of her face.  
She tried not to fidget under his gaze.

He appeared satisfied at this and turned his attention back to the others gesturing for everyone to take their seats once more.

She herself sat in a low square armchair next to his own. Only Lucius sat on the long sofa against the wall.

She continued to watch the Dark Lord. In some irrational way it actually felt safer. If she looked at the others her thoughts might wander and it was better that they didn't.

The Dark Lord was explaining to them that she was to be taken to each of their domains and shown the sights.., made to feel at home... She took the opportunity to examine him more closely than her brief glances and fearful flickering expression had afforded her earlier.

His skin was preternaturally smooth and pale. Really a lot like marble or porcelain.

She had expected him to have scales, up close, but it appeared he did not, although he lacked all traces of hair and his flattened nostrils and eyes did strongly evoke the impression of a snake.

His teeth when he spoke were white and even.  
As the daughter of dentists, she could never help noticing peoples teeth. His ears were almost normal, but appeared perhaps slightly smaller than average, tucked in against his head inoffensively.

He was gesturing at Professor Snape and talking about something to do with his work. Some project that he was to put away before showing her anything. Professor Snape was nodding slightly, his eyes fixed on the Dark Lord, but suddenly she had the strong impression that his attention was upon her.

She shifted her attention away from her professor quickly, looking instead at Voldemorts hand as he gestured.

It was a delicate thing somehow. 

How could a man so cruel and bloodthirsty have such delicate fingers?! It was perverse. They were almost pretty in their slender graceful movements.

Professor Snape had wonderful hands too though. She had secretly delighted in watching him work in potions, watching his nimble skilful fingers as he prepared his ingredients; the economical flick of his wrist as he stirred his cauldron. Occasionally, with  
some potions, he would use his other hand to wave the vapours of a potion toward him, scenting it delicately to check its progress... 

The focused and yet faraway expression on his face as he did this always transfixed her. 

She had sometimes imagined his face like that, imagined his hands touching her when she was in her bed alone at night, casting around for an arousing idea to bring herself off to.

She froze suddenly, shaking, realising the direction of her thoughts and cast her eyes down immediately, hunching her shoulders in shame. She felt unbearably exposed again and didn't want to raise her eyes to see how any of the men in the room might be looking at her. 

Again she cursed not having had the chance to learn occlumency. It was impossible to control her wandering mind.

She knew at least three of the men in the room were legilimens and it was too much to expect that Lucius Malfoy might not have bothered to learn something that could benefit him in an environment where his closest associates mastered the skill. 

Ergo, she had just broadcasted to the room her infatuation with her Professor and her fascination with the Dark Lord's features.

She wanted to literally sink into the floor and vanish.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Dark Lord dismissing Severus and Lucius and commanding Rodolphus to remain.

Tentatively she slid her gaze upward, finally meeting the slitted ruby eyes of Lord Voldemort, whose expression now evinced unmistakeable amusement, his thin lips curled up. He appeared to appraise her consideringly.

"Have no fear, Miss Granger. The entire room was not party to your..monologue on aesthetics"

She heard Rodolphus snigger again and darted a gaze at him. He slouched back in the leather chair he occupied and again conveyed the strong impression of a powerful thing  
barely held in check.

His expression was unreadable but evoked something of a fox or a wild animal as he studied her with predatory appreciation, a faint grin on his lips.

"No, only Rodolphus and myself could partake in that singularly entertaining experience."

She blushed, still looking at Rodolphus as he shifted slightly in the chair lazily, making himself more comfortable and incidentally shifting attention down to his pelvis with his movement. 

She forced her gaze to remain on his face, as it had suddenly, irrationally, wanted to flick downward to the movement..or to his hand on the arm of the chair, stroking the leather slightly with a fingertip. 

"No no no! Stop it! Think about something else!" she commanded herself as the memory of his hand stroking her breast in the dungeon suddenly flashed back to her mind unwelcomely.

His grin became wider.

"Now, now, pet, there's no need for discomfort" he growled, obviously enjoying himself. "A good time was had by all".

At this she flushed bright red and hid her face in her hands, crouching forward across her knees.  
It felt like the embarrassment was going to boil her alive. 

She hadn't.... it wasn't... there was nothing she could have done to stop him! 

She felt the Dark Lord suddenly brush away the hair at the side of her face and run his fingers through its length.

"Oh Hermione..." his voice was soft, she hadn't heard him use her first name since he had first spoken to her in the ballroom. "You have no idea how thoroughly innocent you are."  
He released her hair.  
"I do so hope you find a place for yourself here that you can live with. As much as i'm sure we would all enjoy it, It would be such a pity to have to take you apart."

She stiffened and brushed at her eyes ineffectually, trying to compose herself.

"Now, Rodolphus, take her down and show her all the little wonders you hold court over. Do not allow her to be damaged - however...you may play...a little... if you really feel you must. After all, I am sure I am denying you some desirable thing or other that you would have snapped up at the party tonight."

"I am certain you will know how far your Lord's good will may be tried. Do not disappoint me. Control yourself."

Lord Voldemort made a run along gesture with his pale fingers and stood. Turning, he departed without a backward glance through a door in the farthest wall of the room.

Hermione felt a sudden overload of different emotions- all of them quite irrational, even she could see that.  
Chief among them, superceding even her embarrassment and her apprehension, she  
was.. shocked and bereft that Lord Voldemort had just left her here with Rodolphus, had given her to Rodolphus to 'play with' in fact. 

He was the Dark Lord.   
Earlier he had been talking about giving her to dozens of men to fuck and torture! it was completely insane to feel hurt because he had left the bloody room!

But he had spoken to her so gently too, and he had stroked her head and defended her from Lucius Malfoy - she realised the thought of him made her extremely uncomfortable now, with the spectre of his depraved nature hanging in the air.   
Far worse than just a rich bigot moonlighting as a death eater - he had become for her a blonde-haired demon of some kind hidden behind a mask of upper class snobbery.

"Was the Dark Lord as you expected?" Rodolphus voice intoned softly, his eyes darkly scrutinizing her.

She shook her head sadly.  
"No... Nothing is as i thought it was" she responded.

"Come" he said, rising from his chair. "Let us make our way down into the dark. I will show you my part of the Dark Lord's domain. Perhaps you'll find that ...some things...  
are just as you expect they will be." 

He held his hand out in a bizarrely chivalrous gesture and helped her to stand, retaining her small cold hand in his larger hot one and leading her through the door in the wall behind him, back out into the corridor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome.

They took an alternate route than the one she had followed with the Dark Lord. She assumed that they were circling around the large ballroom where the party still held sway. Idly she wondered if many of her former classmates had been at the party.   
If Lucius Malfoy had been there, was Draco perhaps also there, with his little contingent of Slytherin thugs? 

“Yes” Rodolphus responded once again to her thoughts. “Draco is there somewhere. Many of your classmates are there too. Some you might be surprised over. When the battle was won, not everyone chose to fight to the death. Some surrendered.”   
“Of those who wished to change sides... a small measure were accepted and some have probably found their way into the ball. Many more only claimed to want to serve him.”   
“You will have noticed by now how difficult it is to lie to Him. Those that tried... – perhaps we’ll visit some of them now... if you like... if I think you are able to obey me and restrain yourself from foolishness.”   
“As you are a Gryffindor, I don’t hold much hope.” 

His hand gripped hers more tightly and he increased his pace. 

Coming to a wide spiral staircase in rough hewn dark stone at the end of the corridor they descended into the depths.   
At several points along their slow spiralling descent they passed landings leading off into shadowy corridors, the temperature dropping slightly at each level. Eventually they reached the bottom of the stair.   
Here there was no corridor, merely a small landing with a large door that looked much like a freezer door in a butchery. 

Metallic, it had a large hooklike lever which Rodolphus pulled and held while he dragged the apparently quite heavy door open.   
It was peculiarly physical for such a magical environment. Other doors here had opened by themselves. 

Inside, the temperature was arctic. White trails of frozen air curled and wreathed out of the dark interior like phantom tentacles.   
Hermione shivered and wrapped her free hand around herself, her breath ghosting in the air in front of her as she clutched the sleeves of her robe closed. 

The room, as she soon noticed, was a morgue. 

“This room is not as often used as you might think.” Rodolphus gravelly voice supplied at her side, an odd sardonic twist to his lips.   
“Before the end of the war, Severus was one of the few using it – there are many potions, as you no doubt know, that require various ingredients from human or animal carcasses and in some cases those cadavers cannot be placed in stasis. The room was considerably smaller then, obviously. Now, however, it is apparently being used to store some of your former compatriots. I am not altogether sure why the Dark Lord would bother with such a thing.” 

He paused and then continued, seemingly musing to himself “Perhaps he has done it for you. After all, there is no need for this ...fuss – these bodies could be kept in stasis anywhere on the grounds. This... cold metal room, these objects. It is all a muggle thing I’m sure.” He grimaced, a faint disgust colouring his features momentarily, before he brightened again. 

“Feel free to take a look. I’ll wait for you here.“ His expression shifted and he displayed a sly parody of reverence   
“I’d hate to ruin the special moment for you, mudblood”

 

Hermione hesitated. She scanned the large shadowy room, all silvery metal and blue plastic.   
Rodolphus was right. This was entirely unnatural. Wizards didn’t use body bags. They didn’t do autopsies. This was like a personal little house of horrors setup just for her. 

She felt apprehensive. 

She had been to the morgue at the county general hospital when her parents had been killed by Voldemort at the beginning of the year. She had had to identify their bodies. It had been the only time she had ever seen such a place and the memories of that day were coming back to her strongly now...   
her hands shook. 

She didn’t want to leave the relative safety of the door. Even the proximity of the large-framed, cruelly smirking form of Rodolphus, half cloaked in shadow and half in the light from the door, was preferable to stepping into the darker expanse of the room; nearing those metal gurneys. 

There were so many of them. 

Were they all from the battle? How many of her friends were here? Was Harry here??! She had to know... but she was afraid.   
What if she opened one of those zips and saw her mother or father’s face. Or what if one of the bodies moved. Or what... her mind supplied more and more horrible scenarios. 

What if she opened the zipper and saw her mother’s still perfect avada’d face and then she opened dead eyes and tried to climb out of the bag and get her and.. what if Rodolphus then left and closed her in here and... and...   
She was shaking all over now.   
She had to make herself do this. She was being silly. It was important to know which of her friends were definitely dead; 

She swallowed- her throat painfully dry and glanced surreptitiously at Rodolphus, standing, arms folded, leaning impatiently upon his back leg, tapping his other foot slowly. “w-will you come with me? ... p-please??” she could hear the pathetic pleading in her voice but there was just no way around it. She had to do this and she just could Not do it alone. 

He huffed in apparent irritation “Weak! Come on then child. I’ll protect you from all the horrible dead things.” 

He gripped her roughly by her upper arm again and dragged her forward to the first gurney, tearing the zipper abruptly downward and claffing the bag for her to see.   
She breathed out in relief. It was nobody she knew.   
A man, he was covered in cuts and his face seemed to be partially crushed but he had apparently been scourgified as his flesh was pale and clinically clean. 

Of course, that was the way bodies looked in a morgue, she reminded herself. Have to get the whole image perfect, of course. Couldn’t spoil the full horrifying effect of the display. 

Rodolphus nodded and moved to the next one, not bothering to even zip the bag back up on the first body.   
Hermione was disturbed by this whole scene but it was...somehow... manageable now. The next three bodies passed the same way. Rodolphus briefly showing her the contents then dragging her on. Until he reached the fourth and Hermione was suddenly faced with her former headmistress. 

Minerva McGonagall’s face was pinched in the angles of extreme pain. Her blanched skin was peppered in thousands of tiny black dots, like pinholes.   
Hermione gasped and a painful wave of sorrow and regret hit her. She had somehow hoped that it had all been a lie and her friends and allies were somewhere out there, plotting to rescue her from the Dark Lord’s clutches.   
A last glance at the woman who had been a constantly reassuring presence over the last six years of Hermione’s life and Rodolphus was already dragging her on.   
She knew she would never see Professor McGonagall again. 

 

Due, largely to Rodolphus impatience and brusque businesslike presentation of each cadaver to her eyes, they progressed through the room quite swiftly but there were just...so many bodies.   
She was shocked several times when the plastic swept aside and revealed the face of a classmate, someone seemingly too young to be laid out in this manner.   
Little Colin Creevey looked like he was sleeping. Perhaps he had been Avada’d, his face was so peaceful.   
Padma Patil was horribly burnt, her beautiful hair that Hermione had occasionally envied now wisps.   
Some faces she recognised only faintly – perhaps people from Hogsmeade. 

They came then to two bodies that barely needed to be viewed. The very small shape was clearly professor Flitwick while the very large one obviously Hagrid.   
She felt the tears dropping off her cheeks but it hardly seemed to her that she was crying. 

There were so so many of them. She felt numb at the sight of it. 

Rodolphus looked openly angry now. She tried to stop the tears from falling but it was no good. The entire situation just hit her like a bludger to the chest and she couldn’t prevent it.   
Her vision blurred till she couldn’t make out the faces that were being showed to her as he dragged her along, and it was good. She didn’t want to know anymore. It was fine. Someone just give her a nice list and she’d take their word for it and there would be no need to go on with this. 

Without warning she felt herself tugged forward against a warm solid surface and arms held her. Completely bewildered now she let herself fall against Rodolphus chest to cry. She let him hold her.   
His hand was stroking her back comfortingly now and she felt his head descend to lean against the top of her own.   
She felt... protected.   
While she focused on him she could forget where she was standing, forget what was happening. The...things... around her. No. They were people! They were people she had known and loved in some cases!   
How could she be standing here in front of them being embraced and comforted by a death eater. It was sick. 

She felt Rodolphus press his heated lips against the side of her forehead. His arms were tighter now. 

The hand that had been stroking her back slid up to grip the back of her neck gently while the other was slung around her waist and pulled her still closer against his body. What had been comforting suddenly twisted and became threatening... she struggled against him, trying to pull back and pushing at his body with her hands but it had no effect. 

His hand at her neck wandered still further up, burying itself in her long hair then tightening and yanking her head back forcefully. She cried out, blinking back her blurry vision and Rodolphus mouth crashed down upon her own hungrily.   
His kisses were bruising and he held her head in place with his fisted hand in her hair. 

His tongue sought entry into her mouth and she tried to turn away, panicking and kicking at him with her legs.   
The hand at her waist suddenly dug into her side painfully and she gasped, his tongue immediately invading her mouth and tangling with her own, exploring and tasting her.   
She felt a strange fluttery queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. His mouth refused to let hers go as he ran his tongue across her lips and nipped at them gently.   
The hand fisted in her hair loosened gradually as she began to respond to his kisses, feeling sick and wrong but unable to prevent herself from reacting to the sensations rushing through her. 

She had never been kissed like this before. 

She had kissed Ron a few times, before he decided he’d rather be with Lavender after all, but it was nothing like this. 

Kissing Rodolphus was maddening. It seemed to cut right through her higher brain function and hijack her free will. He was literally taking her breath away and she felt dizzy from it.   
He began to kiss along her jaw roughly, the hand that had been holding her hair now sweeping her curls aside as his slightly scratchy face slipped down to her neck; kissing down the column of her throat.

She felt her breath speeding now, fast and shallow and when he nipped at her she couldn’t suppress a faint moan. 

He smiled against her skin, the hand at her waist gliding down across her ass and squeezing appreciatively, then pulling her even more tightly against him, where she could now feel a weight pressing against her lower abdomen..   
He had an erection!   
This new information managed somehow to cut through the things his mouth was doing to her neck and now to her earlobe...oh... that was so good. Why had she been missing out on this all the time over the last year. 

He nipped her more sharply and it was even better.   
She gasped and turned her face toward his, seeking out his lips, thrusting her own tongue into his mouth. 

His eyes glittered with pleasure at her response to him and she felt his hand cup her breast through her robes.   
He ground his erection into her suddenly as she sucked on his tongue and once again she was suddenly aware of her surroundings and felt like she had been kicked. oh god. 

She was in a morgue surrounded by dead friends snogging a death eater who probably killed at least a few of these people and if she didn’t stop now she was going to be losing her virginity to said death eater in dark creepy morgue surrounded by all the people she had fought alongside. 

A traitorous corner of the back of her mind supplied ‘not just a death eater. An undeniably animalistically arousing death eater whose skin was very very warm in this freezing room and who had not, so far seemed to want to physically harm her – something that should perhaps not be taken for granted when she was obviously alone here and completely at the mercy of everyone around her.’ 

NO! No. This was wrong. This couldn’t be. No! She began to pull back again and fight him. 

Surprisingly, this time he let her, removing his hand from her ass and breast and stepping back, empty hands raised, smirking, as if to say ‘Far be it from me to force you’.   
She panted and tried to regain her senses, half turning away from him. But that only brought her to face another cadaver. She turned again, closing her eyes. 

“Can..can we just leave here?” she asked. “Please??” Her throat felt raw. 

“Naturally, pet” Rodolphus growled, not unkindly. “We’re only here for your benefit. It doesn’t matter to me. You could have simply asked which of your friends and acquaintances could be found in this room and we could have been done with it. I’ve been well informed who might be of interest to you here.” 

Her eyes flicked open and she glared at him, incandescent rage flooding through her.   
This was all a big joke.   
This... cruelty... it was all unquestionably arranged purely to amuse the Dark Lord - If he wasn’t actually watching somehow then he’d probably observe the memory later. Ugh. Sickening. And he’d see her kissing Rodolphus too.   
At this she felt again like she’d been kicked in the stomach.   
He... would see her kissing the dark haired death eater. Merlin. Why did that thought make her feel like throwing up?   
Her knees actually felt weak. 

She hid it by stomping toward the door. 

“fine” she spat. 

She turned and Rodolphus was watching her, obviously watching not only her rage but the accompanying internal rant and he looked like it was the funniest thing he had seen all day. He was grinning broadly. 

“Can we go now?” she threw at him. 

“By all means, pet” 

 

She was already starting up the stairs as she heard the door snick shut below. 

She stamped against the stone, wishing she could just ...hit ...someone. The Dark Lord? Rodolphus? She wasn’t sure... aargh. How she felt now... why would they do that?! It served no purpose. It was elaborate and just plain nasty. 

She stomped onward and upward till a hot implacable hand gripped her forearm and stopped her. 

Rodolphus expression was like thunder. “you will not walk away from me, mudblood. Irrespective how ‘offended’ you may think yourself to be. You forget your place yet again.” 

She slumped... her fury dripping away slowly into despair. “why?!” she asked plaintively. “why did you do that?” 

Rodolphus was up the two steps separating them in a heartbeat and, flicking his wand she found herself thrown against the curved wall of the staircase and held there, her wrists ground into the stone by invisible shackles.   
She gasped up at his face in shock, it was contorted into a mask of rage. 

“why??!”  
“You ridiculous little whore, haven’t you realised where you are yet?”   
“Here is no why! You have come to the end of all your ‘whys’. This is the time of ‘because’. Things will happen to you now whether you want them or not, no matter if the Dark Lord might be amusing himself by suggesting you control some aspect of your fate. Take it from me, you do not.” 

“Even your...so called...choice – do you really think he will freely allow you to choose? You will end up choosing what he wants.” 

As he spoke he had been moving closer and now his face was only centimetres from her own once again.   
She felt his hot, faintly sweet, breath against her lips and furrowed her brows in confusion.   
She wanted him to kiss her again. Why did she feel this way?! She shouldn’t want that, should she?! This whole situation was fucked up.

As if in response to her desire he moved still closer to her... brushing his lips against her own but not kissing her. 

“what you need to ask yourself, ...pet..., is whether you are angry because you were frightened and hurt at facing your dead...pals... in such a painful way....” He curled his tongue and licked her bottom lip, his eyes flicking between her mouth and her eyes, now fixed on him needily. She bit her lip to ease the tingle he set off there. 

“...and maybe it was purely for His amusement...” 

Placing his hands on the wall either side of her head, he held his body apart from her, tracing the curve of her lips with the very tip of his tongue. She moaned and strained her head forward trying to capture his mouth. He retreated in response, keeping his distance and teasing her with tiny butterfly kisses and flicks of his tongue. 

“or... and this is the interesting question... were you only really upset when you suddenly realised the Dark Lord would see what you did of your own...”   
lick,   
“free”   
he kissed her lightly   
“...will...”   
he nipped at her bottom lip and she moaned, straining forward again. He pulled back out of her reach   
“and would know you desired me...”   
his voice was low and rough, his eyes dark and penetrating. She shivered at the fluttery sensation inside her as he bent his head forward again, this time brushing it against the side of her face, his lips resting against the curve of her ear as he growled softly   
“and if we had been anywhere else but that room,”   
He turned slightly toward her and inhaled deeply, seemingly breathing in her scent and then sliding his cheek back along her own to gaze into her unfocused half lidded eyes, watching her pant   
“you would have ..eagerly. continued.”  
he kissed her hard now, bruising her lips and thrusting his tongue into her mouth before pulling back again abruptly.   
He stepped away entirely now, getting distance between them and turning slightly. 

“and that is the only ‘why’ you should be concerning your pretty little head with at the moment. not why did you do that, or even – why do I like this? But why does it bother you so much if the Dark Lord should know?”   
His voice sounded faintly bitter. 

He turned away completely, flicking his wand impatiently and she fell forward off the wall, his hand finding and gripping her wrist and tugging her forward up the steps to the next landing where they exited the staircase. 

They walked along a very dark spartan stone corridor with nondescript black doors set into the walls at every five metres or so. Eventually he slowed and stopped in front of a door, much like each other door and appeared to be engaged in internal debate. 

She looked at him meekly. It felt like she had done something wrong and he was angry with her.   
“I’m sorry” she whispered, confused and feeling somehow dazed...foggy. 

He turned to her, his expression alternating between irritated and regretful. “it’s alright, pet. I’m just wondering how much I can trust you to behave yourself and do as I tell you.” 

He released her wrist that he had been crushing absent awareness and made a vague unceremonious gesture around them. 

“Welcome to the lower levels. I am the keeper of these floors and, other than at the command of the Dark Lord, I decide who may enter one of these cells.”   
“Many prisoners are kept here for interrogation – and that is the floor upon which we find ourselves now.”   
“Floors above this house ... ‘toys’ – willing...unwilling.” He shrugged. “Some are disposable and some...less so.” 

“If you choose to join me here, I don’t know whether you would become an ...assistant... of sorts... to me or others... or just another warm body in a room.”   
He watched her shudder. 

“It would be better for you to work for me... however, if you come here and find you can not ‘face yourself’ or ‘stand your conscience’ or some other such rubbish, you will soon find yourself living inside one of these rooms.”   
“Your conscience would be soothed through your agony and tears with the knowledge that you were back among your friends and allies sharing their burden.” 

“If that is what you most deeply desire” at this his eyes flared slightly, glittering at her blackly “then maybe the Dark Lord will grant your wish. However, down here-,”   
He gestured expansively as if to encompass the ominous corridor with its endless doors   
“-life is a revel that does not end. There may be short respites, but the pain and shame go on and on. You do not die unless the Dark Lord wishes it so.”   
“...While some in these halls will die before the week is out, several before the end of this night, Some of the ...guests... here”   
His mouth twisted sardonically in a parody of Lord Voldemort’s reproof of Lucius’ behaviour,   
“-have been here for years. They will never see the outside of their room again.” 

Hermione’s eyes widened at the thought as her eyes scanned down the corridor ahead of them. It stretched into the darkness further than she could see, and behind them there were dozens of rooms too. 

“Are there people in all of these rooms?” 

He nodded. “the castle adds or removes cells on these corridors to meet needs” 

“are my friends in some of these rooms??!” she blurted urgently. 

He smiled broadly “yes pet, many of your friends are in these rooms.” 

She rounded on him, shocked and a slightly desperate shine in her eyes and he regarded her evenly. 

“Are you thinking about freeing them? Trying to persuade me to free them?”   
“I’ve been nice to you, pet, haven’t I? Surely I’ll want to help you sleep well at night by defying the Dark Lord, renouncing my self-selected duty and reigniting a magical war? And then we could run away together and watch sunsets, hm? No??” “Well perhaps you could overpower me then...” He snorted.   
“you need to reconcile yourself to your situation, mudblood. I am growing tired of reminding you over and over again how you can best survive.”

He appeared to reach a decision and gripped her wrist firmly, about turning them and dragging her back to the stairs. 

They climbed another two levels and exited the stairwell in a corridor identical to the last they had been in.   
Rodolphus tugged her down the corridor and stopped abruptly next to a door. Placing his hand on it, it flashed green momentarily and slid open. 

He tossed her inside. 

The door closed and It was pitch black. 

Hermione stayed exactly where she was – she hadn’t been able to see what was in this room before he shoved her inside. She tried to breathe shallowly and listen to see if she was alone. Goosebumps prickled her arms. 

Without warning a hand curled around her ankle. 

She shrieked and leapt backward, only to feel arms wrapped around her, holding her still. 

Screaming in blind panic, she heard Rodolphus voice growl into her ear “hush”.   
Immediately she stopped struggling and backed up against him as far as she could, trying to get away from whatever or whoever was in front of her. 

“There’s someone else in here!! They touched me!” she whispered, turning her head and trying to see him. 

“Yes. I told you. All of these rooms are occupied. This floor contains only ...’toys’. Calm yourself now.” 

He released her, not unkindly, and shook his wand, casting a lumos. A torch high on the wall flared into life. 

In the flickering orange light she could now see a huddled figure. They had obviously retreated into the far corner at her shrieking.   
The room was empty of all furniture. A mere stone box with a hole in the floor for waste. 

“Get up and show yourself to our guest, Morel” Rodolphus growled. 

The person in the corner flinched but unhesitatingly unfolded themselves and stood up.   
It was a woman – completely naked. She had long straggly black curly hair and deep shadows beneath her eyes in a narrow, pale, fine featured face. She could have been twenty two or thirty two, it was hard to tell.   
Her slender frame had obviously once been beautiful but now scars covered most of her sallow skin, her breasts hanging in the limpness common to recovery from emaciation. 

Hermione thought to herself that she actually looked a little like Bellatrix, without the insane overconfident nastiness.   
She had seen Bellatrix fall in the battle before she had been taken. It had been Neville – and for a moment she had felt such happiness for him – that he had finally gained his revenge - that she almost missed a curse speeding her way.   
When she could next look up, Neville was gone. She couldn’t see if he had fallen or not.   
Even if he had – at least that crazed harridan was dead. 

She remembered the look on Bellatrix’s face above her as she had crucio’d her the night that they were captured during their hunt for the horcruxes. The woman was spitting and cackling in her madness while Hermione writhed, biting her lips and tongue to ribbons to stop herself from giving the witch the satisfaction of her screams. 

No – she did not feel any sympathy for Bellatrix Lestrange. She was an insane bitch. 

This woman, however, just looked resigned. She didn’t raise her eyes from the floor, not even to see who the new ‘guest’ was. She simply stood passively waiting. 

Hermione blinked and looked at Rodolphus uncertainly. He was grinning lazily, enjoying her discomfort.   
He flicked his wand and a pair of manacles dropped from the ceiling in the centre of the room, jangling and clinking slightly as they bounced. He sauntered to them, opening them and glancing at the now trembling woman in the corner. 

“Well? Are you waiting for an engraved invitation? Get your arse over here, my pretty. It’s time to play.”   
Morel did not respond, or look up, but walked unflinchingly to him and raised her arms for him to shackle her. 

Hermione was concerned. Was she supposed to stand here and watch this woman be tortured now? 

Rodolphus smirked at her evilly as he walked around the woman in the manner of one inspecting cattle. Touching here, pinching there.   
Finally he stopped behind the woman, looking at Hermione through the gap between the woman’s hanging head and her upraised arm and slung his arms casually around her hips, linking his fingers over her abdomen and balancing his head upon her shoulder; leaning his head against hers in a parody of a lovers embrace.   
His smile was something in a dark alley at night. 

“You are going to ...assist... me, pet. Whether you feel uncomfortable about it right now, or not.” 

His teeth flashed at her. “you like choices, right? I will give you choices. If you refuse the choice before you, then I will choose. Does that sound like a fun game?” 

Hermione gaped. “No! I don’t want to play! Don’t try to make me hurt her!! I won’t.” 

This was met with a slow sour look. She fidgeted on the spot, taking a step back.   
“...please??” she whimpered now. “I know this isn’t the place for me... We don’t need to do this! Please don’t do this!!”. 

Rodolphus snarled abruptly. “No? You are a little buzzkill, aren’t you! Alright. I’ll make it absolutely painless for you, pet... Do you want that? No pain?” 

she nodded mutely. 

His smile held no mirth whatsoever.   
“Fine. You make the choice and I’ll carry it out. You can simply stand there and watch. No involvement whatsoever.” 

Hermione hesitated. This really wasn’t any better, as far as she could tell. She would still be directing torture. 

“Now, pet. You really are beginning to get on my last nerve. How much compromise do you want, you demanding little chit! The entire buffet is being laid out for you by the Dark Lord, and you refuse the smallest of bites. Its ...impolite.”   
He ran his hands up the front of the chained woman’s body slowly as he spoke, his eyes fixed on Hermione as he fondled her breasts. Morel’s nipples perked under Rodolphus’ ministrations and a brief but irrationally intense rush of jealousy washed over Hermione. 

“Fine” she ground out. 

Rodolphus grinned, abundantly pleased and pinched his prop’s nipples brutally, causing her to gasp softly, while he fixated Hermione.   
“Good pet. Now, do you think that our Morel here should be pleased or punished?”   
He dropped one of his hands from the woman’s breasts to trail down her body lightly stroking toward the small thatch of black curls at the apex of her thighs. 

Hermione hesitated, watching his hand move over the pallid skin. She knew she should obviously say ‘pleased’. It was the only right thing to do. She wouldn’t be responsible for hurting this woman! It was an out.   
How could she even think of condemning some random poor wretch of a woman to torture?! That was sick!   
But as she watched Rodolphus slide his warm hands over the bared flesh, gliding down and stroking her thatch of dark hair, his fingers slipping between her lips and stroking her...so tenderly... and Morel moaned softly, bucking her hips lightly against the hand at her core, again that wave of completely irrational jealousy flooded her mind. 

She couldn’t watch this... Didn’t want to see the man who’d kissed her... who she’d had to admit she was reluctantly attracted to...sleep with this woman. She couldn’t! Fuck. She was so confused. How did she get to this moment? 

Rodolphus hand was dipping deeper now and it was obvious he was penetrating the woman with two of his fingers.   
Her head had fallen back and leaned limp against his, her eyes closed and she panted, bucking her hips in time with his fingers. 

“Punished” Hermione whispered, and immediately he withdrew his hands and stepped away from her, grinning evilly. 

“Mmm... very good pet! I knew you had it in you.” 

Hermione reeled, considering if she could take it back. 

“No.” The death eater rumbled. “Decisions are final” he smirked.   
“Where to begin?” he sighed like a man contemplating a difficult construction. 

“Let’s start with something you can wrap your mind around. Stinging hex or conjunctivitis curse? Neither is permanently damaging. Do you want our lovely little volunteer here to watch you or should we close her baby blue’s for tonight?” 

Hermione considered. The stinging hex was really more irritating than painful, while the conjunctivitis was actually quite unpleasant. It hurt a lot and the victims eyes became crusted with unsightly scabs. It had to be healed, whereas the effects of the stinging hex were transient and faded by themselves. She wouldn’t have to hope the woman would be healed later. It really wasn’t a difficult choice. 

“Stinging hex” she responded. 

Rodolphus appeared to sigh. “Still trying to avoid the task before you. Suit yourself. It was your choice. However you should know that there are many stinging hexes. Not just the one used by schoolchildren”   
He turned and flung his wand at the woman muttering vespis reddo!. 

The woman jerked on her chains yelping and whimpering as red raised welts began to appear all over her body. 

Hermione translated quickly -” repeating wasps?” 

Rodolphus smirked. “Yes. One of the more uncomfortable stinging hexes. Each of the welts will feel like it is being stung repeatedly, for several hours if not healed.” 

The woman was writhing and twitching slightly on her feet now, whimpering at the red painful welts still continuing to appear everywhere. On her breasts, face, inner thighs... in pain no matter how she stood. 

Hermione felt sorry for her and guilty at her own actions. If she had chosen the conjunctivitis hex the pain would have been far less than this. Rodolphus seemed in much brighter spirits however. 

“Next choice, little assistant. Whip or horsehair flogger? “He gestured vaguely at the wall and a large selection of implements materialised there. “which are they?” she asked. He pointed. 

The whip was a long braided leather affair. It looked quite formidable. She wondered what it would look like for Rodolphus to wield it. She had never seen a real whip before. Wasn’t it something for cowboys or circuses?   
She looked at the other implement Rodolphus was pointing out – it was a shorter thing. A seemingly soft black ponytail emerged from a leather handle. That didn’t look too bad. “That one” she pointed. 

Rodolphus grinned nastily and Hermione was sure that she’d somehow made the worse choice again. It was all over his face.   
He picked up the flogger and raised his arm, bringing the flogger down quite gently against the bound woman’s back. 

She shrieked in pain and he raised his arm again, quite unaffected by her now frantic movement trying to avoid him.   
The light black ponytail came down lightly upon her back and ass and thighs over and over again while she screamed fit to burst an eardrum. 

Hermione had stepped back further and further while she screamed and now her back was pressed against the door.   
She didn’t want this. This woman was obviously in agony. The flogger must be cursed in some way - Rodolphus was not hitting her hard at all. 

“The flagrate hex, pet. Objects cursed with it burn flesh when they touch it” Rodolphus supplied helpfully. 

“oh” she responded numbly. 

Rodolphus seemed to have finished burning the now pitifully sobbing woman and was returning the flogger to its place.   
He returned to morel and forced her to shuffle around to display her blistered and stung back, ass and thighs. 

It looked like agony. The skin had broken open in several places and wept a thin puss. 

Hermione swallowed, uncomfortably. Turning her eyes back to Rodolphus he smirked again. He ran his hands across morels body and now, instead of moaning she flinched jerkily with each movement, whimpering through her sobs. 

He looked at Hermione speculatively, still smirking. “You’re doing so well, pet. I’m pleased. Shall I heal her now and then fuck her, or shall we play some more with the diffindo on her? Perhaps take off a few fingers, toes, maybe her nipples...” He eyed the woman’s body like a sculptor considering where to take off the next knock.   
Hermione shot him a shocked disgusted look and he scowled. 

“Oh stop looking so offended by everything princess, I’ll make it a lot easier for you.. I’m going to fuck her now with partial healing or later after a lot more play...without. You are going to watch either way.” 

She struggled not to visibly pout and remained silent. 

“You don’t want me to fuck her at all, do you pet?” he said, almost compassionately “But you’re also not willing to just admit that you’d rather I strung you up and fucked you instead of her. That’s fine. But you were a little cocktease earlier and I’m going to want to relieve some frustration on our lovely Morel here if you want to be sure you reach your next destination …intact. She’s always up for it, as you saw.” 

“Don’t worry... i’ll still give you a choice” He grinned devilishly and Hermione’s stomach sank.   
After all that he was going to make her watch him fuck the woman anyway. And now it would be worse. She’d contributed to the poor creature’s pain, whether she wanted to admit it or not. She could have just watched her get fucked in the beginning and gnashed her teeth quietly and been done with it. 

Why did she even care? She didn’t even know this man – she didn’t want to know this man – this was someone who would literally kill you as soon as look at you. He cursed women for the pleasure of seeing them in pain and he had hurt this woman on a whim, simply to illustrate a point:   
Choices were an illusion. She’d end up with the option that he wanted in the end, no matter what she chose. It was just a matter of the length of the journey and the amount of suffering along the way. 

She wondered suddenly what Voldemort wanted her to do. Clearly Rodolphus was implying that there was an already defined and determined goal for her in mind and that she was going to be brought around to select it for herself somehow. 

She doubted that it involved becoming Rodolphus little helper. 

He sniggered   
“No....although it would be good if you did. Given enough time... and more patience than i have right now, maybe I could bring you around to my way of thinking and we could have real fun together.”   
Hermione privately debated that. 

Rodolphus rolled his eyes and sneered. “killjoy mudblood. Choose. Now or later.”   
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “now” she muttered, defeated, looking away.   
She heard him whispering healing charms, his wand moving across morel, who was dangling from her wrists with her head hanging. A charm flicked toward the manacles and the woman dropped like a sack of potatoes onto her knees, crumpling. She watched him now again as he grabbed morel roughly by her hair and pulled her up onto her knees, yanking her forward and holding her till she braced her hands on the ground and remained in the position he wanted. 

He looked back at Hermione again, his eyes dark and mouth twisted into a smirk. 

“Sure you won’t take her place, mudblood?” 

She shook her head frantically, her eyes wide and pressed herself back into the door harder when he stalked up to her, slamming his hand against the wood next to her head and making her flinch and blink. Moving his face close to hers he brushed his cheek to hers gently for a second before pulling away and staring off to the side angrily. 

“Do you even know who you’re saving it for, pet? You think I’m cruel.... Well, maybe you’re right... but I could be so tender to you. ...Better than him... You’d enjoy it. I could make you burn with pleasure.”   
“All you have to do is give yourself to me... and you’ll be mine... and I can protect you a little from him” 

He sounded almost sad and Hermione was scared. What was he talking about? 

“...You smell... so...sweet!!” he growled and his face swung around again and he pressed into her, inhaling her skin again and dropping his mouth to her neck. “I can almost...taste...you” 

She shuddered as she felt his tongue running up her throat and he nipped her lightly over her pulse point... and then harder. She felt his mouth widen against her and then he hissed and jerked away, pushing himself off her and stepping several paces back, his right hand pressed against his left forearm, scowling blackly. 

She watched him warily as he turned and quickly shed his robes, tossing them aside. Beneath he wore nothing but brown leather pants and a large knife in a sheath on his belt. His chest and abdomen were well defined and the front of his leathers was definitely straining, his cock embossed impressively in a thick line along his thigh. Hermione gulped and tried to ogle him less blatantly.   
He noticed nonetheless and smirked bitterly. “I’m glad I meet your approval... pet.” he stood, his hand stroking lightly over the front of his pants. “Would you rather I fuck the toy in her cunt or her arse?” His eyes narrowed, sliding suggestively over Hermione’s body. 

“Do what you want” she whispered. “I don’t care”. 

He barked a laugh. “I think you do care, but ‘neither’ wasn’t an option, was it?!” He hesitated. 

“If you come over here, pet, I’ll let you suck me off and I wont fuck her. I promise.” 

Hermione closed her eyes, gulping. Some insane part of her just wanted to fly over there and climb this man like a tree. It made no sense. She’d never felt anything as irrational. It was like being drunk 

“no” she breathed. 

He roared in rage and turned away. Not even bothering to undo his belt he ripped down his fly and pulled his cock out, pumping it angrily in his hand a couple of times.   
Hermione hadn’t seen the male anatomy in person before - just in books. but she thought he might be unusually large.   
It would probably hurt a lot to be with him. She had no doubt he could use his body like a weapon when he wanted. 

He dropped quickly to his knees behind the passively waiting black haired woman and thrust into her without ceremony. 

Morel yelped and arched away from him. He grabbed a handful of her hair and her hip and dragged her back, pumping into her brutally. The woman was soon moving with him, panting and moaning and he fucked her harder still, driving into her like he was trying to beat her. 

Hermione couldn’t draw her eye away from him. He was like a thing possessed. Dark rage written across his face... his back beginning to faintly gloss in a shimmer of sweat. She could see the muscles in his arse through the leather, tightening rhythmically on each thrust.   
He was gorgeous. 

He leaned forward over morels back now, spooning into her and wrapping his muscled arms around her shoulders, bracing her to get leverage to pound her even harder and now she yelped again every so often between the moans, rocking back against him, her head dropping and her back arching as she neared her climax.   
Hermione realised she really did wish it was her under him.   
He sat up slightly, slowing his strokes. 

“Last choice, mudblood” he panted, half turning to her, his eyes unfocused and mouth slack. “Crucio or avada?” 

Hermione gasped. He was going to torture this woman now??! Kill her NOW? was he a necrophiliac or something? 

His laughter sounded slightly breathless. “When I come... not now.”   
he slowed further and circled his hips, teasing the woman who clearly wanted him to slam into her some more, her own climax so close.   
His breathing was smoother and he explained further “You have no reason to know this pet, but when the human body dies under Avada Kedavra, the inner muscles tighten wonderfully! “It’s a very satisfying feeling.” 

She had actually thought it might be something like that. “Crucio” she said tonelessly. 

He smirked. “.. Pet, you are far too uptight” 

He flicked his wrist and held his wand again, pointing it at the spine of the woman undulating below him needily.   
He didn’t need to speak the curse aloud, it was obvious he had cast it by the screams and fits of the woman beneath him. He had leaned down to spoon her again, wrapping one arm beneath her breasts and the other across her collarbone, holding her firmly fixed while she screeched and gurgled and struggled. 

Rodolphus groaned now, fucking the writhing woman gently, and the sound seemed to race up Hermione’s spine and ignite her. She no longer wanted to be that woman in agony beneath him but there was something so raw, so violent and sensuous about his brutality that she couldn’t help but feel a mindless pull toward him.   
She wanted him to moan like that for her... without torture... She knew she was wet and it was hard not to press her thighs together and try to staunch the ache she felt now.   
She wanted to drag her robe up and touch herself to the image before her. He was...so... this was so... not like her. It was insane... and cloying and hot. 

Rodolphus seemed to raise his head, sniffing at the air and glancing toward her, his eyes crazed.   
She watched dazed as he pulled the woman, now only weakly struggling, down further against him and laid his head into the crook of her neck. 

He seemed to nuzzle at her a moment gently and then he suddenly bit down upon her neck.   
This was not a love bite. 

Hermione struggled to rouse herself from her stupor as Rodolphus once again began to thrust hard into the pale Bella doll beneath him, his mouth now firmly affixed to her neck, he was sucking and slurping and her blood dripped down onto the floor.   
She started moaning again now, and he growled deep in his throat pounding into her. Her urgent moans reached a crescendo and she screamed her climax, her arms collapsing bonelessly. 

Rodolphus continued to hold her in place, slamming into her while he drained her, his eyes slipping closed in bliss as he neared his own peak.   
He let her throat fall away, the lower half of his face red and dripping with Morel’s blood and dropped the woman to the ground, gripping her hips roughly and throwing himself into her rapidly now, soon roaring in exultation, his head thrown back, eyes clenched shut and bloody mouth wide. 

No sooner was he done than he pushed the woman off his cock by her hips, leaving her in a crumpled pile on the floor, and rose, seeming to bound with energy now. He scourgified himself and turned away, slipping his softening cock back into his pants and zipping up. 

Glancing sideways at Hermione, he bent to retrieve his robe, scourgifying it too before slipping it back on and fastening it once more. He stalked over to her as she cowered away from him against the door and scowled at her darkly. 

“Oh Merlin’s saggy fucking nuts. Stop that. You are as safe now as you were with me in the stairwell or down in the cold room. Safer in fact. You are no longer walking around obliviously with a hungry, blue-balled vampire on your arm. If I were going to hurt you, I would have done it by now, stupid wench.” 

“The Dark Lord is going to have my fucking hide for keeping you this long” he growled. “I was supposed to pass you off to Lucius long before we came in here.”

Hermione who had seen reason at his argument and straightened hesitantly now tensed again. 

“No!! I don’t want to go with him... He scares me.”   
She grimaced at him.   
“Don’t leave me alone with him, please? Take me somewhere else. Take me to professor Snape. but not Lucius.” 

“He’s going to do something to me, I know it. It doesn’t matter to me what he does for Lord Vo... for the Dark Lord here or how nice it might be – I don’t want to do it if he’s part of it. I will never choose him.” 

Rodolphus appeared to consider this plea carefully. “It was the Dark Lord’s order...” he said hesitantly. 

Hermione could guess what that meant. It meant - so unfortunate, but he would leave her with Lucius anyway. 

“That’s not what I said, mudblood.” he snarled angrily   
“You try my patience. What I meant was that if I do not take you to Lucius and instead take you somewhere else... I will be severely punished for it. I would prefer not to be at the end of the Dark Lord’s wand tonight, I am feeling quite relaxed at the moment.

“What I may perhaps get away with doing is taking a poor exhausted little mudslut to the Dark Lord so that she might beg him on her knees to allow her to postpone her other plans for the evening and retire for the night as she is so very tired from the terrible traumatic experiences in the dungeons.” 

Hermione brightened. “yes! Please! That! Thank you!” She smiled, immeasurably relieved. 

The death eater turned and regarded the woman still crumpled on the floor. 

“Such a pity... I was too greedy tonight. It was your scent everywhere... your arousal. My hunger was too great to stop with a little taste. And now I’ve gone and broken her.”  
“She reminded me a little of my Bella... at least in her looks. Bella was never that obliging... not even before her fixation with the Dark Lord. ... still – it can’t be helped now” 

He pointed his wand at the woman and vanished her body. 

“Perhaps I’ll find another Bella doll and take a bit more care with her.” 

He turned back to Hermione who was still trying to process the idea that this woman had apparently died because her presence had been overpowering to the man in front of her.   
That couldn’t be her fault somehow, surely.   
She didn’t want to come in the room, she didn’t want him to fuck her, she had wanted to leave the entire time.   
It wasn’t fair to blame her. 

And then to say he’d just ‘get another one’, like people were some kind of midnight snack that could be refreshed at the supermarket when one had time to pick up some more. 

“Was Morel her real name?” she asked. 

Rodolphus shrugged.   
“It’s the name she told me. She was just a muggle. They usually have names like Jane or Sarah or Kate, I’ve found. Who knows now. She’s gone. It doesn’t matter anymore. It never mattered.” 

He touched the door and it slid open for them to pass through. The corridor was as dark and empty as before. Hermione felt momentarily disorientated. She had no idea which direction they’d come from.   
Rodolphus had his wand out and was touching it to his dark mark. He reached absently for her hand and she let him take it. 

 

They walked back to the stairwell and climbed, returning to the portrait corridors that eventually led somewhere around here to the Dark Lord’s chambers, Hermione recalled. 

They turned the corner and almost ran into Lucius Malfoy walking, in a high degree of strop, in the opposite direction. 

He drew back and bristled. “Rodolphus! Where the blazes have you been hiding? I’ve been waiting for you to bring me the... her... for over an hour. I was just coming to find you.”   
Lucius advanced again aggressively, reaching his hand out imperiously. “Enough of this foolishness, give her to me and you can skulk off back down to your crypt” 

Hermione shrank back, trying not to press herself into Rodolphus too obviously in her effort to not be passed to the blond cruel mouthed aristocrat before them. 

“I was taking her to the Dark Lord, Lucius” Rodolphus responded calmly “he has already been informed and awaits us.” 

Lucius appeared to be very close to stamping his foot in colic at the idea that he would not get to take Hermione. 

“But he may let you take her after we have spoken to him, perhaps you want to wait outside his chambers?” 

Lucius seemed slightly mollified at this. “Let us visit the Dark Lord then. We shall see what he has to say about this.”   
He turned on his heel and strode off down the chamber   
“Well, come along. You are wasting my time which could be far better spent.” 

Hermione shuddered at how he might choose to spend his time given half a chance. 

 

They reached the Dark Lord’s chambers and Lucius knocked briskly. 

The door opened of its own accord, displaying the dim study room that Hermione had seen earlier, where the Dark Lord was visible, in his wingback chair, apparently reading.   
He looked up with mild irritation as Lucius swept in with a face like a lawyer approaching the bench. 

“My Lord.” he began, bowing deeply. “I have found Rodolphus. He has been hiding somewhere with the mu...Miss Granger. Now he refuses to relinquish her to me. Have I misunderstood your orders, master?” 

Rodolphus entered the room with measured steps, still holding Hermione’s hand. He bowed respectfully at the Dark Lord and glanced sidelong pointedly at Hermione who jumped slightly and promptly dropped to her knees, bowing low and prostrating herself before Lord Voldemort. 

“Oh well done, Rodolphus!” the Dark Lord clapped his hands softly. “It does appear that you have had a beneficial effect on Miss Grangers attitude. That almost looked uncoached.”   
He sighed. “I’m sure if I give you the chance you’ll have her begging me for my mark in no time.” 

On the floor, Hermione flinched and struggled against the inner turmoil this provoked. ‘think about Lucius!’ she berated herself. ‘you don’t want to be alone with Lucius, do you? It’s just pride. You don’t have to mean it. It’s just a bit of posturing. A show of respect.’   
This last idea grated against her a little. Respect the Dark Lord... when she knew her friends were in cells being tortured as she knelt here before him. Oh it was a bitter pill. 

Immediately, she could actually feel the atmosphere turn frosty and heard Rodolphus groan softly beside her. “Mudblood, you just don’t learn, do you?!” 

“Rodolphus, you may leave” the Dark Lord hissed. 

Rodolphus hesitated a fraction of a second, but turned and quietly departed the room.   
Lucius exalted in response, tossing his hair over his shoulder and preening in triumph. 

“Lucius... you will also leave us. I will send you the mudblood in the morning, I believe. I need to ...correct... some misconceptions she is labouring under.” 

Lucius managed to train his face into something faintly resembling graciousness to a blind man that had had graciousness described to him and bowed once again. “yes, my Lord, Good night.” He clicked his heels before withdrawing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comments positively impact my speed of uploading of new chapters. 
> 
> Incidentally, I have more than fifty chapters sitting here, of this story alone, which each need to be processed (checked and have formatting re-added) when I upload.

The door closed and she was alone with the Dark Lord again. 

She tried to remember what had made her think that this was a safe place to be.   
He was the only person in the building who would kill her if the mood struck him - clearly the best place to run to and hide from the bad man with the blonde hair. 

She tried to remain perfectly still and keep the slight shaking that had started under control. She heard Lord Voldemort laying aside his book and rising from his chair; his footfalls soft on the oriental-rug as he approached her. 

“Hermione, look at me” he spoke softly, and she almost felt lulled into thinking it was all going to be alright; that he wasn’t angry for her saying that she only had to pretend to respect him and it was sufficient.   
She unfurled herself carefully, rising up on her knees and craning her head back to look up at Lord Voldemort who stood an arm’s length away.   
She felt him in her head now, shuffling through her mind. Images from the last hours flashed before her eyes. 

He seemed to linger a particularly long time on the moments in the morgue when Rodolphus kissed her and again in the stairwell he paused, as if to dissect it.   
He picked through her experiences in morels room with Rodolphus focussing in on certain moments - When she had chosen punishment for the girl; when she had despaired at having caused the girl to suffer for absolutely no reason; Rodolphus telling her she should give herself to him instead of saving herself for someone who would only hurt her; Rodolphus mouth on her neck and pained retreat hissing at his mark; her continued refusal to offer herself to him.

She could feel he was pleased at that memory but she couldn’t have described how she knew. 

When the memory slid on to her arousal at watching Rodolphus fucking the girl, the Dark Lord pulled back, glancing only fleetingly at the rest of the time up till she entered his chambers again, noting her fear at seeing Lucius again but moving on immediately and soon pulling out of her mind again completely.   
She looked up at Lord Voldemort’s face and before she could think his wand had come up and he hissed crucio. 

The pain was so much worse than she remembered it had been with Bellatrix. She could do nothing against the frantic shrieks that spilled from her as she shook and rolled, every muscle in her body cramping and overextending, her eyes rolling back in her head. 

After what seemed like hours, the bright thermonuclear lance of pain faded leaving only the relatively mundane indescribable agony of twitching cramping limbs and throbbing head. 

She could hear Lord Voldemort pacing, somewhere behind her. It was all none of her concern. All she had to do was lie very still here on the floor and try to prevent herself from throwing up on the carpet.   
Perhaps if she was very very quiet he wouldn’t do that again. 

She heard him sit down in his wingback armchair again and remained still, or as still as she could in her current twitchy shuddering condition. 

“I am disappointed in you, Miss Granger”. Lord Voldemort’s voice was hollow and cold. 

“I was informed that you were intelligent. It appears that rumours were greatly exaggerated and you are quite foolish. Or perhaps just suicidal. Which might it be, hm?” 

She tried to swallow; tried to get some fluid in her mouth in order to produce sound. “m- “her voice was creaky and broken from screaming. “m- sss-ry” she swallowed again, coughing weakly. “I’m sorry” she tried, and this time managed to get the words out in a recognisable, albeit weak and shaky manner. 

“Yes? What are you sorry for, Miss Granger?“ Lord Voldemort sounded interested. 

She licked her lips and worked her throat spasmodically again, trying to bring her damaged vocal chords back under control. “Rodolphus” she whispered. 

“Not your lack of respect? No? Well at least you aren’t that foolish then. ...so, you’re sorry for Rodolphus... I believe he is capable of answering for himself. What exactly are you sorry about?” 

She was silent. 

The silence stretched on... 

Everything in her body just hurt right now. This was almost the worst thing she had ever felt, except that the worst thing had been five minutes ago when the Dark Lord had been holding her under his cruciatus. 

“You know.” She said finally. 

“I want you to say it” he hissed back. 

The silence lengthened again, broken by the intermittent crackling of the fire. 

“...I’m sorry for” ..her voice broke. “-not fighting enough. ...I was weak ... I knew it was wrong” 

She heard Lord Voldemort snort. “and is that all you are sorry for, Hermione?” 

“No” she muttered. “I’m sorry I never learned occlumency.”   
This time she thought he snorted in amusement.   
After a few minutes in which Lord Voldemort observed her lying on her back, pitifully struggling to stay still and remain silent through waves of cramps, she felt herself levitated and the sudden pressure change on her back made her yelp and jerk which in turn set off all her other cramps again so that she groaned with the horrible unstoppable sensation.   
She clenched her eyes closed and tried to move as little as possible. 

Eventually she felt herself lowered onto a soft surface. ‘bed’ she thought.   
Cracking her eyes she found herself in a darkened chamber on a large four post bed surrounded by curtains, much like those at Hogwarts, but larger. She felt the bed dip slightly behind her and the panicky realization came to her that someone was getting into bed with her. 

“I cannot do much for the after-effects of the Cruciatus, Miss Granger, I will have Severus see to you in the morning. But I can give you rest without constantly awakening from the cramps you will experience. Do not fear.” 

‘i’m in Lord Voldemort’s bed’ she thought with exclamation points exploding all through her mind.   
With him!   
How is this even possible?! WHY am i here? Why didn’t he just leave me on the floor in his study? Or the couch? Or any of a thousand rooms in this place? A cell perhaps? Oh god! Is he going to... 

She heard Lord Voldemort sigh in tired exasperation behind her. “just sleep now.” 

His hand pressed gently against the back of her neck, his fingers touching the base of her skull lightly. Then she felt his magic flare up more brightly than ever before and then there was nothing. 

 

She awoke slowly, her bed was warm and pillow soft. All was well in the world until she tried to move and then everything shattered into long sinewy stripes of pain. 

She screamed in shock and sobbed as hot tears flowed from her clenched eyes and every part of her body started frantically sending distress calls to her brain. 

“Silence.” a sleep softened voice muttered from only inches in front of her face and she jerked back in shock, blinking to try to see through the blur of liquid. 

A white shape hovered into view in front of her face. 

“It is too early. Go back to sleep” 

She felt a hand reach over her body and the incongruent thought barrelled through her reeling mind ‘i’m in bed with the Dark Lord and he’s hugging me’   
The snort from the form in front of her was distinctly amused. “no. Not hugging you, my dear, knocking you out so that i can get some more sleep”   
She felt his hand on the back of her neck and then everything drifted away again for a while.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comments positively impact upload frequency.

The next time she awoke it was to the sound of voices conversing somewhere. Professor Snape was speaking. 

“You could have woken me, my Lord. It would have been no trouble” 

Lord Voldemort responded, sounding somewhat petulant - “it would have troubled me. I was tired. The mudblood could wait.” 

“As you say, my Lord” Professor Snape responded neutrally. 

She heard him come toward her, but assumed that this was probably because he had wanted her to hear him, in order to avoid surprising her and jarring her painfully. 

“Miss Granger.. I can tell you are awake. I have a potion which will soon have you on your feet and ready for more target practice. How is your mouth this morning? Still tasting of your foot, i would imagine. Alas, I do not have a potion for that” 

She felt strong arms shifting her very carefully, like one who understood exactly how limited her capacity for independent movement was at this moment while her limbs felt like the bones were scraping across raw nerves.   
She groaned at the sensation, trying to still her twanging muscles and whispered weakly “Thank you Professor. I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll try not to tick the Dark Lord off again.” 

Professor Snape chuckled softly. 

She was shocked! He leaned low toward her and whispered near her ear “You can try, Miss Granger, but you will find that it is sometimes next to impossible not to ‘tick the Dark Lord off’.”   
She attempted not to look scandalized and felt she succeeded mostly. 

“I’m going to tilt your head so that you can swallow this, Miss Granger. Try to relax.” 

She attempted to let her body go limp and then she felt Professor Snape sliding his cool hand through her hair and under the back of her neck.   
She had never had any reason to ever touch or be touched by professor Snape before and for a joyous minute she was inexpressibly grateful to the Dark Lord for cruciating her and forcing her to be in her current painful wonderful predicament.   
Professor Snape lifted her head very gently and she felt a small glass bottle pressed to her lips but not yet tilted. 

“It tastes worse than skele-grow, but you will swallow it all, Miss Granger.” Professor Snape informed her before tilting the bottle carefully. She choked it down and he carefully replaced her head upon the pillow. 

“That is all I can offer you at the moment. You will remain here and try not to move for a few hours. You should be tolerably mobile by late afternoon or early evening.” 

Choirs of angels erupted in her head with fireworks displays. She gazed up at professor Snape, who was even more devastatingly attractive when viewed from the vantage point of a bed as he leaned over one’s face.   
“I won’t be able to go to Lucius Malfoy” she whispered excitedly, as if sharing a secret.

Professor Snape rolled his eyes. “No, Miss Granger. You will instead have the privilege of remaining here in the Dark Lord’s bed all day, or at least until you can ‘tick him off’ again and he kicks you to the ground.” He replied deadpan.   
His forehead furrowed slightly. “Have I missed something? Did Lucius at some point traumatize you in such a way that you now fear him more than the Dark Lord himself?! I find it difficult to imagine how this could possibly have come about. You have barely met the man.”

Hermione shifted her eyes uneasily. “I’m just afraid of him. It might have had something to do with the things the Dark Lord was telling me yesterday.” 

Snape raised an eyebrow 

“Indeed.” 

“Well.. as you’ve now correctly located the ultimate source of your fear I shall leave you.” 

“...alone.” 

“..in the Dark Lord’s bed.” 

“..Where you’re clearly far safer than you would be in a large room full of pampered women and one Lucius Malfoy.” 

“Incidentally..I do believe our Lord will return shortly to ...how did he put it?.. ‘keep you company’.” 

Hermione frowned up at him faintly. “Thank you so much for that, professor. You have an amazing bedside manner. I feel so much better now.” 

“I am pleased I could assist you to develop some perspective, Miss Granger. Rest well” He smirked and swirled away, sweeping out of the room soundlessly, leaving her to her thoughts. 

 

She mused on her position. How was it that Professor Snape was always able to alert her in the most obnoxious way possible to her own stupidity in the moments when she was least willing to recognise it? It had to be a gift.   
Rodolphus had done it too, she reflected, although in a completely different way. 

So ok. Fine. What have we learned?, she thought to herself. 

1) The Dark Lord has his own agenda which, if I am not careful, he will convince me is really my agenda.   
2) I am not safe here. Ever. There is no person here more dangerous than the one whose bed I am apparently in.   
Thinking to herself she concluded that she also had barely put up any real effort to find out which, if any, of her friends still lived – she hadn’t the slightest idea whether even Harry, Ron or Ginny were here. She hadn’t really asked.

It hadn’t been top on her list among all this distracting rubbish with choices and generosity and kisses and vampires and Lucius Malfoy. 

She didn’t even know what had happened at the battle or how she came to be here. 

Well! That was no good. She would have to try her best to answer some of those questions today. She wondered vaguely whether being crucio’d on top of recovering crucio injuries felt less or more painful than the original crucio. 

Yawning, she let herself slip off to sleep again. 

 

She woke to the feeling of a hand stroking her head gently; fingers running through her long hair every so often. 

When she identified what the sensation was, she jerked awake as if kicked, looking up. 

Lord Voldemort was sitting on the bed beside her, leaning against the headboard of the bed, not paying any attention to her, reading a book perched on his bent knee and stroking her absently. 

“Why do you keep doing that?!” she tried not to sound disgusted. 

The Dark Lord replied dryly without looking up from his reading “Apparently I lack a cat. Stroking something is supposed to be good for the blood pressure I hear. I’m sure you do want me to be calm..”   
He turned the page and his eyes shifted to the top of the new page. 

Hermione tried to just stop. Stop thinking, stop reacting and wait. Lord Voldemort hadn’t stopped petting her.   
The sensation really wasn’t unpleasant actually, it was just knowing who it was that was stroking her.   
Like being nuzzled up to by a cobra. 

If she made the wrong move.. hell... if she thought the wrong thing then it could rapidly become a world of pain again. 

Her mind shifted to the next automatically recurring worry on her mind.. ‘Do I still have to go to Lucius Malfoy today?’ but here again, she paused. Was he really a bigger threat than staying where she was?   
Professor Snape was right, she hadn’t really thought much about Malfoy, or at least not any worse than any death eater, until she’d spoken with Lord Voldemort and even her fear hadn’t been based on much real reason.   
She frowned. 

The hand in her hair paused briefly and then continued to stroke her, now and then delving to scratch fingernails against her scalp in a way that she really couldn’t say wasn’t pleasurable. She tried to keep still and not move her head to nudge the fingers into the places she wanted them. No! Distracting. Argh. Focus! YES. The Dark Lord wants something. That’s right. I need to find out what the Dark Lord wants. Lucius isn’t important. 

She slid her eyes upward and to the right to look at the strange serpentine man next to her, who was seemingly totally absorbed in his reading.   
Would it be a very bad idea to interrupt him to ask what the hell he really wanted from her?   
That probably wouldn’t go down well, would it. He’d probably prefer her to just do all the things he had planned for her with copious bundles of thanks and kowtowing and then let herself be led by events somehow into what he wanted. 

“I want you to help repair my soul” the Dark Lord said softly, without looking up. 

She blinked. 

“How am I supposed to do that?!” she asked without thinking. 

“..And why would you even want it?! You’ve spent so much effort damaging it!!” 

She bit her tongue and clamped her hands over her mouth looking him in shock and fear. 

The Dark Lord sighed. After a minute he spoke softly   
“When my horcruxes were still here and the pieces of my soul were not with me but still..somehow indefinably existent, the sacrifices i had made were...justified. Or so it seemed to me at the time...” 

“However, now I find myself apparently mortal again, labouring under the effects of a fractured sliver of remaining soul, and although I may have won the war – These are losses I cannot accept. Will not accept.”   
He turned and looked down upon her, his ruby eyes glinting unnaturally against the pale of his face.   
He looked pensive, nervous even. She wondered if his mood was about to switch into hexing her for her involvement in what he perceived as his losses. 

The hand on her head stopped scratching and stroking and she felt cool impossibly smooth fingers slide down over her left cheek until the Dark Lord was cupping her face.   
“You destroyed parts of my soul Hermione. And I felt them. I felt the pain of their loss every time you tore one apart.” 

She blanched. She wasn’t supposed to feel this way. A tiny core of sickly painful guilt welled in her chest. She had had to do what she did. It was the only way to defeat him. The only way for Harry to have had a chance.

“And yet..” the Dark Lord almost whispered. “Here we find ourselves.”   
“You did not defeat me. Harry fell. Was it worth it?” 

“What happened at the battle?” she asked suddenly. “What happened to Harry? Where is he? Did you k- did you kill him?”   
She felt tears wanting to push at her eyes again and her throat wanting to close up. 

The Dark Lord hesitated...then sighed. “It was Severus, in the end that made the plan work. Loyal Severus. He posed as me, drawing Harry in” 

“Further and further into the forbidden forest Harry pursued him, while he spouted off insults and monologued – He impersonated me most convincingly actually...”  
The Dark Lord frowned momentarily as if irritated at this but appeared to let the thought go a few moments later. 

“I had placed a large priority upon capturing you, Miss Granger. I sent a dedicated cadre of my six best men to go and retrieve you in the midst of the chaos..as unharmed as possible.. from the battlefield.” 

“They accomplished their task quite acceptably..although.. I had almost forgotten your injuries” Lord Voldemorts eyes appeared to snap out of focus for a moment “I will perhaps have Severus see to that at some point soon I suppose.” 

Hermione tried not to blush. The idea of Professor Snape rubbing burn paste into her injuries.. Professor Snape actually touching her breast! She felt a rush of warmth rise to her cheeks and looked away.   
Voldemort flashed an irritated look at her and continued 

“Avery brought you to me so that i could pluck one of your hairs for the polyjuice myself. No mishaps, you understand?   
I had him deposit you in the dungeons before returning to the battlefield. .. He was most put out not to be able to kill you there and then, until I reminded him how much more satisfying it would be to kill you slowly at his pleasure.”   
The Dark Lord smirked down at her thinly and she blinked uneasily 

“oh come now Miss Granger, I didn’t say that he would be allowed to do so – and it is indisputable that it would be more satisfying for him to spend several hours in a room with you rather than flicking an impersonal avada at you on the forest floor, so It isn’t as if I even lied to the poor fellow.” 

She shifted her eyes away and after a moment or two he continued. “When I joined Harry in the clearing, in the guise of none other than yourself, he didn’t look twice at me; told me to stay back. And thus it was ridiculously easy to petrify him when he wasn’t looking and take his hair.” 

Hermione felt a leaden weight sinking through the pit of her stomach. It was plausible. Harry would just tell her to stay out of danger.. he’d never think to test whether it was really her.. especially not if he was looking at Voldemort at the time. She listened numbly. 

“I side-alonged him to a very..very secure room here – a room with no entrance. Only I can access it. I didn’t want to leave any possibility for unknown traitors to ruin things at the last minute.”   
“I returned to the battlefield, resumed my form, fed polyjuice to another poor wretch to transform them into Harry’s likeness and removed his head, placing the corpse in stasis.”   
“When I tossed the head and body in pieces back out onto the battlefield, the news spread like wildfire that the saviour was no more.” 

Voldemort’s face betrayed dissatisfaction at the ruse.

“Some gave up and others fought on, but in the end, the field was empty.” 

“I took everyone, even the bodies – as you saw in the room below.” 

She shivered and he paused before he went on, more mildly “I did not quite intend to upset you in that manner. I had imagined it would be easier for you like that, what with your..background.. and that you would then not doubt their passing, not accuse me of trying to pull the wool over your eyes and cling to the idea that they were all quite alive and free and trying to rescue you. I do know how very great the need is for some faint hope that all is not truly lost.”   
She looked away. 

“I have ..spoken.. with Rodolphus and he understands how..unacceptable it was for him to take advantage of you in the manner he did.” 

Hermione's eyes darted back up to the Dark Lords face distressed. She wanted to ask pleadingly ‘you didn’t hurt him??’ but she managed to stop herself. Of course he hurt him. She was talking to the bloody dark lord. He hurt people for a laugh when he was bored and he had been quite upset with her last night. How much more upset had he been with Rodolphus?

As her thoughts skipped wildly on beyond her control, the Dark Lords face darkened somewhat. “of course, Miss Granger. Your new favourite was naturally disciplined for his indiscretions. He expects such correction when he knows he has misbehaved. He will be fine. Vampires heal more rapidly than silly little girls” he looked away.

She flinched. She had messed up again. What did he want from her?! 

“I believe I have already told you” he said. All traces of warmth now gone from his voice. 

She steeled herself and looked back at him 

“You do realise, Miss Granger that when I spoke to you of Lucius yesterday and apparently unsettled you with talk of his sadistic nature, that I by no means intended to imply that he was the only such individual here.” 

He scrutinized her reaction. 

“Most of my death eaters enjoy such pursuits from time to time. Some more heartily than others. Those in the inner circle most particularly. Lucius is quite among friends in that respect. Your dear Professor delights in the screams and suffering of children, particularly those he terms ‘brats’. Contrary to the impressions of the order, he was almost always present and very engaged at Death Eater revels, although he often could not remain quite as long as he might have liked. I assume you bore the brunt of his ill-humour at the fact in his classroom on subsequent days.” 

“And of course Rodolphus. Our friend Rodolphus...” He trailed off darkly. “Rodolphus wasn’t always a vampire, ..obviously. No – that is a relatively recent ..lifestyle change.. for him. But he was always a cruel and violent man. 

“Why do you think i offered him mastery of my prisoners and slaves? Why do you imagine he eagerly accepted?” 

“He is a formidable interrogator. He appears to lack any trace of a conscience or of empathy, which allows him to do the most fascinating things to others. He is Infinitely superior in the art to dear Lucius. As I said – Lucius breaks his toys. Rodolphus... generally doesn’t. He dislikes letting things go.” 

“Toy-Bella, or Morel, as you referred to her in your memory, has been here for several years. He took her when she was only a teenager..perhaps as old as yourself. The scars you saw on her body were only the barest remnants of his handiwork. He left them there intentionally, he liked to see the traces of his past encounters with her. He was quite..possessive..of the girl. Disliked sharing her with the others.”   
“I was disturbed that he had taken you to her so lightly; Killed her so thoughtlessly after his long and patient effort to sculpt her into what he wanted.”

“I needed to disabuse him of the notion that he might replace her with you.” 

Hermione gasped, her brows furrowing. He wouldn’t have done that. Would he? She felt distressed. She couldn’t trust anyone here, obviously. 

“It was probably your tears, Miss Granger. And perhaps your..hair..”   
The Dark Lord reached and stroked her again and she shivered. 

“But do not worry. You are quite safe now. I shall not allow harm to come to you.” 

She struggled with her mind and almost managed to prevent the thought from articulating herself but it slid out anyway ‘the only person who has really harmed me so far has been you’. 

The hand on her head paused and then slipped away. 

“And yet you continue to provoke me..” Lord Voldemort mused. 

“What did you do to Harry?” she whispered. 

He gazed at her pensively. “You know i couldn’t risk his continued threat, Miss Granger.”   
He seemed almost to be asking for her understanding...but that couldn’t be. Lord Voldemort would not care about what she thought. 

“If i had simply tossed him in a cell somewhere and left him to rot, there would always be that nagging thought in the back of my mind that he could..somehow.. escape and miraculously twist fate around to end my life.”

“I considered removing all of his magic and keeping him as a muggle pet; I considered removing his mind altogether, but I would not have been able to sleep peacefully with the thought that Harry Potter might yet in some completely unpredictable and accidental manner engineer my own demise. That ridiculous prophesy would hang over my head like an invisible Damocles sword forever.”

“I would have liked to kill him in grand ceremony before all my death eaters but, again – they all believed I had bested him in battle.   
All except Severus of course, but he is very good at keeping silent counsel.” 

“I could destroy Harry in a fair duel of course. Of that there is no doubt in my mind.. but I am not..stupid, Miss Granger.   
I have been exposed to the Muggle world, as you yourself have and while I despise it in many ways, there are some parts that I appreciate: Science, Literature, the arts, and now – films. Occasionally even television.”

“I have noticed, as a common theme running through so many muggle stories, how tempting it seems to be for the ‘bad guy’” he snorted “to inexplicably develop principles at the last minute and give the ‘hero’ the chance to destroy them in a fair fight, which he then invariably proceeds to do, to greater or lesser extent assisted by seemingly random circumstances.   
For that reason.. although it was more difficult than you can possibly imagine for me to force myself to give up the desire.. I did not duel Harry Potter.” 

“He is dead, Miss Granger. His death..actually pained me.. I felt..   
I still feel that it was beneath me to dispatch him in the manner I did. This muggle notion of the fair fight i imagine.” 

Hermione felt like all the air had been vacuumed out of her chest and replaced with sand. “Harry’s really dead?” she choked out. Lord Voldemort’s voice was so faint as to be almost unheard “yes” 

She breathed out and it felt like all the colour had drained out of things. It was real now. If Harry was gone, then it really was all over. This was the world. The empire of the Dark Lord. There was no way back to her room at Hogwarts, her classes, her friends, her life. 

“how did you do it?” she heard herself asking in a voice tinged at the edges with hysteria. The Dark Lord was looking away, out toward the shadows at the edges of the room, away from her. 

“Does it really matter, Miss Granger?” he asked hollowly. 

She sat up galvanised, unreality drowning her mind. She was on Lord Voldemorts bed in the near dark with him telling her about her best friend’s murder and there was nothing she could do. Nowhere she could go. This evil man had had his hands in her hair! .. on her neck!, on her CHEEK for fucks sake.. she had received comfort from Lord Voldemort and the entire world had fallen – and he had used her to bring it about. HER hair, the hair he kept touching. Did it remind him of his victory? Harry had lost because he had trusted HER face on the battlefield. 

“YES. IT FUCKING MATTERS!” She screamed. “TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO HIM!”

She scrambled to get off the bed and retreated across the room. 

Lord Voldemort had not moved. He had not even glanced at her. He still stared darkly, his face turned slightly away from her. Shadows seemed to pass over his features. He looked almost..haunted by something she couldn’t see.   
When he spoke, his voice was faint, thin, toneless.

“I poisoned him.” 

He turned to look at her now and his scarlet eyes were dull, his face an emotionless mask. 

“While he slept, in stasis, stupefied. He never even saw me. I watched him slip away.. so quietly. Peacefully. And then I reduced his body to atoms.” 

She fell to her knees as if all her bones had been removed and stared sightlessly at the floor in front of her, trying to understand what he told her.   
Harry had been completely defenseless, he hadn’t even acknowledged him before he had murdered him. He had put him to sleep like a fucking animal. 

The last thing on Harry’s mind had probably been the idea that she had betrayed him.   
He died believing she had betrayed him.   
She felt her stomach roil and wondered if she would be sick.   
She forced her eyes back up to look at Lord Voldemort, her face a mask of raw aching hate. He wasn’t looking at her. His eyes had wandered off to the right again. Emotions flashed across his face unreadable. 

“ I will never help you” she hissed coldly. 

His face snapped toward her and he had reached her before she could blink, his hand at her throat and lifting her till her toes barely scraped the floor, scrabbling for purchase. Choking, she clawed at the white hand at her neck, as implacable as iron. 

“Yes you will, mudblood. You will see. You will.” 

He lowered her gently, holding her firmly until it seemed she could balance her own weight on her unsteady limbs.   
His flashing narrowed eyes dimmed slightly and again an unreadable expression passed over his face. 

“You are very hurt and angry. It is...understandable. I will not punish you for it.”   
He hesitated and his voice was soft again. 

“I have told you.. I ..regret.. my decision in some ways. It seemed like the best solution at the time..” his voice trailed off 

“I think perhaps.. he.. we both.. deserved more” 

He turned away, his robes swishing “Come along. I will take you to your room. It is clear you require some time to think and there are things I must attend to now” 

She trudged after him numbly. 

 

They passed out of his room into a small dim corridor decorated in black and forest green tones with several doors leading off it.   
It was not the outside hall. The colours were entirely different and there were no portraits or decorations of any kind.   
Like the bedroom it was dark and Spartan. Only his study had seemed somewhat brighter. 

He stopped at the second door and opened it into a room that was as sharply different to the corridor as day to night. 

She followed Lord Voldemort in and sighed miserably. The very atmosphere in the room felt like she was far away from the events of the past two days. 

The room was set in white and pale parchment yellow walls with light grey flagstones on the floor. It was very large and bright. A four post double bed stood slightly off centre from the door. Its curtains were black with golden filigree and the coverings were gold with black filigree and tiny red markings which she saw, as she drifted closer, were little lions.   
It was flanked by small tables with beautiful golden candelabras. 

On the wall a small distance away stood a large dark polished wooden wardrobe and next to it a door, she presumed it led to a bathroom. 

At one end of the room sunlight streamed through large partially mullioned windows which exposed a view across a forest and small lake. It looked vaguely alpine.   
There was a black velvet and gold cushioned window seat beneath the windows that just begged to be huddled in with a thick book. A small table and chair stood a short distance from the window, benefiting from the light. It would be a pleasant place to take tea or meals, she thought. 

She turned and in the bright cheeriness of the room the Dark Lord seemed alien and unreal. His white, strangely dimensionless face brighter even than the walls.

He scowled. 

At the other end of the room, beyond him, she could see a fireplace burning merrily and around it.. bookcases covered the walls from floor to ceiling. She was too far to see the spines but there were at least two hundred books ordered neatly on the polished wooden recesses. In front of the fire sat two chairs and a small table. 

She felt..well, she felt like she wished she could be pleased.. relieved.. the room was beautiful...peaceful...warm...

Under other circumstances she would have eagerly rushed over to inspect the bookcases. But as things were now.. her pretty room was a better class of cell. 

It had not escaped her that it was actually inside Lord Voldemorts’s chambers.   
He was not letting her very far out of his sight again it seemed. 

“Miss Granger. I will leave you here to ..become comfortable.. with your new surroundings. Please call for dilly when you are ready to eat or if you require additional items. She will provide what you request...within reason.   
Do not attempt to coerce her to help you to leave this castle, or to free any prisoners either. She is not allowed to talk to you about myself or any other person here. If you persuade her to do so, she will only punish herself, as I’m sure you’re aware.” 

“Perhaps later on we might visit one or two of your former friends, if I find time and you are in better spirits.” 

Better spirits she thought cynically. He means, if I am more flatteringly compliant! If I stop holding my best friends murder against him unreasonably and play whatever little game he has in store! 

The Dark Lord bristled and huffed impatiently, tilting his head up to glare at the ceiling as if exclaiming ‘what I have to put up with!’. He faced her, eyes hard but calm.   
“Hermione..” he began in the overly patient tones of one attempting to explain something simple to a difficult child for the tenth time   
“-You are said to be intelligent. Able to twist your mind around all manner of thought problems. Your performance at Hogwarts was exceptional! Here is a thought problem for you. Try to imagine... hypothetically, that you were in my place. Try to let go of your own perspective and moral standpoint for a moment and place yourself in the role of Dark Lord.” 

“To go to such trouble, to sacrifice so much..to elude death, only to discover that there yet remains someone who can kill you. More than can.. that there exists a boy who will kill you unless you kill him first. A boy who, helpless, a child in swaddling clothes very nearly does kill you.”

“You cannot possibly fathom the torment of the time-outside-time that I passed, possessing small animals, weak and lost.. the indignities I suffered even at the hands of my own servants, wrapped in cloth sharing the head of that stuttering fool, being fed by Wormtail, a misshapen changeling in his arms.” 

“...If I had known..what would happen..” his face twisted in introspective fury “Over and over confronted and thwarted by this horrible BOY, this perverse twisted mirror, an orphan like myself yet surrounded by people who care about him, show him sympathy, asssssist him..” The Dark Lord seemed on the verge of losing his composure. His face was dark, his eyes fixed on a point only he could see. 

His gaze flicked back to Hermione and he narrowed his eyes at her as if she were personally responsible for the events of the last 17 years. 

“To come back from the void, not once, but three times! To lose almost my entire soul and yet - to prevail and.. to hold this ..boy in my grasp, finally.. and incapacitated briefly - After so much struggle and sacrifice...” 

“If you can manage to set yourself aside for one moment, put yourself in my place in that moment, Hermione. What would be your best course of action?” 

He turned abruptly on the spot and stalked out of the room, slamming the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like...in general readers on AO3 don't bother to comment/review as much as readers on Fanfic.net or Adultfanfic.org because there are kudos instead. It's really disheartening. Kudos are nice but it doesn't tell me what you liked/hated.

Hermione stood, hesitatingly, unsure what to think. 

That was just ridiculous! If he had never tried to kill Harry in the first place then Harry wouldn’t have become ‘The Boy Who Lived’ and his entire life wouldn’t have revolved around destroying Lord Voldemort. 

Her mind piped up unhelpfully. ‘It still might have. Dumbledore was protecting Lilly and James Potter because they had defied the Dark Lord three times.’   
She argued: but Neville’s parents had too, and surely there were dozens, hundreds of other couples having children who upset Lord Voldemort three times! 

It didnt sound plausible even to her.   
No it was clearly one of two families in question.   
If Voldemort hadn’t attacked Harry’s parents, Professor Dumbledore would probably just have taken both Harry and Neville under his wing and shaped them against the Dark Lord. 

Losing his parents had been horrible and traumatic, particularly because he had had to live with the nasty abusive Dursleys. 

She prickled.   
That had always bothered her. Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall and even Hagrid had always known that they had left Harry with terrible people who would hurt him and they did it anyway.   
They could have placed him ANYWHERE in the muggle world and simply used high level wards and he would likely have been just as safe.   
Or.. at the very least they could have monitored his aunt and uncle’s behaviour. 

She had always had a sneaking suspicion that Dumbledore had done in on purpose. She thought again, briefly, about Neville – he had been left with his grandmother after Bellatrix had cruciated his parents into mindlessness. 

Had there been nowhere else he might have gone but to that bitter domineering old woman who had terrorised and terrified him as a child? 

Perhaps Harry and Neville were intentionally placed in circumstances that would traumatize them and foster the seed of true hate for the one they could hold responsible for their suffering, for the loss of their happy home, the Dark Lord.   
But that was speculation. She moved on.

So – to leave Harry and Neville alone might have removed that particular trauma from their lives but both their families had fought bravely against Lord Voldemort and they would have raised them to battle him in any case if they had lived. 

Ok.. so she could perhaps see at least a little why Voldemort might have tried to attack the children. They were weak at that age and he didn’t have a lot to gain by waiting.   
He hadn’t tried to skin Harry or use him for potions ingredients. He had just tried to Avada him. (just?!). it was a rather businesslike act, horrible because it was enacted upon a tiny child, but perhaps swift and merciless because Voldemort feared him... 

this idea led invariably on.. Voldemort obviously fears death.   
A LOT.   
More than anything else. 

Maybe it is the only thing he fears. 

And now he is apparently mortal. That has to be quite disappointing for him. Hermione wandered across to the fireside and sat herself in the chair that allowed her to keep the door to the room in her view. 

 

Some hours later, to judge by the quality of the light outside her window, Hermione was quite frustrated and annoyed.   
She had tried her hardest to put herself in the place of someone who was overpoweringly afraid of death and who had experienced many times how well laid plans were frustrated and destroyed by the influence of others or by small random events.   
She just couldn’t think of a way to suggest Lord Voldemort should have let Harry live that didn’t offend some aspect of her logic. 

She had looked at all kinds of alternatives, reanimation, obliviation, removal of his magic, imprisonment in some unbreakable fortress, unbreakable vows etc etc.. but while Harry remained in some form or other existent on the planet, the prophesy still held.   
The threat remained, however improbable.   
Many improbable things happened in the wizarding world every single day. Magic was tricky.

She had to concede that had she BEEN Voldemort, in that second, with his fears and tendencies, according to her logic she would probably have done the same thing. Even down to the method. It was a peaceful death, even humane. Dignified. There was little risk of something going wrong or backfiring. 

She was infuriated at herself. There must BE a way in which the stupid bloody prophesy could be met and Harry could live. 

‘well obviously’ her mind supplied helpfully. ‘Lord Voldemort could have died. Then Harry could have lived.’ 

She growled and pushed herself up from the chair. 

“Stupid idiotic thought exercise.” 

She stalked around the room, glaring at everything for being so irritatingly calming and refined around her. 

“Divination is a woolly subject anyway. If everyone hadn’t put so much stock in what stupid old Trelawney had babbled in her semi permanent gin hazed stupor then everything would have been a lot better.” 

She eyed the hulking wooden wardrobe and stamped up to it, tearing the door open and peering inside. The inside of the door it seemed contained an embedded mirror and for the first time in.. well.. since before the battle.. gosh.. a good while before the battle actually - they had been on the run for a long time - she saw her reflection. 

Her face was much thinner than she had it in memory, her cheeks hollowed and her cheekbones more prominent.   
Her hair was darker and longer and the extra length had made it more wavy than frizzy. It was beginning to grow a little greasy she noted. She had last used a washing charm on it a day before the battle.   
The black woollen robe she wore hung from her shoulders and she had the strong impression that she had lost quite a lot of weight since she and Harry and Ron had left the burrow on their extended camping trip in the forest of Dean. 

..The burrow.. Ron.. 

Guilt twinged through her. She hadn’t even asked about Ron. ..or Ginny.. Or any of the Weasleys really, she supposed.

She hadn’t been that close to Ginny, although she had tried. She always had the faint underlying impression that Ginny resented her for being around Harry. Whenever she could she would take Harry off away from Ron and Hermione to be alone with him.   
Perhaps that was understandable, what with the situation and Harry’s fate and all.   
Or maybe sometimes she was just trying to give Ron time alone with Hermione.. but she didnt think so.   
The way she had caught Ginny looking at her sometimes, It had felt more like a subtle possessive jealousy. 

Ron on the other hand.. She and Ron had been having problems for a while and really, it just irritated her usually to think about him too much. She would end up angry with him, angry with herself.. it was easier to put the thoughts out of her mind and just get on with things. 

It wasn’t that he had left her..after kissing her - and telling her that he was in love with her no less.. and returned to that catty saccharine false, brainless.. she growled. To lav lav anyway. That wasn’t it.   
Although that had hurt.   
a lot! 

It wasn’t even the fact that Ron had just abandoned her and Harry in the forest of Dean and run off home to mummy for a hot meal because he couldn’t handle taking his turn to mind the horcrux that everyone had been feeling horrid about, not just him. He had just left that nasty job to Harry and her and sauntered off to comfort.   
And then when he suddenly came back they were supposed to treat him like the reigning champion, the hero that had saved them both! 

Aargh. It was just TOO MUCH.   
That prat! 

She could see herself scowling blackly in the mirror, her eyes narrowed. 

It wasn’t even THAT, although that was a strong indicator of the real underlying problems with Ron.   
It was just his.. his.. RONness.. the way that he didnt even try to understand the perspective of ANYONE else in the world, the way he chewed with his mouth open even though she had asked him politely a thousand times not to, the way he would just ridicule something she considered meaningful right in front of her, often in the middle of a crowded room, and then act all wide eyed and innocent if she got hurt or angry.   
He would constantly draw attention to her faults, compare her unfavourably with practically anybody, he never appreciated anything anyone ever did for him, he was JEALOUS of Harry, of all the ridiculous petty despicable little... 

She tried to calm down. 

This was why she tried not to think of Ron too much these days.

On top of all of his other..myriad ..serious..flaws - he had had the nerve to suggest to her that one day, after he had finished messing around with lavender, or someone else, they would get married. 

He hadn’t even asked – he’d just asserted it.   
She snorted. 

As if he would come back and she would have SO little else to do with her pointless pathetic life that she would be waiting there faithfully to run into his arms and let him lock her in a house and produce dozens of squealing red headed brats and cook and clean and knit ugly sweaters for people.   
..oooh.. she just HATED him. 

She knew she shouldn’t. It was cruel. He probably didnt know better. He couldn’t help being the way he was. Harry wouldn’t like it if she didnt make an effort to.. she stopped. 

Harry wouldn’t like it. 

She sighed.   
She had a sneaking suspicion that Ron did know better and that he was simply a selfish ignorant git. ..and what Harry wouldn’t like hardly mattered now did it.. 

She let her head drop. Harry.. She had loved him so much! He couldn’t really be gone, surely. She could still feel him. There was still a little spot inside her that said Harry on it.   
Surely if he were gone, that little place would disappear too. 

For a while she had thought that she had a crush on Harry. 

It hadn’t lasted very long and had been more confusing than anything else.   
Eventually she had realised that what she felt for Harry was more than just fancying him. She admired him.   
He had been through so much. People had been so cruel to him – and he had remained a thoroughly good person.   
He would have given the shirt off his back to help a complete stranger. 

He was rowdy and loud and full of laughs with everyone but he was actually a very quiet person. He spent a lot of time just walking or sitting by himself and thinking. He had wanted nothing more than to have a normal life.   
She couldn’t help but contrast this to the idea of him being some kind of ‘distorted mirror’ as Voldemort had called him. Tom Riddle had never wanted a normal life.   
No.. he had wanted to conquer..well.. to conquer absolutely everything really. Even death. Especially death. 

Harry and Tom Riddle were so different to one another. Harry hadn’t even really had the chance to have a life. It was so unfair. Because Tom Riddle wanted more, Harry had to pay with his life.

She shook her head. This kind of thinking wasn’t conducive to her welfare in the world she apparently lived in now.

If she was sensible about it, she realised that she was going to end up helping Voldemort to fix his soul, for whatever reason.   
If she didn’t just agree to do it, he’d find some way to make her and was that really necessary?! It was like the Bella girl with Rodolphus. If she tried to deny the Dark Lord, it would just be a world of hurt until she relented.   
He wasn’t just going to turn around and say – oh you don’t want to? Oh.. ok.. well I’ll just send you on your way then. 

She stared blankly at the clothes inside the wardrobe.  
There were silks and satins and velvets and crepes and all the colours of the rainbow.   
They would of course all fit perfectly, she knew somehow. 

Scowling faintly she selected a grey raw silk robe which hung draped over a silver satin sheath dress, It didnt really matter what she wore. Today was not a day for bright colours. 

She closed the wardrobe and tossed the clothing onto her bed, then walked to and opened the door to the bathroom and was only faintly dismayed to find it painfully..ostentatiously..palacial.   
It was a large room, almost half the size of the room outside and housed a square partially raised bath like a small swimming pool, with copious taps and buttons gathered at one corner, a shower large enough to comfortably fit four with glass walls and a shelf in the wall at waist height upon which stood some bottles.   
There was a toilet, bidet and vanity but neither those features nor the generous size were the startling part. 

Laid in seamless black slate walls and white marble floors with golden veins, the bathroom appeared to lack a ceiling altogether. The sky was visible overhead, clouds sailing gently overhead, the effect similar to that in the great hall of Hogwarts.   
In the bathroom however she could not help experiencing a small feeling of discomfort at the openness. It was like a giant might suddenly appear, bending over and peering in while she was in the bath.   
This was a naked place. It shouldn’t be open to the air like this.   
She knew it was just an effect – there was an actual ceiling under the spell and nobody could possibly see in, but the feeling was there nonetheless. She would have to get used to it, she supposed. 

She decided to shower. She would figure out the bath and its many fixtures another time. 

 

Turning in circles under the streaming water, Her mind unwinding in bliss she thought to herself ‘Wonderful, wonderful hot water! Oh how I love thee!’ There was nothing better in the world than a hot shower.

You didnt appreciate these things till you suddenly couldn’t have them anymore. 

Scourgifys had been the easiest option on the run. They left you clean but somehow they didn’t leave you feeling clean. Washing in lakes and streams was even worse, as it was always difficult to modify the temperature of the water to anything other than teeth-clackingly icy.   
An aquamenti spell was easier to manage and she could have something resembling a hot shower that way but it was more like trying to wash yourself with a water pistol. Even if filled with warm water. 

This though, this was heavenly. 

The stream was wide and full, with the perfect pressure. The water had a faint scent of jasmine, just enough to be pleasant.   
On the shelf next to her, back out of the water, she inspected the three bottles. She recognised the spidery tilt of her Professor’s handwriting. They were extremely straightforward.   
One read ‘Soap’; The next ‘Shampoo’; the last ‘against mares nest’. She smirked wryly. 

After she had finished and was wrapping the extraordinarily fluffy towel around herself, tucking it under her arm she experienced the first really painful twang of missing her wand. Her hair was dripping down her back and at this length it was going to take hours to dry without a drying charm.   
She doubted Voldemort would give her her wand back just so that she could dry her hair. Perhaps she could persuade him to give her a hairdryer or perhaps she could ask the elf dilly to help her somehow. 

She padded, dripping slightly to the bed and regarded the clothes she had set aside.   
Underwear?   
Turning, she opened and inspected the wardrobe further and found behind the other door several shelves, one of which held a vast array of matching lingerie sets. It was all rather delicate and extravagant.   
She frowned at them slightly, pulled out a silver and white set and tossed them on the bed, stockings from the next shelf and at the bottom she found grey silk flats and tossed those out too onto the floor next to the bed. 

She turned and was just unwrapping her towel to dress when a polite cough startled her. 

She whirled and made to draw her wand, which was obviously impossible as she was in a towel and had no wand. 

Professor Snape observed her coolly from the chair by the fire, his hands steepled in front of him. Hermione watched as his eyes slid languidly down her body and back up.

She blushed, her hands going to the towel and holding it at the tuck, as if afraid that the weight of his gaze would sent it fluttering to the floor.   
He smirked and rose from the chair with almost preternatural grace, placing his hands behind his back and gliding over to her until he was standing just a fraction too close to her; marginally invading her personal space.   
He was very tall.   
Even in his apparently relaxed state in this place he dressed in severe black frock coats with unreasonable numbers of buttons. His hooded appraisal pinned her. 

“The Dark Lord informs me that you are in need of further healing. A burn, I believe?” His eyes flicked to the tail of the angry red stripe that peeked above the towel and snaked up her shoulder and flicked back to her face, his expression revealing nothing. 

She squirmed slightly. “Yes. But its not so bad. It doesn’t even hurt anymore. If you give me some burn salve I’m sure I’ll live.“ 

Professor Snape appeared to inspect the flaring red puckered skin. 

“It is a magical burn, Miss Granger. The application of simple burn salve alone may not be sufficient to heal it. Some of the more advanced salves are a more likely prospect, however these require incantation during application.   
You will not be able to apply them yourself. Do you happen to know what spell was cast?” 

She shook her head silently. 

“It doesn’t matter if the burn salve doesn’t heal it though. Its just a scar. It isn’t the end of the world.” 

Professor Snape’s eyes glittered down at her like black jewels, leaving no hint of his thoughts.   
“Nonsense, Miss Granger. There is no excuse to carry a scar for the rest of your life when it can be remedied. In addition, the Dark Lord has instructed me to examine you. I would be foolish to disregard his wishes.” 

Professor Snape’s tone was neutral but the implication hung in the air ‘you would be foolish to disregard his wishes’. 

“Fine” she said, uncomfortably. “What do you want me to do?” 

He gestured toward the bed with pale extended fingers. “Perhaps you might..lie down..and we will see what might be done” he tilted his head slightly, inquisitively. 

She realised she was looking into his eyes and averted her gaze quickly. “..Okay” she said, unable to really see a way to avoid it. This was like a fantasy gone sideways.

The idea of professor Snape catching her in a towel and encouraging her to lie down so that he could remove said towel and put his hands on her body was something that, in principle, she could find incredibly arousing.   
The actual reality of professor Snape was overwhelming on the other hand. Like the Dark Lord, but with less of the frightening threatening part and more emphasis on that dark dangerous glittering power they both exuded. 

Although.. she debated.. was Professor Snape threatening? She was intimidated by him, certainly. Felt out of her depth around him. His mind was so quick and hidden that he left her feeling slow and clumsy. 

She moved the clothing to the bottom of the bed neatly and laid herself down on the coverlet. Professor Snape followed her, a step behind and moved to sit on the edge of the bed next to her, looking down on her.   
She was interested to note that this view of him was even more appealing when it wasn’t the Dark Lord’s bed she was reclining upon. 

He leaned down toward her slightly, his hand reaching for the towel... for a moment his eyes appeared heated, even hungry, but then it was gone and he was distant, clinical.   
She held her breath as his fingers brushed her skin, delving under the edge of the towel and lifting it, his other hand reaching to unwrap her fully till she lay open before him. 

She felt her breathing become shallower as he cast his eyes over her. Not merely over her burn, his eyes swept across every inch of her exposed skin, taking her in. He swallowed.   
She shivered suddenly and his eyes darted to her face almost guiltily. 

“You are.. exquisite.. Miss Granger.” He pronounced softly, his voice raw.   
He appeared to collect himself and became once again focused and clinical, inspecting her burn carefully. 

She was stunned. What just happened? Professor Snape found her appealing! Such things weren’t possible.   
She tried not to tremble.   
Forced herself not to say any of the things that wanted to burst from her lips. If she said anything now to ruin this and make him go away before he placed his beautiful hands upon her she didn’t think she would ever forgive herself. 

She gasped. 

Professor Snape was running a pale slender finger down the line of her burn. 

His finger moved down her shoulder and over her breast silkily. The sensation of his cold finger both soothed and stung her flesh.   
It was intensely, unbearably arousing.

Her heart sped. She heard herself whimper faintly, her breath shallow.   
His eyes flicked up at her, blatant heat in them now. “do you like that, Miss Granger?” he enquired coolly, his finger travelling more slowly down the burn as it passed onto the lower curve of her breast.   
Unexpectedly he left the path of the scar to trace the underside of her breast. Her hardening nipples jolted to attention almost painfully and she shuddered. 

“It appears you do.. “ 

He appeared to wage an internal war. His finger was wandering feather light up the outer curve of her breast and she had the impression that he was struggling with restraint. 

He withdrew his finger and drew back with the mien of a man winning against temptation unhappily. 

“Do you know, Miss Granger, how the Dark Lord corrected Lestrange for his ‘inappropriate’ behaviour toward your person?” Professor Snape’s eyes were empty again and betrayed nothing but a polite interest.   
Hermione was still burning and didn’t want to know. She suspected it was something horrid but she didn’t want to hear it. She wanted professor Snape to touch her again. She had wanted him for so long! 

“He was really rather irate. Even for Him. If he didn’t need the man quite so much, I suspect he would have killed him.” 

“Professor..” Hermione whispered pleadingly. 

Professor Snape did not look at her and continued in an emotionless voice.   
“For the sake of your complete edification into the nature of ..cause and effect.. The Dark Lord held Lestrange under the cruciatus on and off for several hours, quite unmoved by his desperate begging and pleading. ...And I assure you that Rodolphus is not a man moved easily to begging.” 

“He continued to curse him long after he had become silent and unresponsive. Even after he started to bleed from the nose, eyes and ears, the Dark Lord did not relent. Only when another matter required his attention did he stop. But he did not simply leave him to bleed on the floor of the great hall... No... he cast an exsanguination hex and drained him nearly to the point of death, then conjured a silver crate and tossed him in, sealing it before he left.“ 

Hermione blinked, stunned. ‘Rodolphus!’ He had only kissed her. Was it so bad? Lord Voldemort had even specifically given him permission to mess with her before he sent them off!

“I cannot begin to imagine how painful that must have been..” Professor Snapes voice sounded slightly dreamy. “because even though he had not responded at all to the cruciatus for at least an hour by that point - he was that far gone Miss Granger – Nevertheless, when I left the great hall I could hear him again screaming uncontrollably within that box.” 

Hermione had wrapped her arms around herself and was crying softly. “I didn’t know” she managed. “When he said he’d disciplined him i thought he meant he’d cruciated him once or twice, like he did me. I mean.. it was horrible but i thought he would be fine – that he’d probably be used to it by now.” 

“No one is ever used to the cruciatus curse, Miss Granger. Especially not when it is wielded by the Dark Lord. And from his comments to me this morning he held it on you for a matter of seconds only.” 

“Oh god..” she moaned. “is Rodolphus still in the box? What will happen to him? Will he be ok? He didn’t deserve it. I’m so sorry!! I won’t talk to him again. I didn’t know..” 

“Hush.” Professor Snape commanded. “I don’t think anyone knew. Least of all Lestrange, or I assume he would not be in his current position. The Dark Lord can be quite mercurial at times. He did not make it immediately apparent to anyone that you were not simply another prisoner here.   
However it is apparent now that you are his. You will not be touched.” 

He looked down at her guiltily. 

“If i had any sense I would obliviate you and leave. I can instruct the Dark Lord in which incantation to employ when he applies the salve..” 

Hermione jerked as though slapped. 

“What do you mean, I’m his?! What exactly does that mean, Professor.” Terror rose on her face like the sun rising. “Instruct the Dark Lord in how to apply the salve?! Oh god.. no please! Professor, don’t leave me. D-Don’t..don’t.. let him.. I don’t want..”   
She collapsed into sobbing, turning and curling into a fetal position around him.   
“What does that mean?.. that can’t be right.. Why?!” 

Professor Snape did not touch her or offer her a shoulder to cry on. His face seemed faintly sorrowful and wistful.   
“I wish I could say, Miss Granger. I do not know, at present. The world has changed and I cannot help you. As much as your suffering moves me, I have no desire to join Rodolphus.”   
He stood and stepped away from the bed, turning to look at her once more as she held herself. 

He tilted his head to study her face. “You should wash your face and dress. He will be irritated to find you this way.” He flicked his wand and she felt a drying charm on her hair. 

“Thank you Professor” she whispered. 

“You are most welcome Miss Granger” he returned quietly before turning and leaving silently.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and reviews make me happy

When Lord Voldemort entered, hours later, after the sun had set and the curtains been drawn, it was to find Hermione curled up in the silvery robes in a chair by the fire, immersed in a thick book on her lap.

She looked up as he closed the door, taking in his deep green robes with silvery embroidery at the hems.   
He wore an expression of distracted irritation and she styled her face into something mimicking polite welcome. 

“Shall I kneel for you, my Lord?” 

The Dark Lord appeared slightly taken aback but was visibly pleased. He paused and appeared to consider before he countered “Yes, Hermione, show your respect.” 

She laid her tome upon the table and rose from the chair as gracefully as she could manage, which was, she knew, not very, and walked to the Dark Lord. Two metres from his robed form she stopped and lowered herself to drop lightly to her knees and waited, her arms dangling at her sides, looking down at the ground before his feet.   
He stepped closer and placed a slender finger beneath her chin, raising her head slowly until she gazed up at him. 

He was smirking faintly and now obviously pleased. She felt him paging through her memories again, but it was brief, cursory this time, perhaps merely to confirm what Professor Snape probably told him.   
She tried to shift away from those thoughts, feeling instinctively that her natural reactions there could be unproductive at this point.   
She concentrated hard and thought instead about the book she had just been reading about a particular lost branch of Ancient runes stemming from a culture some believed to have been one of the peoples of the Iost continent of Mu. 

“You are learning, my dear” the Dark Lord’s voice was tinged with amusement and it was clear he was not talking about Mu in any way.   
He cupped her face with his smooth cool hand, stroking her cheek apparently affectionately and she managed even to suppress the shudder her body had wanted to express.   
The Dark Lord chuckled. “Oh how wonderful! I see that you have finally begun to understand what is expected of you, Hermione. Am I to understand that you have decided you will offer me your assistance in whatever I might require of you?”

She responded tonelessly. “Yes my Lord.” 

The Dark Lord leaned closer, his voice soft and dark now “It is not sufficient to merely go through the motions, Hermione... to show me what you think I want to see. You do understand that, don’t you?” 

“Although you have been trying to persuade yourself to the contrary, you do have a choice. You could accept the pain you would face - accept that it would be beyond your control to prevent harm coming to yourself or others.   
I promise you - if you were truly determined, there is nothing I could do to force you to give me what I want.   
You could choose the ..as you seem to believe it.. “higher” path.”

“I hope that you do not, of course. I abhor the waste of gifted minds. But I want you to understand exactly what you are doing. I want you to admit to yourself that you choose to serve me” 

Hermione’s eyes flickered momentarily “..I...” Her eyebrows drew together.   
“..why does it matter?” she whispered miserably, feeling sick again in the pit of her stomach, shifting her eyes to the side, away from the serpentine face hanging above her. 

The Dark Lord ran his fingers down her cheek drawing her gaze back to him. His lips twisted wryly. The light flickered off his vermillion eyes. 

He laughed lowly. “Oh mudblood, you are so close to giving everything to me, can you feel it? You desperately want me to force you to obey me with threats and violence, to prevent you from having to face the truth.” 

He leaned down closer to her, slowly, and she felt his magic uncurl around her, faintly at first but growing slowly as if he were gradually increasing the volume on a sound she hadn’t been aware of.   
At this level it wasn’t like a searing sun, but a warm buttery wave of tingling energy flowing through her, twining and merging with her own magic deliciously. She shivered in pleasure. 

He reached out and slowly ran a pale finger lightly down the side of her throat and the touch went straight to her core.   
She tipped her head back helplessly, her eyes closing and lips falling open in unwilling bliss.   
She felt the Dark Lord bending over her face, his breath ghosting faintly across her lips as his palm brushed up her cheek, galvanising her in pleasure.   
His cool fingers continued their path upward, delving into her hair and she moaned softly, unable to stop the feeling now flooding her. His touch was like something electric, like a kind of static shock that didn’t stop but tingled and seemingly filled her with colours, with warm shivery clinging lines of magnetic force.   
She felt like she was falling backwards, spinning. His lips were a mere breath above her own and she wanted nothing in the world more than for him to kiss her, touch her, take her.

‘Oh circe.. anything you want – anything - just don’t stop!’ This was better than anything she had ever felt. 

In that moment he pulled his magic back suddenly and she gasped in the unwelcome sense of loss, like a chill shadow after the sun moves behind a cloud. Awareness returned abruptly and she felt Lord Voldemorts lip’s lightly brushing her own. 

She jerked in panic and tried to pull away, but his hand clenched in her hair painfully, holding her in place.   
The Dark Lord kissed her lightly, chastely. A purely symbolic gesture, she had no doubt. He released her at once, tossing her down to fall back against her heels aghast, one hand on her lips as he smiled down at her cruelly. 

“..Was it as good for you as it was for me?” 

She flinched and cringed, ashamed beyond measure, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor.   
‘What is wrong with me?! What just happened?!’ she thought, horrified. 

“I don’t believe your memory is affected, Hermione” the Dark Lord sounded amused “you know exactly what you most wanted when I touched you. You want it still, though you try to tell yourself that you are appalled” 

She turned her eyes up to him forlorn, confusion written across her features plainly. 

Lord Voldemort smiled calculatingly, “I believe you have put me in the mood to be social after all. Let us visit one or two of your former friends” 

She had the heavy ominous feeling that this wouldn’t be a kindness on the Dark Lord’s part. She didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to see anyone, didn’t want anyone to see her now..after.. However it was clear that it wasn’t an optional excursion. The Dark Lord had mentioned earlier that he might take her to them and she was quite sure that it wouldn’t have mattered how she might have greeted him when he returned, she would invariably have ended up making a visit somewhere with Lord Voldemort tonight. 

“yes my Lord. Thank You for your generosity, my Lord” she responded hollowly. 

 

Hermione looked with trepidation at the black cell door that Lord Voldemort had brought them both to.   
She suspected strongly that she knew who would be behind it. She found she was actually afraid to see Ron. She could already anticipate the things he would say, could hear the harshness in his voice, the betrayal and anger. She didnt want to face him. Didnt want to face herself viewed through his eyes.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to brace herself for the painful experience. 

“It is not Ronald Weasely, Hermione” the Dark Lord reassured her. “Very nearly, but not quite. This Weasley is marginally more useful. Sly. But just as insipid as her brother, in her own way.” 

‘Ginny’ her mind supplied with a groan. This would probably be almost as unpleasant as meeting Ron would have been. Would be, she corrected, she would probably be dragged to him next.   
“Not tonight” the Dark Lord sniffed. “I can only stand so much of this family in one evening. Little Ginevra will tax my patience sufficiently for tonight I imagine.” He placed his palm upon the door

 

“Hermione?” Ginny’s voice was weak but incredulous. “you’re alive? I thought you were dead. I saw you fall! What are you doing here?! Oh Merlin, i’m so glad you’re ok!” 

Hermione was too shocked to even respond. Ginny was chained to manacles affixed to the back wall of the cell, she had been hanging limply when the door had first swung open but had immediately lifted her head and tried to pull herself into a standing position. 

And she was naked. 

Completely starkers. 

It was somehow infinitely more naked than the woman with Rodolphus had been simply for the fact that Hermione had only ever seen Ginny clothed while Morel seemed to just be a naturally naked person in her mind. 

Hermione observed, appalled at herself for noticing such a thing, that the hair on her sex was just as red as that on her head. 

She blushed stupidly.   
“Ginny...” 

Voldemort swept into the room after Hermione slamming the door on his way. “Ah ginevra, chatty tonight I hope? Good. Miss Granger here has been stuck up in her room all day reading with no one to talk to and she is in need of a good natter. ...Well.. I say no one.. I learned shortly before visiting you Hermione, that Severus has been quite talkative this afternoon. Positively running at the mouth in fact. Highly unusual for him. You do seem to bring out the worst in my servants. I’ll have to watch you or you’ll seduce all the death eaters away from me.” He sneered nastily.

“Hermione??!” Ginny’s voice was distraught and a note of pleading mingled with suspicion.   
“What is going on? Why are you dressed like that? Voldemort visits your room? Why do you have a room? say it isn’t true!! Please tell me it’s all a lie just to mess with my head!! It can’t be true, you would never.. “ 

“It’s not true!” Hermione blurted quickly. “You should know better. He is screwing with both of our heads for amusement. Some death eater grabbed me at the battle and I woke up in a cell here.   
I don’t know when I woke up. Yesterday I think. Some time ago. A lot of things have happened and some of the time I was injured and unconscious. It’s hard to keep track of time. I didn’t betray Harry or the order!! It wasn’t me! I wouldn’t, Ginny! How can you think that?!!” 

Hermione urged her with her eyes to believe her. Ginny looked like she desperately wanted to. An expression of fear warred with relief. 

“Oh Hermione, I’m disappointed in you” Voldemort chided with a smirk. “Bending the truth like that. Just because you weren’t actually present in Harry Potter’s final moments, does not mean you haven’t betrayed him and, of course, young Ginevra here, oh.. and all your other little order friends, not to mention yourself and everything you thought you believed in.”   
“You’ve hardly been an unwilling guest here so far. You kissed the hem of my robes, quite without prompting, my dear; practically purred when I scratched you behind the ears as you knelt at my feet yesterday.” 

The pleasure on the Dark Lords face was hideous. 

“You slept in my bed last night, you recall and I’m sure you can’t have forgotten how just before we came to visit dear Ginevra you begged me to take you six ways from Sunday.” 

“STOP IT!” Hermione shouted turning away from them both. “That’s not.. it’s not...” 

She turned back to Ginny whose face was stricken as if she had been slapped. “It’s not..like that. He’s twisting everything.   
I didn’t do anything!   
All i tried to do was survive yesterday.   
I didnt want to do it but i didnt know what was going on and he was so... and there were all these people watching me and he just kept making me do things and he put me on his bed - I had no choice - I couldn’t move at the time from the after-effects of the cruciatus curse and nothing at all happened. He knocked me out.   
...And before I came here he did something to me. It was like the imperius a bit and he kissed me.. but not really kissed me - just a peck and I think he just did it so he could throw it at you now. Ginny, please believe me its” 

“SHUT UP!!” Ginny screamed.   
“I don’t believe you, you whore! I always knew Harry shouldn’t trust you. I knew you were a two faced bitch from the start. You fucking DISGUST me. If I could reach you, I’d tear your fucking throat out! I don’t know if you killed Harry – I wouldn’t put it past you, you poisonous slag, but I believe that you DID betray everyone to this snake faced bastard.” 

“Ginny.. I didn’t” Hermione sobbed. “YES. You fucking did, Hermione. You knelt down in front of him.   
You kissed his stinking robes! Don’t you get it? Are you thick?!” 

Hermione dropped bonelessly to the floor, staring up at Ginny through her tears “I..I know that. I know it. I just didn’t want to think about it Ginny. What have I done?! What am I going to do? Oh Ginny!! What do I do now?!” 

“You shouldn’t let her upset you, Hermione” the Dark Lord offered in mock comforting tones. “Ginevra is somewhat hypocritical, in case you hadn’t noticed. She is conveniently forgetting that she herself..eagerly...knelt for me years ago. Quite the early bloomer, weren’t you Ginevra. You had a hot little mouth on you for one so young and you were always begging for more, ‘I’d do anything for you Tom! ‘oh yes, there! Oh god, more’, cant you stay a little longer? Why do you always have to leave?!’ “   
“You were such a demanding little chit” 

Ginny looked like thunder. “Shut your fucking mouth you white faced freak! You possessed me with your revolting book. I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot broomstick!” 

Hermione watched her face and found she suddenly wasn’t sure whether Ginny was telling the truth. Had she been possessed the whole time back then?   
How much of it had been willing. 

Had she known?! No. She couldn’t have known. 

“Perhaps..” Lord Voldemort appeared pensive, wrapping one arm around himself and resting his elbow upon it to stroke his chin with his hand, his fingers brushing his thin lips as they had in the ballroom when she had first seen him. 

He shifted his gaze to Hermione and smirked faintly, then drew his wand and raised it above his head, pointing it down toward himself, muttering an incantation. Sweeping his wand down his body it was as if a heat shimmer followed, transfiguring his features. The effect crawled out of his sleeves and altered his hands in the same way. 

Hermione gaped and noted from the corner of her eye that Ginny was similarly affected. 

The man.. she almost wanted to say the boy, couldn’t have been more than his early twenties.   
He was breath-stealingly handsome, his black wavy hair glossy and perfectly styled, his face was... perfect.. nothing else could describe it. It was a sculptor’s dream of angelic symmetry.   
He was pale, not as unnaturally white as he had been a minute earlier, and certainly not at all pallid, rather his smooth light complexion only served to highlight his dark hair and unusually beautiful features. Fine eloquent brows, dark expressive eyes, a nose straight and chiselled as a roman centurion.  
His perfect cupids bow lips were curved into a knowing smirk as he bathed in the admiring expressions of the two girls before him. 

“..Tom” she heard Ginny murmur forlorn. 

Hermione tried to reconcile this ..person.. with the image in her mind of Lord Voldemort and it was not computing. “Circe.. they must have been falling all over you in school” she muttered. 

“Oh they were, Hermione. Do not doubt it. Girls, boys, teachers, parents. The face I wear now is just one more reluctant sacrifice I have made in this war.” 

His voice seemed deeper; fuller. More resonant. It too was much more attractive. 

The Dark Lord sauntered over to her, extending a hand to help her to her feet. She took it and he lifted her, drawing her up against his body as he did. His face was only a few inches from her own. She realised she was still staring. 

“On the other hand” the Dark Lord continued conversationally, “My other form does have some advantages. It evokes fear effortlessly, for one.”   
“The men I command are not gentle fellows. In this body I had to be ten times as ruthless and cruel to maintain their devotion... ...and of course I waste less time on washing and styling my hair and shaving now”   
The adonis before her smirked but it didn't seem cruel - no on this face, it was cute.

She sputtered internally at her own favourable response to a superficial change in the appearance of someone she knew to be an evil mass murderer. She could suddenly understand how helpless Ginny would have been against this when she was a young girl – she had been barely more than a child just trying to grow up, just beginning to notice boys.   
The full force of this creature’s flattery would be devastating. 

She looked over at Ginny, who had tears rolling down her face and had pressed herself up against the wall so hard it looked painful. Lord Voldemort followed her gaze and his perfect face twisted in sympathy and regret.   
He let Hermione go and hurried toward Ginny. 

“Oh Gin, my darling, I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry, I didnt mean to hurt you.”   
His face was so earnestly contrite and pained. 

He waved his hand and Ginny’s bindings snapped open releasing her. 

“Tom?” she whispered, her eyes wide. 

Lord Voldemort swept her up and enfolded her in his arms tenderly, pressing her head to his chest and kissing her forehead.

“Its ok now my love, my life. Its all alright now. I’m sorry I had to trick you but they would have hurt you if they had known how much you mean to me. But now you’re here and we can be together” 

Hermione bristled. She had felt a stab of something like jealousy when The Dark Lord had left her to go and embrace Ginny but after hearing that last heartfelt gush, it was obvious the Dark Lord was simply being cruel again for his own entertainment. 

“Oh Tom.. why did you use me like that?!” Ginny was sobbing. “I loved you so much. I would have done anything for you. Why did you try to kill me? I would have found you someone else to use if you had asked me to and then we could have been together forever!” 

Voldemort’s face was strained and Hermione saw actual tears rolling down his cheeks. Sickening. Why couldn’t Ginny see how ridiculous it was?!.. 

“I was afraid if I warned you, you would tell them and then they would destroy the diary. “ He tilted Ginnys face up to look at him   
“It wouldn’t have killed you, my love, I would have brought you back and then I would have taken you away from there with me, but we were interrupted before the spell was finished and I lost you.. for so long.” 

Hermione felt a strange mix of emotions but jealousy and insecurity were starting to move ahead of suspicion and disapproval and come to the fore in a way she was definitely not comfortable with. She discovered that she wanted this to be a lie. 

“Kiss me, my beloved” the Dark Lord was saying and she watched, pierced now by unfamiliar barbs of anger, as Ginny hungrily kissed the beautiful boy who she reminded herself was still the same Lord Voldemort she walked in here with. Their mouths wound passionately against each other, tongues tousling.   
Ginny had reached up to put her arms around Voldemort’s neck and was playing with his hair. 

Hermione heard her moan and found she wanted to stamp over there and tear her off him.   
What was wrong with her?! Feeling possessive of the Dark Lord now? Had she hit her head? He was an evil monster!   
She certainly didn't want him anywhere near her!

“Tell me you forgive me, Gin! – tell me you still want me!” the Dark Lord was imploring. 

“I do! I do Tom! I’ll always love you! Please don’t leave me again!” 

“Tell me you’d touch me with a ten foot broom, Ginevra” the Dark Lord asked coldly, not releasing her and the sneer was actually audible in his voice. 

Ginny stiffened. 

“Tom?” 

“Oh Gin”, Lord Voldemort chastised smugly “Dont you get it? Are you thick?!” 

Ginny immediately started struggling and fighting against him while he laughed cruelly, enjoying her distress. 

Hermione looked away and sighed. She had thought that something like that would happen. Lord Voldemort was simply not that nice. Ever. Hadn’t Ginny ever seen the real him at all back then? Had he acted the whole time? Had she just not wanted to see?   
Voldemort, or even Tom Riddle, wasn’t the kind of gushing hearts and flowers type that you eloped with. He was more the kind who shagged you up against a statue in the corridor, leaving you shuddering and twitching in a puddle of lust and body fluids on the floor while he sauntered off to bed. 

The Dark Lord had thrown Ginny to the ground before him where she now buried her head in her hands and sobbed like the world was ending. Hermione wondered incongruently if she had cried like this over Harry. Poor Harry... 

The Dark Lords attention flashed to her instantaneously and he raised his wand “Do not try me, Hermione!”   
She gulped and shook her head, looking once again at Ginny. 

The beautiful young man frowned down at the weeping naked girl sprawled on the floor before him. 

“Ginevra. Don’t you think you should apologise to your friend for your outburst earlier. You, of all people, should have shown a little more sympathy toward her.”

Ginny only cried harder at this. 

“Ginny.. I’m sorry” Hermione whispered. 

“Shut up” Ginny bawled petulantly, her words slightly muffled through her hands. 

The Dark Lord sighed long sufferingly   
“Hermione.. What am I to do with you?! It seems you’re now so eager to obey me, you’re even following my instructions for others. Ginevra has mistreated you, you have nothing to apologise to her for. Please reign in your hyperactive guilt at every little thing happening around you for one minute, if you can.” 

“Why her?” Ginny sobbed up at him now. “What does that boring fugly mudblood slag have that I can’t give you?”   
She wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands, looking for all things like a small child suddenly.   
“why don’t you want me” she wailed. 

The Dark Lord narrowed his eyes as he looked down at her, his face twisting into a snarl. 

“Since you asked so nicely Gin, my sweet, I’ll explain to you exactly how overwhelmingly inferior you are to Miss Granger, currently standing politely over there and suffering silently in her sympathy for you.” 

“Hermione is first of all more interesting than yourself, she has engaged in political and cultural activities such as those with her misguided house elf movement, her interactions with magical creatures in the forbidden forest, she is constantly involved in some school organization or other, in tutoring less capable students such as yourself, patrolling the corridors or in supporting her peers, not that those things are of interest to me, but while remaining well informed and conversant on political, scientific and cultural developments in both the wizarding and muggle worlds she also manages to keep constantly abreast of the more hidden happenings in her immediate environment, the motives and preoccupations of her teachers, of order members and now, even of my death eaters.”   
“She is an interesting conversationalist for that reason. Unlike yourself, Ginevra. There is more to the world than boys, dresses and quiddich you know.”

“Secondly, as I don’t expect you to dispute, Hermione could out-think you on your best day even if she had a concussion and were covered in angry Cornish pixies.”

Hermione couldn’t help snickering at that image and Voldemort flicked his gaze toward her briefly, smirking, before returning his attention to the pale red haired girl. 

“Her mind SO surpasses your own limited intellectual capabilities that it beggers my capacity to describe exactly how far apart you truly are in a way that you would understand. You are an ape next to her, Ginevra.” 

The girl slumped slightly, wrapping her arms more tightly around herself. Tears sliding silently down her face. 

“But let us move to areas you can better appreciate, since I know that the mind has never been something you have been in danger of overvaluing. - Hermione is physically superior to yourself. Her body is more shapely, her breasts more pert, her nipples a more pleasing shade, her hips are slender and yet womanly, her legs longer and more elegant, her skin is tanned and unblemished, with the exception of a few scars which I can not really hold against her, since I know quite well that my death eaters gave them to her.” 

“Are you beginning to get the picture yet, Ginevra?” 

“Hermione’s face is more appealing than your own, her lips beg to be kissed; her eyes dance with constantly changing expressions. Her hair is soft and wild and shining and not at all ginger.” 

“She. Is. More. Beautiful. Than. You! - And as for your appellation ‘slag’, there is only one person in this room at present who would be able to collect unicorn hair, Ginevra.” 

Hermione blushed and frowned at him about to splutter in embarrassed insult. He waved at her dismissively. 

“How many boys have you given yourself to, Ginny? Harry would have been horrified to know.   
Did he believe he was your first?   
So many of your classmates have tasted your rather mediocre wares. Did you care for any of them?   
...I know that you didn’t.

So there are two more things Hermione could theoretically give me that you cannot - her innocence and her devotion.” 

Ginevra looked like she was in shock. She stared with gaping sightless eyes at the handsome boy above her, her hands shaking. 

“And then we come to the most important part, at least in my personal opinion: magical ability.   
I’ll make it short and sweet. Hermione could destroy you utterly without breaking a sweat, you pitiable little tart.   
The fact that she hasn’t thus far is perhaps a testament to her boundless patience, which, suffice it to say, FAR exceeds my own.   
She is not only extremely broadly studied, her knowledge base delving even into the dark arts, but in terms of raw power she is formidable. She was far stronger than poor..late..Mr Potter. Perhaps he should have sent her to fight me instead while he waited in the castle.” 

Ginny jerked as if kicked. 

“And there is one other thing Ginevra..” 

There was a pause and then suddenly Ginny yelped and crawled backward desperately scrabbling to get away.   
When she reached the wall she curled herself into a tight ball and whimpered. 

Hermione understood then because she could feel it now from where she was standing.. the Dark Lords magic uncurling and licking at her own, teasing at her. She licked her lips, fighting the urge to go to him.   
The force suddenly became ten times stronger and she fell to her knees blindly. 

She could hear Ginny wailing in apparent pain, begging the Dark Lord to make it stop. 

Hermione bathed in the glorious energy washing over her; breathed it in hungrily. 

It became stronger still as the Dark Lord approached her and she whined in the back of her throat at the pleasure that was almost pain, so powerfully was it affecting her. The dark waves receded slightly as the Dark Lord scaled his magic back to a more enjoyable level, and faintly Hermione registered that Ginny had stopped screaming now. 

Circe he was beautiful, she thought, helplessly tossed in the delicious nimbus of his magical aura. He was like a dark wild thing, like a force of nature.. except he was in control. He was always in control.. of everything and everyone.   
It was breathtaking.

The Dark Lord was standing directly over her, not touching her, merely looking down upon her appraisingly, his eyes sliding over her, marking how strongly he was affecting her by his will alone. 

“Do you see, Ginevra?” he tossed at the redhead curled against the wall, watching them both. “Do you see how even her magic calls to mine, welcomes me, desires to blend with my own. Quite against her will, she is mine.” 

As if to illustrate this the Dark Lords magic swelled and Hermione moaned and shuddered, her fingers clenching and unclenching.

“Please..” she whispered.. 

“Yes, Hermione?” Lord Voldemort asked in a low voice “What is it you want?” 

She wrinkled her forehead briefly. What did she want.. she didnt know. More.. more of this feeling.. something was missing it was ..almost.. sooo good. 

And then it was better.   
She felt hands pulling her to her feet and it seemed wherever they touched her, her body sang and pulsed. Burning lips brushed hers and she responded blindly pulling the body closer, her hands coming up and clinging.   
She struggled to focus her eyes. The gorgeous black haired god holding her was the Dark Lord. She needed to focus. Ohh.. but she just wanted him... she had wanted him even when he was pale and serpentlike.. and now he was so beautiful. 

The Dark Lord suddenly crushed his lips against hers and she parted her own lips eagerly for his questing tongue.   
It was like she was on fire. Colours.. it was like she was melting into his hard warm body, his warm slippery muscle in her mouth sliding over and tangling with her own.   
And then she felt the magic receding gently, like the tide going out. Carefully.. oh so carefully he reeled his magic back in. Hermione continued to kiss him passionately.   
The Dark Lord was walking her backward and then she felt the wall behind her. She was winding her hips against him, an ache in her core that she had never felt quite like this before. Her fingers plucking at him, tightening, pulling.   
He was pressing her into the stone with the plane of his hard body; pulling away from her mouth briefly to trail rough bruising kisses along her jaw, down her throat, making her groan in heated hunger; returning to punish her mouth some more with burning devouring kisses. 

She could feel a line of hardness at his groin against her and it only made her hotter.   
She wanted to see him.. see his body and then she felt his wand hand withdraw from sliding over her sides and her breast and there was a faint flicker at the edge of her awareness.   
She registered that something had changed.. his kisses felt different. Something was missing.   
She blinked muzzily and found herself looking into red glittering eyes with black vertical slits. She gulped.

His nose.. that was what had been missing.. 

Now though.. it was peculiar.. she could almost see how aside from those two features and the absence of all hair and the..ahem.. extreme bleaching.. his facial structure was the same.. more mature perhaps.. he was older in this form. But..otherwise.. it was as if she could almost squint her eyes and see the resemblance to that beautiful boy with the stormy hair and deep blue eyes.   
His eyes had been pretty. It was a shame. 

Lord Voldemort slowly..cautiously, as if she were a skittish animal, moved forward again and kissed her gently.   
Tilting his head slightly as if he still had a nose..nudging her mouth lightly with his own.   
Unsure of why, she parted her lips hesitantly and allowed him to kiss her, his tongue teasing her own and retreating, until she found herself following, kissing him back, closing her eyes and giving herself over to the pleasure his kisses and stroking hands were evoking. 

“Oh my god” the small shocked and disgusted voice of Ginny broke through the wonderful haze Hermione floated in. 

She had forgotten Ginny was even there. And now she had to face what she had done.. it was painted across the red haired girl’s face.   
Hermione felt like her chest was caving in with guilt and shame. 

The Dark Lord read the change in her and his expression darkened. he snarled, narrowing his eyes and whirled, rounding on the girl. “CRUCIO!!” He roared.   
Ginny’s screams were impossibly high and loud, they were mindless in their raw painful urgent desperation.   
Hermione thought she must suffocate from the lack of breath it took to produce the unnatural ongoing shrieking.   
The girls eyes were rolled back in her head and she was shaking as if in a epileptic fit.

The screams cut off abruptly but Hermione could see that the Dark Lord had not stopped cruciating her, he had simply silenced her and continued.   
He was visibly seething, his hand raised and splayed, pointing at the writhing rolling silent girl. 

The sound of her limbs slapping against the floor and walls could still be heard. 

Hermione moved nervously off the wall and gingerly approached the Dark Lord. His gaze flicked briefly to her and then back to Ginny, his eyes narrowing vindictively.   
She hesitated, afraid, and then put out her hand to touch his extended arm, looking up at him, finally tugging weakly against his robe, her eyes imploring him to stop.   
Astoundingly, he did, turning to her immediately and advancing on her threateningly. She backed up swiftly, cringing and averting her eyes. 

“Sorry.. sorry..” she flustered, her back meeting the wall behind unexpectedly. 

“Stop apologising” the Dark Lord hissed angrily. 

“Sorry” she said, meaning for apologising and then flinched, her face somewhere between terrified and sheepish   
“um.. i didnt mean to do that actually. Apologise again. And I’m probably going to do it again any second now without realising it..” Hermione babbled, flustered, her eyes flicking to the Dark Lord and away again repeatedly, wanting desperately not to anger him any further. 

He studied her with a dark mien, his eyes glittering for a long uncomfortable minute before, finally, the dark cloud appeared to break and he snorted softly as if amused against his will, running an exasperated hand down his face. 

“Do you know, Hermione, exactly how many people in this world would dare to actually tug at the Dark Lord’s arm while he held someone under the cruciatus?   
Merlin.. do you know how many people would dare to tug at my arm when I am sitting at state in a good mood? I can think of only a handful who might try it if they believed I were somehow in danger of catching fire without immediate intervention.“ 

“I’m s-“ 

“Don't say it again, you infernal child” 

Lord Voldemort appeared to take a deep calming breath before turning and regarding the crumpled witch crying silently in agony on the floor. His eyes hardened again.

Hermione whispered at him breathlessly, her heart beating out of her chest “Please, my Lord.. Please can’t you just leave her? Its enough. Please don’t hurt her any more!”

He glanced with irritation at her. “It is not enough. I am still angry.” 

Hermione threw herself to her knees desperately and crawled forward to reach with her fingertips toward the Dark Lords hem. “Then punish me, my Lord. I beg you. I will take her place.” 

The Dark Lord appeared to consider this possibility. He tilted his head appreciatively, enjoying seeing her prostrate and begging. He kicked his robe aside and extended his dragonhide boot toward her. “Show me..” he taunted. 

Hermione gulped. She kept her head down. She couldn’t face catching Ginny’s face even out of the corner of her eye. 

“I’m waiting, Hermione” The Dark Lord pressed, testily. 

Hating herself she crept forward and pressed a kiss to the toe of the Dark Lord’s boot, shuffling backward again quickly. 

“Mmm... you please me yet again, girl” Lord Voldemort murmured. “Very well. I will leave Ginevra alone for tonight. Perhaps, if you are inventive and determined enough, you may distract me from punishing her indefinitely. I’m sure she will not be thankful to you in the slightest, but I daresay it won’t stop you from trying to save her worthless hide anyway. Come to me, i wish to apparate us now.” 

Hermione hesitated and remained on the floor beginning to tremble. “My Lord..” 

“Oh what is it now, Hermione?! You are trying my patience most severely now” 

“I know, my Lord.. i’m sorr..-um i wish to ask if there is anything I might do for a boon” 

The Dark Lord inhaled disapprovingly, apprehension clouding his face. “What is it you want, Hermione? I will decide whether you may have it and if so, what it will cost you”

Hermione’s trembling progressed to a fully fledged terrified shake.   
“Please take Ginny out of the cells, my Lord. Give her a room and something to wear. She is only sixteen and despite perhaps not being the nicest person at times, she doesn’t deserve this.”   
Hermione paused and swallowed. “If you do this, I will do whatever you want” 

The Dark Lord looked dubious, raising one hairless brow and considering the level of commitment evinced. Finally he spoke.   
“if I do this Hermione, you will take my mark and swear your loyalty to me before all my death eaters at a time of my choosing.” 

She froze, shocked. She had expected some degrading order of some kind, she had even considered the Dark Lord might require of her some sexual favour but.. this.. was much more serious. Much more costly than she had anticipated. 

She heard slapping and looked over to see Ginny fighting through her cramping agony, smacking the floor with her hand trying to get her attention, her mouth moving silently and her head shaking frantically. “NO!! NO!!” She seemed to be screaming. 

The Dark Lord noticed too and quickly stunned her. Ginny collapsed, her eyes closed, although her random twitching continued. 

“Decide, Miss Granger” he commanded imperiously. “this offer is only good for the next two minutes” 

She flinched, thinking hard about whether she was prepared to go this far for Ginny Weasley.   
A dark part inside her was suddenly speaking up and protesting this sacrifice for someone who had been so horrible to her and was asserting that she deserved what she got – the silly cow hadn’t even wanted her help, she should refuse the Dark Lord’s offer.   
Most of her tried to ignore the cruel voice.

Suddenly an even darker voice put its two cents in. ‘you know you’re just going to end up taking the mark eventually anyway when the Dark Lord decides he wants you to. At least this way you can get something out of it.   
You might need Ginny for something at some point in here. You never know.’ 

She snorted. Thank you oh so much, inner slytherin, she thought.   
But she couldn’t deny that it..she.. had a point, as much as the idea might twist her insides right now. 

The voice spoke up again, out of the depths: ‘you know.. the Dark Lord seems to really want you to take the mark, and probably thinks you’ll refuse now, you could probably get more out of this offer if you tried’

“My Lord..” she spoke hesitantly “If i agree will you promise that Ginny will not be harmed - that she won’t be tortured or raped?” 

The Dark Lord appeared to consider this from all angles.   
“I may be willing to agree to that Miss Granger..” he said slowly. 

“And I’ll want an unbreakable vow” she responded immediately. 

“No!” the Dark Lord hissed, furious. “I will not risk my life for this offal, neither will I allow the risk of yours. I determine whether you die, Hermione, not you. You belong to me.” 

“A wand oath then” she countered. 

The Dark Lord’s expression was surly. “...acceptable. But we will clarify the terms further I believe. Ginevra will not by my intention or with my knowledge have physical violence employed upon her against her own wishes, nor will she be obligated to engage in any sexual act against her own wishes.   
She will still be able to freely participate in acts with others of a sexual or violent nature if she chooses to do so. Furthermore, I will not be responsible for accidental harm she may bring upon herself or which may be enacted upon her without my knowledge, although I will endeavour to prevent such incidents from occurring.” 

“She will be given a basic room with a bed and some rudimentary form of clothing sufficient to hide her nakedness. I will not be outfitting her for a ball. She will remain a prisoner, albeit a significantly more comfortable one.” 

Hermione thought about this. It seemed more than..reasonable.. She was sure she was missing some angle somehow that made it possible for the Dark Lord to do horrible things to her anyway but she couldn’t see it. 

“And for this I will agree to take the dark mark, at a time of your choosing, my Lord.” 

Lord Voldemort seemed pleased. Now she was certain she had missed something that would bite her in the ass when she learned what it was, but there was nothing else she could think of to do to avoid a flaw she couldn’t see. 

“Then let us seal it”, Voldemort suggested quickly. 

“My wand?” Hermione reminded him. “I don’t have one right now.” 

“Of course you do” he countered “you are merely not trusted to use it responsibly. Should I think you might resist the temptation to misbehave I will return it to you, Hermione.” 

He reached into an impossible inside pocket of his beautifully tailored fitted robes and extracted her wand. 

“You had it on you the entire time?” she muttered, disgusted, reaching for it impatiently with extended arm. 

The Dark Lord raised it slightly out of her reach, teasing her with it a few times. Finally she got to her feet and leaped for it, ripping it from his hand, pulling it to her body and cradling it, stroking it with her fingers, so happy to feel it again.   
She had almost reconciled herself to not having it and hadn’t realised how thin and pale she’d felt without it. Now it was like all her magic was flowing smoothly through her, sharpened by this slender focal point. 

The Dark Lord watched her caressing her wand with amusement. “Such a pity you wasted your ..boon on poor unappreciative Ginevra. You might have secured your wand back instead. Would you like to change your wish? If you beg nicely..i may consider it.” 

She scowled at him. She really did want her wand back and Ginny really was an ungrateful little snot but she still couldn’t toss her to the wolves. 

“As you like, Hermione, Far be it from me to try to persuade you to correct errors that benefit me. Raise your wand” 

The Dark Lord touched his own to the tip of hers and they made the vow. As she felt the magic of the oath pulse and be reabsorbed, once again the ominous feeling struck her that something about this was going to bite her later on. 

After the oath Lord Voldemort held his hand out for her wand.   
Momentarily she considered making a fuss about giving it back but decided it wouldn’t help and she would probably just have a harder time getting the Dark Lord to give it to her again. 

Extremely reluctantly she passed it back and watched longingly as he replaced it in his inside pocket. 

“If you cant think of any other irritating reason to delay, Hermione” the Dark Lord extended his hand for her to step close for side along apparition. She quickly took his arm and they popped out of the cell.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and reviews are greatly appreciated. I have a lot of chapters waiting for all my stories except the long game, and I'll give priority to updating the stories that receive the most comments.

They reappeared, to her shock outside the castle at the edge of a forest clearing next to the slope of a mountainside.   
It was dark and moonless but light came from a distant round bonfire pit which illuminated the shadowy silhouettes of men sitting in groups, apparently talking and rousing together.   
At the edges of the clearing intermittently torches flickered between the trees, set into posts driven into the ground.

She breathed in deeply and the sharp smell of firs and pines was heavenly. “Oh!”she sighed. 

“My Lord.. Welcome.” a low gravelly and unpleasant male voice suddenly ground out from the shadows on the far side of the Dark Lord.   
Hermione peeked around his body, startled, peering into the darkness in the direction the voice had come from..   
The Dark Lord darted a reproving glance down at her and she straightened and looked down chastened. 

“Fenrir.” The Dark Lord acknowledged, “Show yourself. You’re frightening the children” 

The voice laughed a low nasty laugh and Hermione bristled. She hadn’t been..frightened.. just startled. And why refer to her as a child when she reacted like any normal person would. It was unreasonable and demeaning to ridicule her over things that humanity had had a basic alertness and aversion to, practically since the dawn of time. Dead things. Wild animals. Things that go bump in the night. It was not something restricted to childhood. 

Lord Voldemort snorted in humour at her side. “I do so enjoy these little internal rants of yours, Hermione. They remind me incessantly how very young and innocent you truly are.” 

Fenrir Greyback had stepped into the path of the light from the bonfire and she could now see his hulking brutish form grinning toothily at her. His matted yellowish hair grew not just from high on his brow but also down the sides of his face merging indistinguishably with the short messy beard covering the lower half of his chin.   
He wore a thick dark coat over his skin and was shirtless, thickly thatched in hair across all of his visible body, but wore soft raw leather pants in a brown hue on his lower half, thankfully.

Now that he was closer she found that she could..uh.. smell.. the man. He emitted a strange raw sour tang that she found unpleasant and unsettling. She wanted to step just a little closer to the Dark Lord but after his comment to her she restrained herself from that ‘childishness’. 

“We have come to view your newest acquisition” Lord Voldemort stated obliquely. 

“Miss Granger has just had a rather.. unsatisfactory.. reunion with one of her former friends and I thought perhaps she might fare better with someone a little more circumspect about the nature of dominance and social hierarchy.”   
He smirked faintly. 

Fenrir nodded. “Shall I fetch him for you, my Lord?” Hermione stifled a manic grin at the werewolf’s words. Go fetch, boy! He even had gold-ish hair like a retriever. 

“Yes yes, Fenrir, bring him here to us” the Dark Lord responded neutrally while his body next to her seemed to twitch slightly. 

The large man ambled off back into the dark. 

The Dark Lord turned to her and she could see him smothering a laugh now, silently but noticeably. “I see I will have to ensure that you are not around during any important meetings with my Death Eaters; particularly under better light conditions. You have a way of disturbing my composure at times with your observations.”   
He reached out and stroked her hair absently as if giving a reassuring pat to a dog.. which she found somewhat disturbing in this particular context. She was clearly not the best candidate for dog in these woods.   
Lord Voldemort sniggered again quietly 

She could hear something coming through the woods now faintly. There was a low growl and an answering whine. Two shadows moving through the trees, one considerably larger than the other. 

Remus Lupin stepped out into the light on the far side of the Dark Lord, looking harrowed and afraid, his eye darting between Fenrir looming behind him and Lord Voldemort before him.   
He dropped to his knees but instead of bowing he fell back onto his haunches, tilting his head back, exposing his throat and raising one arm as if he were about to receive a blow. She wasn’t certain but she thought she could hear a faint whimper. 

Fenrir growled threateningly and Remus choked out. “My Lord. How may I serve you?”

His voice was coloured in shades of terror and she wondered what he thought he was likely to be asked to do. 

At that moment he suddenly noticed that there was a third person in the near dark with them and his eye fell on her.   
He gasped, surprised and she couldn’t be sure in the light but he might have reddened. His face was tormented, shifting beyond his control through shock, relief and shame. 

“Remus!” she whispered. “You’re ok!”   
She wanted to run to him and embrace him. 

“No.” The Dark Lord half turned and uttered immediately, denying her wish. 

She started to shake. She desperately wanted to talk to Remus but the two threatening figures standing over each of them seemed to smother her voice when it wanted to come out. Remus appeared to be suffering from the same problem.   
His mouth opened and he seemed to want to speak but his voice cracked immediately and he fell silent again, closing his mouth, his eyes staring longingly at her, seemingly trying to communicate what his voice wouldn’t.   
He whined faintly, his eyes flickering back to the Dark Lord and up at Fenrir at his side. 

“Oh Merlin!” The Dark Lord groused finally in irritation. “Fenrir, leave us. I will inform you when we leave so that you may mark how long your charge takes to return to camp.” 

Fenrir snarled faintly at this dismissal in annoyance and rounded on Lupin.   
“You behave now, you hear? If you make me drag you back, you will regret it, my boy!”   
His form loomed threateningly as he leaned down over Remus, his voice a growl. 

Remus fell back even further, turning his head away and tilting it even more pronouncedly whining “Yes liege” and shaking.   
Fenrir stalked off and faded back into the dark forest but Remus continued to shake as he turned his head back, his eyes fixed on the ground, darting up every so often to sneak a look at the Dark Lord, seeming to try to gauge his expression.

“Remus!!” Hermione’s voice was thick with emotion “I’m so happy you’re alive! Are you ok? Please calm down. It’s alright now.” 

Lord Voldemort turned to her, his serpertine face the perfect picture of polite surprise, one smooth brow raised. “Is it?!” 

“My Lord!” she immediately responded. “I apologise. I had thought you brought me here to talk with professor Lupin. It was a premature assumption on my part. Forgive my foolishness. Are we here in order for me to watch the torture of another friend?”   
She kept her voice neutral and soft, her eyes lowered. 

The effect of her words on Lupin was galvanic. He shook like a leaf and appeared to contract toward the centre, bracing his body and closing his eyes in fear. 

Lord Voldemort sighed in annoyance. “Oh now you are just being obnoxious Miss Granger. I have been far too lenient with you it seems. You are already forgetting the respect I have attempted to instil in you.”   
“...Go to him if you must. I brought you here to receive some reassurance and continuity. Go. Be reassured! You have ten minutes and then we are leaving this place. I have better things to do than pander to your delicate sensibilities all night.” 

Hermione barely reacted to the reproof and fairly flew across the intervening space to throw her arms around Remus and hug him. He put his arms around her hesitatingly, unsure how to respond.   
“Hermione..” he whispered into her ear. “I’m so glad to see your face. I don’t..understand though..how is it that you’re here. Why did the Dark Lord bring you? Are you... have you..” his voice trailed off uneasily and he recovered “What has happened since the battle?” 

She pressed her forehead into his neck, clinging to him and felt warm tears of relief. Remus had been a good friend over the last two years since he had been their professor of DADA. Even after he had left Hogwarts to reside in Grimauld place with Sirius, when they visited he was always there for them, a cup of hot chocolate and a biscuit at the ready, and always tried to refrain from judging. He was a wonderful man. She had been so happy for him when he had started to grow closer to Tonks, the auror and fellow order member. 

She sniffed back her tears, in the process noticing that he smelled different now. Not of aftershave and chocolate and wet wool but of mud and damp and trees and very slightly of male.

A stinging zap jolted her away from Remus and he yelped too. 

The Dark Lord scowled   
“Be reassured without hanging all over the mutt” 

She swallowed. “Yes my lord” 

“I don’t really know what to say, Remus” she whispered. “I’m not sure what’s going on. I woke up in a cell in the dungeon and Rodolphus took me to the Dark Lord in the middle of a ball.”   
“Harry’s gone he said.”   
“I haven’t seen anyone but Ginny and she hates me now” 

Remus nodded. Yes. I saw the..body..at the battle. Hermione opened her mouth to tell him that it wasn’t Harry but thought better of it and said instead “Remus.. I knelt for him. I kissed his robe. I thought he would kill me!! Rodolphus said he would if I didnt do it. I should have refused and let him kill me but i was so scared and now everything’s very strange. He... well...” 

she stopped. Remus had looked down when she had said that she had knelt and he looked very sad now. 

“Don’t think badly of yourself because you don’t want to die, Hermione. Or even if you want to avoid pain. There’s no way to win now. The best we can hope for is to survive.”   
“You know I was a spy for the order before the battle, I’m sure?   
I was on the edges of one of the other wolf packs that serve the Dark Lord. I had to do a lot of things that many people in the order might have despised me for if they had known. ..People like Ginny, well – Ginny’s just a child I suppose, but people who haven’t had to make difficult decisions to do things they considered wrong, in order to achieve something they thought right, they like to separate things into black and white. They don’t understand that sometimes there is no right, there’s just wrong and more wrong.”   
“I know about the horcruxes Hermione. Don’t listen to what Ginny or any of the others might say. You are a good person. You are just in a bad place now. It is not wrong of you to try to live. Pride is a luxury.”

“When it comes to a choice between your pride and your skin, choose your skin Hermione. Please!” 

Hermione felt a sense of overpowering relief but then.. it was overshadowed once again.   
“I have to take his mark, Remus! I made an oath. He agreed not to hurt Ginny anymore if I did it. And..there’s more..”

She gulped.. she wanted to tell him about the Dark Lord kissing her and giving her a room in his chambers. It was important.. She needed to talk to someone. But she didnt want to see the look in his eyes. She couldn’t quite face losing him now when he had understood her. 

Remus had flinched at her words. He rolled back the sleeve of his robe, showing her the dark mark writhing over the skin of his forearm. It seemed to almost glow blackly even in the dark. 

She shivered. 

“It doesn’t matter, Hermione. It’s just a symbol. Whether the leash around your neck is seen or unseen, it changes little you know. At least you could help Ginny!” 

She paused, wanting again to tell him about the kiss.. “Remus.. “ 

“There’s more?” he asked faintly? 

“Yes..”   
She hesitated again, the words burning on her tongue. ‘He said i’m his.. professor Snape said it too!! He kissed me! Properly! A full on snog!.. and..’ her mind bit off the unnecessary observation that she had liked it.’ 

“Tonks fell in the battle.” She recovered somewhat lamely. 

Remus face pinched slightly. “oh”.. 

“I’m so sorry Remus!!” Hermione whispered quickly. “I thought you should know.” 

“Oh.. Yes.. I-I’m glad you told me. I had worried.. I dreamed she might have escaped..you know – being a metamorphmagus.. I thought she might survive..”   
his voice faded and she could see him struggling to pull himself together.   
They sat silently for a while. Hermione’s heart ached. and then she asked.. “Are you ok, remus? Do they treat you badly here?” 

His gaze darted to her quickly. “Hermione! Listen to me! You mustn’t try to help me! I forbid you to ask the Dark Lord for anything for me. There are some things that must be accepted. I could not live wondering what you might have sacrificed for my comfort. Please!” His eyes were fierce and imploring.   
“I am just glad to see you alive and well! You were always..so.. bright and shining. It would have been terrible to lose you too.” His face tightened again in pain and he struggled with his emotions.

“Enough! Come now, Hermione” The Dark Lord called curtly. 

She flinched slightly. “yes my lord.” Her voice was dull and leaden.   
She wanted to hug Remus goodbye..her arms ached to comfort him in his pain, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be good for his health if she did so. 

He saw it in her eyes. “It’s ok, Hermione. I know! I will be alright. Perhaps we will meet again sometime.. go now.” 

She scuffed sadly over to the Dark Lord and took the arm that he held out imperiously. 

“Goodbye Remus” she called sadly just before they popped away. 

The image remained in her mind of the way he had sat, sprawled in the dirt, looking defeated and suddenly older than he had when he had first entered the clearing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are always appreciated and will receive a response

They apparated back into her bedroom and Hermione swayed slightly, recovering. She hated the feeling of side-along apparition. It always seemed like someone had tied a string around one’s internal organs and attached it to a speeding car.

“Thank you, my Lord” she said quickly. “-For taking me to see my friends. I appreciate your generosity” 

Lord Voldemort waved dismissively. He remained where he stood however and she felt his silent appraisal.   
She shifted uneasily.   
“My Lord?” ...She wrung her hands. 

“Hermione..” he said, snapping out of his apparent reverie and gliding toward her. “I am going to heal your burn now. Severus has informed me which incantation he recommends.” 

She yelped and stepped backward a step, her eyes widening in realization. 

“It’s.. it’s fine my lord. It doesn’t need to be healed. Please!!” she mumbled, flustered, still backing away. 

“I did not ask if you would like me to heal it, girl – you will remember your place!” Disapproval radiated off him. 

She shivered and the chill sensation was anything but pleasant, her eyes pled with his.   
Lord Voldemort advanced on her, his hand reaching out and snagging her robe, halting her backward movement and jerking her toward him slightly.   
She whimpered and struggled. 

His eyes flashed in rage momentarily and then he paused and narrowed his eyes at her consideringly.   
His voice, when it came was hollow and eerie. 

“Is it this face that frightens you so, Hermione? This..creature..of a man,..this..monster?” 

She gulped, terrified now. There was nothing she could possibly say to that. His face did remind her strongly of the constant possibility of violence, the constant emphasised threat of harm.   
The red glowing eyes.. the flatness.. it was all something like childrens impressions of monsters.   
Yes, she could almost imagine what he had looked like as a man.. there were faint similarities..but this face was Lord Voldemort.   
Harry’s nemesis. The Dark Lord who terrorized the entire wizarding world.

He spoke again, releasing her robe and turning away, pacing toward the fire.. “I wish that I could always wear the transfiguration I showed you with Ginevra.”   
“How you looked at me did not escape my notice... would that I could find that desire in your eyes every time I gaze upon you. ...It was.. intensely satisfying to observe the effect my true face has upon you, Hermione.” 

His eyes narrowed in frustration.   
“Unfortunately it costs a considerable amount of energy to maintain it. The..venom..I must consume to keep this body alive repels magical effects on my person. I can hold the transformation for but a very short time.   
If I attempt to remain in that form for longer than an hour it exhausts me severely and I require time to recover.” 

He appeared to hang his head. “When I first emerged from the cauldron in the graveyard with Harry, I barely noticed my outward appearance, I was so jubilant to be tangible..to have a body of my own once again. I revelled in my triumph over death once more.” 

“After I returned to the base my faithful servants had prepared for me however..and saw.. what I had become.. I tried everything..I had Severus try everything.. to restore my former appearance. When all efforts failed I worked to increase my stamina to hold the transfiguration, at first I could only hold it mere seconds!”   
“But it was impossible.. I reached a limit of my strength and could not go any further. I cannot change this face, Hermione. It is the product of reconstitution of a partial soul.” The Dark Lord stood, staring into the fire.   
She plucked up her Gryffindor courage and approached him gingerly. His face was a rictus. 

“Its a catch 22, you see. Yes I know the muggle term. It was a fairly mediocre work I thought. But all the same, an apt description. If I had had a unified soul, I would have passed on to the after-world and no spell would have been possible.” 

“Attempting the ritual with a half soul, I would probably have been almost completely restored. But I couldn’t risk having only one insurance policy, as it turned out - wisely, since Dumbledore destroyed my horcrux ring shortly after my rebirth and would have left me vulnerable.   
The tiny sliver of my essence that remained after making seven horcruxes, however, was only sufficient to construct ...this...body. 

He snorted, but it sounded almost like a sob. “This..is apparently.. what my soul looks like.”   
He spun and she saw how haunted his eyes were. 

He tore his wand out and cast the transfiguration quickly. The pale unnatural form blurred foggily and again she saw that angelic face looking back at her imploringly, his dark blue eyes begged silently.   
“Tou have to help me, Hermione!” his voice was like satin and caramel. “If you find a way to heal me, I can remain in this this form all the time! You don’t have to face that.. that..”   
his voice cracked, his eyes dropping and he turned his head away. 

She stepped forward, lifting her hand to brush aside his hair.   
He turned back to look at her, startled. 

“Its true. You are beautiful like this” she hesitated. “But changing your face will not change who you are. It is who you are that is terrifying.” 

His expression twisted momentarily, anger flashing across his perfect features.   
“You don’t know that for certain, Hermione!” he railed against her “Perhaps I am the way I am partly because I have virtually no soul. I was never..nice.. in my younger years before I made my horcruxes, but I believe I was less monstrous than I am now.” 

Hermione had wondered about this herself. As with her choosing to think the best of Ron despite her suspicions to the contrary, she rather suspected that the Dark Lord had likely always been a cruel and nasty boy; a regular little Damien; and that he was only approaching her in this manner because he knew she always wished to think the best of others and tried to help people where she could. 

The Dark Lord groaned. “How unfortunate it is that the very person I value for her intellect is also unfortunately intelligent enough to see through my acting” he smirked wryly, shaking his head at himself.

Hermione scowled at him. She had not been certain. She had wanted to believe in the pretty lie for a moment. 

He smiled lazily at her. “Well...not to worry. You’ll help me even so, I think. And now that I’ve gone to the trouble of putting on my pretty face for you, darling, we might as well get to fixing that burn while the illusion lasts” He stepped forward and took her arm.   
She found herself simply letting him lead her to the bed. What was the point in continuing to fight him over it? And he had a point. She would prefer he touched her like this than in his usual form. 

He stopped and moved behind her, looking down at her over her shoulder as his arms reached around her body, stroking the surface of her silken robe for a moment before unfastening it and sliding it down her shoulders, sweeping it off and tossing it aside.   
Her arms prickled in goosebumps above the silver satin sheath dress. 

She felt him lower his head and his warm lips kissed the top of her right shoulder, his hands smoothing down her arms.   
He nuzzled into the curve of her neck and seemed to inhale her. 

As she turned her face toward him he lifted his own to brush against her cheek to cheek. 

She could feel his fingertips skating feather light over the slippery satin curves of her back down to her hips and forward to her thighs and found herself breathing faster. His mouth moved against her ear and the whisper of his breath there sent a thrilling shiver through her.   
His fingers began to pick at the satin, gripping it and beginning to raise it, the cool liquidlike slickness of it moving up her legs until he held the dress bunched in his hands, his fingertips stroking over her naked thighs. 

She laid her hands upon his, tilting her head back, offering her throat to his lips and teeth.   
He obliged eagerly, his lips moving over her, tongue teasing her skin..teeth nipping her. She sighed in pleasure as his hands moved slowly up her body, his fingers brushing against the waistband of her satin panties, over her abdomen.

She turned her head again and he caught her lips, kissing her and probing lightly with his tongue. When she met it with her own she thought she heard his breath catch. He kissed her hard now, his hands releasing the edge of her gown and moving underneath it, over her heated skin, up, over her brassiere. He was breathing harder and his tongue fought to dominate hers. 

He pulled back abruptly and gripped the satin dress, ripping it upwards and over her head and turning her ungently toward him, leaning in toward her and kissing her again roughly, his arms tightly around her, gripping her, sliding across her skin. He growled low, releasing her lips and trailing hot violent kisses and bites down her neck.   
She groaned in pleasure at the feeling, barely aware as he unhooked her bra, grasping it immediately in the centre and tearing it down her arms, his hands immediately flying back to contain her and knead her breast.   
It hurt, he was not tender at all but violent, hungry, overpowering.   
She gave herself over to his hands and mouth; -gave herself over to his body. 

When he laid her on the bed, her burn was the furthest thing on her mind. His tongue was in her mouth and she sucked on it gently, releasing it, unconsciously displaying her body’s demands. She felt his smile through the kiss. 

He moved his hand and his clothing melted away. Suddenly there was burning skin pressed against her. She had never felt anything so exciting that didn’t involve a spell.   
She ran her hands over him..his body was warm..and harder than her own, firm muscle and bone. 

She pushed him back and he blinked in surprise for a second, bracing himself on his arms, bemused, but she just wanted to see him.. gods.. his skin.. his chest.. her eyes wandered all over him. He was..truly.. utterly perfect.   
It was painful to look at him. His body should be a sculpture in a museum..   
but her gaze sliding lower still over him corrected that assessment. No greek or roman sculpture was so endowed.   
Her mind reeled in panic for a few seconds. There was no way that fit inside a person comfortably. Even Rodolphus was smaller and the girl he had fucked had seemed to be yelping in pain at some points.   
It was impossible to imagine that the Dark Lord would be a gentle lover.

She looked up into his eyes nervously and his warm, indulgent expression somehow calmed her rising impulse to panic.   
His lips..oh.. Circe, if there was a creator they must have laughed themselves silly when they created this dazzling perfect demigod of a physical specimen, gave him a mind more brilliant than any other .. and then left out a heart. It was like a cosmic joke.   
Lord Voldemort laughed low above her, allowing her to take her time admiring his form.   
Merlin..his laugh was so sexy. He could have taken over the world without spilling a drop of blood if he’d stayed like this, surely. 

“Not quite..” the caramel voice responded “but that is very flattering, my dear” 

He leaned back down, kissing her gently now, bracing himself on one arm while the other smoothed slowly down her body, lingering briefly on her breast to thumb her hardened aching nipple.   
She arched slightly gasping into his mouth and he released her lips, peppering her jaw and her throat with tiny light butterfly kisses moving down until she felt his breath ghost over the nipple he had been touching. 

She responded mindlessly, pressing her breast up to a mouth that was not there as he moved back to tease her some more, dotting her breasts with little quick flicks of his tongue, avoiding the places she most wanted his mouth.   
She whined in pleasure and frustration.   
His mouth suddenly descended on her nipple and suckled lightly and her head fell back, her back arching, hands pressed against the mattress. 

“Ohhhhh” she breathed in surprise. How that felt.. oh.. it was hot..and.. it seemed to tug a string connected directly to her clitoris somehow. 

His mouth moved, brushing the skin as he offered the same treatment to her other nipple..his tongue circling it.   
When she felt his smooth sharp teeth nip lightly.. so lightly on her hardened peak she bucked, her hips grinding against him.   
He smirked, her nipple still between his lips. 

Releasing it with a hard suck, he began to kiss his way down her body. She felt his hands on her again... teasing her breasts, stroking their sensitive undersides and brushing, occasionally lightly pinching her nipples.. sometimes grasping and groping her entire breast.   
At the same time his tongue seemed to be sliding hot and slippery down her abdomen, now and then flicking against her in a way that both tickled and ignited her.

She was moaning softly now, half formed words urging him on.. “Mmmm.. ohh.. yes.. thats so.. ohhh” she bit her lip, rolling her head back against the bed.. her hand moved up and brushed along the top of his head..then lightly delved through his hair. 

It was such a strange feeling.. where his head was. His kisses and licks were so good.. everything he was doing was good. She had the vague supposition where all of this was leading but she didn’t want him to stop making her feel like this.. Nobody was here.. nobody would know.   
She wondered how many people knew how sexy the Dark Lord was... 

She felt fingertips stroking her hips and then.. oh god was that his tongue running up the front of her satin thong panties? Her hips rose of their own accord into the glorious feeling and she heard him chuckle in a low voice.   
His fingers delved beneath the waistband of the thong and he was pulling it down her thighs.. rising up to his knees and back for her to raise her legs. 

She did so immediately.   
He reached and slid the skimpy material up over her calves and off, flinging it to the side.   
She bent her legs at the knee, placing them back down on the bed. 

Opening her eyes now she looked up at him, kneeling before her, his eyes heated. His hands reached out and landed on her knees, fingertips stroking lightly. He raised a sculpted brow and smirked wickedly and she nervously parted her thighs; slowly; letting her feet slip down either side of him. 

His gaze fell to the place now exposed, open before him. She blushed at the raw lust that consumed his angelic face. 

“So..beautiful.. and innocent, my Hermione..” his eyes flicked to her face.. “Am I the first man to see you?” his voice was possessive, hungry.   
“yes” she whispered, closing her eyes. 

A moment later she startled at the unexpected sensation of his lips on her inner thigh, near her right knee. It caused something in her to tighten excitingly.   
His mouth moved up her thighs slowly, teasing her with kisses and little circles of his tongue, alternating between her legs unpredictably, stroking her with his fingertips now and then, on her thigh, on her abdomen, her calf.

She found herself starting to pant..her hips rocking needily. She wanted.. 

“Please!” she whispered. 

He had reached the top of her thigh and was licking at the seam of her leg. If he didn’t touch her pussy soon she thought she might very well die.. And then without warning he licked her with the flat of his tongue from vagina to clit, curling his tongue sharply at the top of her pussy.. 

She jerked as if electrified, crying out loudly. 

She barely breathed and he had buried his face in her, rolling it from side to side and flicking his tongue, he bathed her.  
She couldn’t help the moans and whimpers that she was emitting or the unconscious electrified gyrations of her hips against his face.   
He moved down, running his tongue in circles around her tight little virgin hole causing her to feel a strange sensation she had never experienced before. She felt.. empty and needy.. like something needed to be in there.   
He thrust his tongue into her and she bucked hard. 

“Oh God..” she breathed. 

His mouth moved away, licking and sucking her as he moved up to flicker delicately around her clit.   
She nearly screamed, biting her lip and humming as her hips rolled against his mouth.   
She felt his fingertip brush carefully and gently over her opening. He eased it carefully inside her, probing cautiously and now when he flickered over her clit and sucked it gently, she did scream.   
Tightening around his finger she came harder than she had ever come before by her own hand. He suckled more roughly and flicked with his finger inside her and her climax which had been waning, suddenly flared incandescently and she thought she might literally black out. 

Somewhere, from far off she felt him suddenly tense and heard him groan softly. 

Then he was climbing up her body and she felt him press a damp, scented, kiss to her lips. She responded weakly.   
He didn’t continue but instead tossed himself unsteadily onto the bed beside her, lying on his back. the skin of his arm pressed against hers.

She felt him shiver strangely and felt a faint wash of magic made her open her eyes in time to see his form shimmer and become once again pale and serpentine. He was breathing unevenly, his eyes closed and forehead slightly creased in apparent discomfort. Was he in pain?! 

“It is nothing, my dear. I’ve felt worse” he murmured. His voice sounded breathless and strained. 

Some small corner inside of her chest tightened in concern. He had made her feel so SO good.. and because of it he was now in pain. She wondered how long he had been, did it only hurt like this when he changed back or-.. 

“Its different when I am transformed, yes” he responded faintly, lacklustre. “Its more like..” his brow tensed again “..like the feeling of tensing a muscle and holding it for a long period of time. .. at least, that is the closest non magical equivalent I can think of.” 

She thought about this. She had visited a gym in her holidays at home with her parents and her instructor sometimes made them hold a squat position for almost a minute. It was a horrible kind of discomfort. 

“Have you ever had to cast a patronus at a dementor?” he asked randomly. 

“Yes.. once” she responded. 

“Not unlike that sensation but much stronger. Perhaps if you were casting at a large number of the creatures so that your patronus had to be both brighter and continuous” 

She considered it. Casting a patronus for any length of time was quite costly in terms of magic. After a day practicing with the DA she had found herself falling into bed exhausted. She suddenly had a greater appreciation for his decision to remain in his transfigured form purely because she liked it.   
“What does it feel like now?” she asked softly. 

He sighed. “It doesn’t matter, Hermione.”   
He raised the arm next to her to lay it over his eyes, his breathing was beginning to return to normal, but she wasn’t sure whether he wasn’t just forcing it to appear that way. She felt bizarrely protective of him all of a sudden. It didn’t matter that it was Lord Voldemort. It was a man who had just caused himself considerable pain and discomfort only to make her feel good.   
She curled onto her side and squirmed forward to lie against him, resting her head against the bicep of his raised arm.

He lifted the arm slightly and cracked one red glittery eye to peer down at her suspiciously. 

“I wish I could ease your pain somehow” she whispered into his chest, laying her hand gingerly on his abdomen and stroking as lightly as possible. “Does it hurt when i touch you?”   
She was afraid he would say yes. 

“No” he murmured. “sssoothing” he hissed, his voice slipping into almost parseltongue register. 

She slipped her arm over him and let her hand rest on his chest, feeling his skin against her palm. His body seemed almost entirely unchanged. He was marble white, but the shape..hairlessness..his definition and the firmness of his gorgeous body was identical.   
She brushed her hand down over his nipple and thought she heard him hiss faintly. “feelsss good.’ He breathed.   
His voice sounded weak.   
“You ssshhould ssstop, Hermione.. I haven’t the ssstrength to change again ssso ssoon.” 

In response she danced her fingertips across his chest feather light, tickling him with her nails, trailing them down his abdomen.   
Her fingers wandered to his side. His skin was so soft there.. silky.. 

“If you don’t ssstop..” he moaned faintly. 

“I know” she whispered. She could see his cock getting hard again. She raised herself up on her knees, leaning over him and carefully pressed a kiss to his chest.   
He lifted his arm from his eyes, letting it fall limply on the bed stretched out to the side. His eyes sparked at her with interest, watching her as she began slowly to kiss and stroke his body tenderly. 

She hesitated and then darted her tongue out to taste him. He tasted clean, very slightly salty but pleasant. 

He breathed in sharply, his eyes piercing her.   
She continued her ministrations, interspersing kisses with licks and then little nibbles and nips.   
He seemed to respond most strongly to her teeth, hissing silibantly with half hooded eyes. Once or twice she thought he said something in parseltongue.. It was a very strange thing to hear him make those sounds while she licked him.. like worshipping some kind of mythical creature. A pale serpent god. She heard him laughing softly and looked up at him from where her mouth had been moving across his abdomen toward his hip. 

His red eyes glittered.

“A mythical ssserpent god.. I like it...” he smirked. 

She turned her head back down to his skin and nipped and sucked at his hipbone. He groaned and hissed again, winding his pelvis erotically against her.   
His cock was, from this vantage point very nearly staring her in the face and she wondered what it would taste like.   
She hadn’t done this before so she probably wouldn’t be any good, but she knew, in theory, exactly how it was done.

She lowered herself still further in the bed and moved, nudging his legs gently apart so that she could kneel between them. She thought he would like her kneeling before him in this manner. 

His hooded eyes widened slightly, glowing eagerly. 

She leaned down, lowering her face to his cock and inhaled delicately.. he smelled clean and only faintly of a strange scent that something in her identified as ‘man’.   
She supposed it might have been stronger if he had pubic hair on this body. 

Her pointy little tongue darted out and tasted him. His cock bobbed in response and she jumped in surprise.   
“It moves!” she hushed wonderingly. 

He laughed darkly. “Yesss Hermione. Thatsss not all it doess. Pet it for a while and it will sspit in your eye” 

She shot him a mock scowl. 

“Caresss me” he hissed softly. 

Hermione leaned down daringly now and ran the tip of her tongue from the base of his cock to the head, hearing the Dark Lord groan in a most delightful way.   
She licked her lips and pressed a kiss to his head, flicking with her tongue and parting her lips to take the whole head of his cock into her mouth and suckle it gently.   
He hissed something that sounded peculiarly like the parseltongue equivalent of an expletive, his head falling to the side and pelvis rocking up at her slightly.

Pleased with this reaction she sucked harder, letting more and more of his thick cock slide into her mouth until it touched the back of her throat uncomfortably.   
She hadn’t even managed to suck half of it, she estimated that about a third of his shaft was in her mouth now.   
How was she supposed to.. She moved experimentally up and down a little, sucking hard and he groaned louder.   
‘How do I suck the rest of it?’ she mused. She knew that there was something referred to as deep-throating where you could somehow open your throat and take the penis a lot further in. It hadn’t sounded like it would be particularly comfortable but she knew in principle how it was done.   
She heard the Dark Lord gasp softly at her thoughts and he raised his head again to watch her interestedly. 

She sucked up his length, flicking her tongue against his underside on the way up and swirling it around his head at the top and this time when she sucked him in she pushed down with her head till he was pressed hard against the back of her throat making her gag a little. She fought the sensation.   
He moaned hungrily, his cock twitching and she wondered if he enjoyed her discomfort   
She let her saliva drool down his shaft and used her hand to spread it around the rest of his cock. Then she relaxed her throat as much as possible, pressing down hard as she did and felt something give.. 

“Ssalazar!.. Hermione!” the Dark Lord gasped, bucking up against her throat and forcing himself even deeper. 

She struggled not to gag. ‘still, still. Don’t move. It will pass’. She pulled back gently, swallowing again and she could feel how his cock scraped against something hard deep in her throat as she sucked her hardest all the way to the tip.   
This time she placed her fist on the top of his cock and her lips at the opening of her fist and moved downward smoothly, sucking hard, flicking with her tongue and twisting with her little hand, swallowing hard when he hit the back of her throat and pushing him as deep as she could before swallowing and reversing the process on the way up. 

He moaned loudly and bucked his hips rhythmically against her in time with her movements now and she caught out of the corner of his eye his hand twitch and rise up toward her before he reluctantly laid it back down on the bed.

She reached with her left hand and caught it, pulling it toward her head.   
He sighed something indecipherable and wound his fingers in her hair guiding her head up and down. 

She used her left hand now to gently cup his balls. He flexed his fingers slightly in her hair and groaned softly.   
She tried stroking them in time with her movements and his hand pushed at her head more insistently. ‘doing something right maybe’ she thought. 

An idea occurred to her. She knew most men didn’t like to feel teeth, all the literature had been quite adamant about that but he had reacted so strongly to her teeth on the rest of his body.. so on the way up on the next stroke she allowed her teeth to slide up his shaft very carefully.   
His reaction was galvanic. He hissed loudly in parseltongue and his hand tightened in her hair pushing her down hard and fucking into her mouth at the same time. He pulled her up and pushed her down again, increasing in speed.   
She had less control this way and just tried to suck hard and keep her throat as wide as she could. 

She wanted to nip him to see what he would do but he was fucking her mouth fast now and she didn’t want to hurt him. “Yessss” he hissed. “ do it!”   
She tried to time it for the upward movement and brought her teeth together hard, his movement dragging them roughly up his length.   
He responded by pushing her down harder than ever and holding her there, his head thrown back, roaring. 

She felt his cock pulse in her throat and shifted her hand on his balls to press on the skin between his balls and ass.   
His pelvis bucked off the bed as his spine arched unnaturally and his voice rose a register. 

She could feel rhythmic pulses of fluid flooding her throat and swallowed urgently to prevent herself from choking.   
He was still clamping her head down immovably, his hips bucking weakly against her now and she felt a moment of panic. She was suffocating! 

Suddenly he dropped bonelessly to the bed, his hand falling away from her head to curl limply on the bed.   
She pulled up quickly in order to gasp a deep breath through her nose but kept his cock in her mouth.

His cock was still pumping slowly into the back of her mouth and she could feel a strange sensation in her fingertips around the base like rhythmic gushing fluid moving beneath the skin.   
When it stopped, she sucked up to the head and looked up expecting to meet his eyes. What she found almost stopped her heart.   
The Dark Lord lay seemingly unconscious. His skin was actually ashen..

She scrambled up his body frantically, turning his head and feeling for a pulse. Yes. But it was faint and erratic. 

‘oh my god. I sucked Lord Voldemort to death’ she thought hysterically. 

Fuck. If Harry had known this was possible we would have had to engage in a very different kind of training with him.” Ugh.. she felt sickened at the thought. It wasn’t funny. He could be dying! 

She shook his shoulder ineffectually. “My Lord!!.. Please wake up. Tell me what to do for you! Lord Voldemort. Tom!! Please!!” 

The Dark Lord’s eyes cracked open a slit and fell back closed. “ssssev” he hissed almost inaudibly. 

“Professor Snape!” she said, panicked. “Yes.. how do I get him. I don’t know where he is. I don’t know where I am. It must be very good to be able to call anyone you want through a dark mark. If I had one now you could call him.” 

“The elf!! The elf can get him” she shouted and jumped up from the bed ripping the silver dress from the floor. Tossing it over herself and yelling at the top of her lungs 

“DILLY!!!!!” 

The elf popped into the room immediately looking wary. “Yes missy? 

“The Dark Lord is hurt and needs help. Go and get Severus Snape. Do not tell him to come – bring him here please!!” 

The elfs eyes widened to saucers. “Yes missy!! I’s be right back” 

He popped out and only a couple of seconds later popped back clinging to a soaking wet Severus Snape.   
His hair was hanging in wet strings and he was quite naked. He had obviously been in the shower when the elf apparated in. 

“What the bloody hell do you think you’re..” professor Snape roared before he noticed the pallid form of the Dark Lord behind her.   
“Help!!” Hermione yelped in panic. “We... and then he.... HELP!!” She wrung her hands and raced back to the bed, leaping onto it to stare down at the Dark Lord helplessly. 

“WHAT DID YOU DO, MISS GRANGER?!!” professor Snape bellowed at her, striding over and perching beside the still form of the Dark Lord and pressing his fingers to his throat, seeming relieved at finding a pulse.   
“Fucking elves. Do you realise I don’t even have my wand! You couldn’t have instructed it to tell me what had happened, could you?! Then I might have been able to anticipate what potions he might need.” 

Hermione found herself crying. “I’m sorry! I was just so scared something would happen before you got here or that you would think it was some trap or something and wouldn’t come and would tell the elf not to come back.   
What’s wrong with him?!” 

The professor frowned.   
“I don’t know. I need to see your memories of the time immediately preceding his collapse, Miss Granger.   
To judge by the Dark Lord’s current state of undress, you are not going to want to show me. I assure you, if I have to crucio you to the brink of death, you are going to.” 

“I shall be right back. Do not do anything. At all. Sit there, exactly as you are and do not move!” 

He stood, completely unreserved in his dripping nakedness and stomped back to the frightened elf, trembling and watching them all with its ears lowered. 

“I’s sorry, Severus Snape sirs. The missy said..” 

He scowled “Yes, yes. Take me back to my room.”   
They popped away again. 

Hermione sat, looking down at the peaceful form of the Dark Lord feeling an odd kind of tearing inside her.   
When his eyes were closed like this he almost didn’t look unnerving at all, she thought. His face was actually quite lovely. If he had been a marble bust in a museum she would have admired him, at least.   
The sharp lines of his mouth.. His non-nose wasn’t even that disturbing anymore. It was just something that was.   
She thought again of how he had quirked at her thinking of him as a mythological snake god.   
‘oh god.. i hope he’s alright’ she fretted.

If she could just do something.. anything. She placed her hand on his chest above his heart and thought hard about her magic, willing it to somehow protect him. He looked so fragile and empty like this, not like himself at all. 

She felt something inside her shift and it was almost like a feeling of rushing liquid. It was actually a lot like the feeling in her fingertips when she had held his ejaculating cock but much larger.   
It flowed through a point somewhere in her abdomen up to her throat. A sense of strength and peace filled her and she willed it to enter the Dark Lord.   
‘Be ok! Be ok!’ she pleaded. 

She bowed her head and considered saying a little prayer to whoever might be listening. 

“Hermione!” she heard Lord Voldemort say, in a surprisingly strong voice. 

Her eyes sprang open and she found him lying there inspecting her bemusedly and looking.. well.. looking fine actually, not even a hint of fatigue on his face.   
She startled, confused and took her hand away from his chest self consciously. 

“What did you do?” he demanded. 

“Nothing!. I just wished you would be alright again. I tried to share my positive feelings with you. I don’t know. Some muggle tv program said that sick people can sometimes be helped by the positive emotions of those around them. Did it work?!” she sounded somewhat dumbfounded. 

“Whatever you did.. It would appear that it did something..” he muttered, taking in her tear streaked face and sitting up experimentally. He flexed his arms gingerly, then extended a hand and formed a cupped claw with it, concentrating until a blue ball of energy started to form within his splayed fingers, turning slowly. It brightened till it pulsed like a small captive star.   
He inspected it, seeming surprised, then released it and it dissipated.

His eyes fixed upon her and she could imagine the various thoughts passing through his mind, chiefly among them being – How can I use this? 

She gulped and said “Why do you think it was something I did, perhaps it was you! The human body can do astounding things when threatened. Professor Snape was-” 

At this second the man himself popped back into the room, now dry, wearing boxer shorts and carrying his wand and a large box full of potions. He looked quite beside himself and it took him a second to process the developments in the room, the Dark Lord looking at him coolly and Hermione shifting her eyes uneasily.   
He cocked his head, confused. “But..” 

“Severus” the Dark Lord interrupted him imperiously. “There’s no need for panic now, Miss Granger has saved the day. It remains to be seen exactly how she did so. But for the moment.. calm yourself. I am quite well.” 

Professor Snape appeared to be actually trembling and approached on unsteady legs to where the Dark Lord sat on the side of the bed.   
He fell to his knees before him, staring up into his face with beseeching eyes. “I was so..concerned.. my Lord” 

Hermione could have fallen over when the Dark Lord reached out and stroked Professor Snape’s hair away from his face and ran his hand lovingly down his face.   
“I know, my devoted boy. I am sorry to have frightened you so” 

Professor Snape closed his eyes and leaned into the Dark Lord’s hand, his brow furrowed. “What would you have me do, my Lord?” he whispered. 

The Dark Lord hesitated and then spoke. “As she has apparently healed me, i would have you heal Hermione of her burn, I was going to take care of it earlier but we became somewhat...distracted.” 

Professor Snape opened his eyes and turned his face to look at Hermione. He seemed troubled by many different emotions at once. It was disturbing on one who had always been so utterly guarded, every emotion hidden, to see them all tumbling through his eyes at once.   
The Dark Lord gently turned his face back and stroked his cheek again comfortingly.   
“Hush.. I would never forget you... There is no need to fear her.” He paused “or your desire of her.” 

Hermione started and her eyes shot to the Dark Lord in shock. 

“She is mine.. and you are mine also.”   
He ran his thumb across the professor’s bottom lip causing him to close his eyes in pleasure.   
“Little mad scientist! I will never tire of you.”   
Professor Snape darted his tongue out to flicker across the Dark Lord’s thumb causing him to laugh softly. 

Hermione was experiencing a paradigm shift and couldn’t quite force her brain to move past the hysterically repeating idea..Professor Snape loves the Dark Lord. Professor Snape loves the Dark Lord!! In every possible sense of the word.. Suddenly this thought progressed to a new, dramatically surreal prospect. ‘i want to see them kiss..’ 

The Dark Lord hissed “SSeveruss..” and Professor Snape opened his eyes and looked up at him. Something appeared to pass between them for a moment and then the Dark Lord was leaning down and pressing his lips to the professor’s, their mouths moving against each other passionately. Professor Snape had his eyes closed and the expression on his face was almost rapturous.   
The Dark Lord threaded his fingers through his hair and tugged him against his mouth even harder making Professor Snape growl in the back of his throat. 

Hermione realised she was watching them both, gaping, unable to tear her eyes away. 

She wanted to crawl closer.   
The image was wrong.. so wrong..but they looked strangely beguiling together. Otherwordly.. 

The Dark Lord pulled back from the kiss and professor Snape followed him hungrily for a second before reluctantly backing off and looking up into his eyes attentively again..   
The professors eyes flashed to Hermione suddenly, shocked and then back to the Dark Lord. He seemed confused and unsure.   
Lord Voldemort half turned and extended a hand toward Hermione sitting rapt on the bed some way behind him and murmured “Come here, my dear” 

Hermione hesitated, shocked and a little unnerved before crawling forward on her hands and knees to perch, kneeling and sitting on her heels on the bed next to the Dark Lord.   
Professor Snape was looking up at her from his knees on the floor before them both, with an expression of fear and reverence, and it felt very strange.   
The Dark Lord reached a pale finger and gently turned her face toward him. She was surprised by the hunger on his face, she was more surprised at how little she was bothered by this whole situation.   
Surely she should be a bit upset about..something..or other..

The Dark Lord delved his fingers through her hair to cup the back of her head and urged her forward. She complied, overbalancing slightly and bracing herself with her hands on his naked shoulders. He mustered her with a heated gaze and pulled her to his lips.   
She tasted him again, warm and slick tongue thrusting into her mouth and met him thrust for thrust.   
He drew back and suddenly pushed her head down toward Professor Snape.   
The professor’s response was violent.. he reached for her, gripping her neck and her hair in each hand and tearing her down, crushing his lips against hers painfully. His tongue pushed forcefully into her mouth, dominating her own and causing her to whimper faintly. He tasted surprisingly of fresh toothpaste! 

He growled at her whimper and only kissed her harder, pulling back and nipping on her bottom lip hard.   
She had almost forgotten for a second who she was with. The professor’s reaction to the Dark Lord was so very submissive and devoted that she almost forgot the harsh dominant nature of the man otherwise. 

“Mmm... you look delicious together, my pets” the Dark Lord hissed. “Just don’t forget who you truly belong to..”

Hermione looked up at him confused.   
Unmistakeably reluctant, the professor released her. 

“Come here, Hermione” the Dark Lord hissed. 

She crawled closer and he maneuvered her until she was sitting with her back up against his chest. He waved his hand impatiently and her silver dress melted away.   
Professor Snape’s gaze sharpened and his eyes crawled over her body covetously, now and then flicking up to the Dark Lords face and back to her.   
Her breasts, her belly, her pussy. He seemed to be wavering in jealous desire, obviously torn between wanting to hold her and wanting to be held by the Dark Lord in her place. 

The Dark Lord trailed a finger down the ragged edge of the pink burn line, tracing its path to her stomach.   
She heard him hiss, next to her ear “Heal her Severuss”   
Professor Snape nodded curtly and rose from his knees to go to the box of potions he had brought.

The Dark Lord gripped her tightly and pulled her backward on the bed to lie in the centre of the mattress, spooned against him, one arm under her head and the other curled over her abdomen. He rested his chin on her shoulder while professor Snape padded over to the bed holding a small jar and his wand.   
The severe man climbed up onto the mattress and kneed forward a couple of steps to kneel in front of them both. Looking down on them from above like this he was suddenly very much Professor Snape. Intimidating in his cold dominance. 

Even half naked.   
Especially half naked.

She allowed herself, for the first time, to really look at his body. He had been naked before but she had been so concerned with the Dark Lord that it hadn’t really registered fully. Now.. he was in a bed with her.. leaning over her..   
His skin was pale against his slightly longer than shoulder length black hair, not unlike the skin of the Dark Lord in his other body (she was trying not to think of it as his Tom Riddle form) but less pale than the Dark Lords current white skin.   
He had larger, more muscular thighs and arms than the Dark Lord. His chest was broad, slightly broader than the Dark Lords and although he was toned and well formed, he was less..perfectly sculpted, less ethereally beautiful.. than the Dark Lord. Darker or rougher or something. More..dignified..and refined than Rodolphus however. 

She chastised herself. Why was she comparing them to each other like this? It seemed rude somehow.   
But at the same time she had a feeling that she would always be comparing everyone to the Dark Lord now. 

He sniggered next to her ear, licking her earlobe and smirking against her.   
Professor Snape’s eyes sharpened, suddenly burned with dark heat. He reached out..and in a strange mirror of the Dark Lord’s earlier behaviour, he brushed his thumb lightly across her lips.. it tickled in a strange arousing way and she parted them, but instead of licking his thumb she leaned forward to suck it into her mouth, suckling on it and swiping her tongue against it.   
Professor Snape gasped softly, his lips parted slightly and eyes glittering with lust. She could see his boxer shorts beginning to tent. 

The Dark Lord murmured into her ear, “Now now, my dear, there’s plenty of time for that later. Stop being such a little temptress and let Severus heal you” 

Professor Snape seemed to struggle to force himself to focus, a strange dazed expression on his face as he gazed down at them both. 

The Dark Lord whispered in her ear. “He is thinking how beautiful we look together and is afraid that we won’t want him soon”   
Hermione frowned. “I’ve wanted him for years. I’m probably not going to stop by next week.”   
Professor Snape looked startled. 

“There you have it, Severus. And I’ve already given you my reassurances for the night, you know I do so hate repeating myself, so stop being so melodramatic and fix the bloody burn so we can all get some rest.”   
Professor Snape nodded once and uncorked the short fat jar in his hand. He scooped out a healthy portion and began to slather it across his hands, rubbing it to coat the palms and fingers. He then leaned low over Hermione and gently began to stroke his hands one over the other down the line of the burn, his expression now entirely focused on her skin. 

When he had covered the whole length of the red line, he began again at the top, running his hands down the length one after the other and very softly he started to sing.   
Hermione watched his face in fascination. He had a beautiful voice. She didn’t understand the words of the incantation, they sounded like Arabic and she had never learned that language. It utilised an entirely different form of magic and was not offered in the Hogwarts curriculum . 

She felt a burning sensation flowing down her body in tandem with his hands but it was coupled with a peculiar cool bubbling sensation, as if her skin were burning and water were gushing up from her depth to cool it. 

“My lord..” Professor Snape’s voice had an edge of worry. 

“Yes, Severus” the Dark Lord said, in almost an eager expectant tone. 

“The charm is not working. The burn refuses to heal. It is as though something is blocking it. It begins to heal and then it grows back. I don’t understand.. perhaps I was mistaken in my assessment of the nature of the curse that caused it.”

“Mm.. perhaps” the Dark Lord mused thoughtfully. “Perhaps if Hermione lends her... positive thoughts... to your endeavour, it might help in some small way.” 

Hermione frowned, confused. The Dark Lord didn’t believe in the power of positive thought. There was something funny going on. 

“You have a suspicious nature, Hermione! I was merely suggesting that it couldn’t hurt. After all, I’m certain you’ve read about the reported abilities of Indian yogis. While I am not advocating walking across coals, you might at least try to ..think positively.. or whatever it is you do..” 

She was unconvinced but he was right, it couldn’t hurt. It would probably be a waste of time.   
Or perhaps he was toying with her and it was he suppressing the effects of the charm, just so that he could trick her into believing she had some influence on her healing. No.. that made no sense.   
The Dark Lord tsked into her ear. “The things you think of me, Hermione. I’m sure I have better things to do than waste my time and energy pulling your leg.”   
She balked and huffed, irritated. “Fine. What do you want me to do, Professor?” 

“Give me your hand Miss Granger” he commanded softly, a slight twist of his brows and lips betraying that he was as dubious of this little experiment as she was.   
He slathered her hand in salve and placed it at the top of the burn.. holding her wrist he traced the length of the injury showing her where to stroke her hand. She nodded and he placed his hand on her shoulder, beginning to slowly stroke down her body. After every pass of his hand she passed her own in its wake and he very softly sang the incantation again. 

She wondered why he sang so quietly. Didn’t he like the sound of his own voice?   
She attended to the feeling on her chest again. Again there was this burning sensation but this time it wasn’t cooled by the bubbly sensation rushing up at it, rather the cool liquidlike feeling seemed to flow parallel to the burning and it was much stronger. 

She heard the Dark Lord gasp at her ear and clutch her more tightly and professor Snape suddenly stopped singing, a confused infuriated expression on his face. “What did you do, Miss Granger? The wound is healed. I didn’t even finish the first verse of the charm, it should not have healed by now.”   
He looked suspiciously at the Dark Lord who had raised himself slightly to look down at her face and wore an expression as of a man who has just confirmed that he has the winning lottery ticket for the super jackpot, with the powerball but doesn’t want anyone to notice. He curled himself around her just a fraction more closely in something that felt both protective and possessive.

She looked between their faces uneasily. “I didn’t do anything, I just paid attention to what Professor Snape was doing. I- I didn’t even try to do anything yet. I’m sorry! It wasn’t me, whatever happened.” 

The Dark Lord and Professor Snape shared a long look and the expression on Severus face changed from suspicion to astounded disbelief. He looked startled. And then the expression faded as he schooled it into something resembling ‘professor Snape’. 

“Ah well. One of those things then, Miss Granger. Perhaps I was singing out of key the first time around.”   
He paused and couldn’t resist a smirk at the ridiculousness of the words he was about to utter “Maybe we loosened it enough the first time for it to immediately take the second time around.”   
“It doesn’t really matter” the Dark Lord mumbled tiredly next to her ear as he lay back down, spooning her naked form against his own and shifting slightly to attain the optimal level of comfort.   
“it’s gone now. It’s been a long day. Let us sleep.” 

Hermione was even more suspicious now at the apparent immediate dismissal of the occurrence by the Dark Lord but the second half of the sentence blew her concerns from her mind entirely in favour of other worries. 

“Sleep? You’re staying here, my Lord?! In my bed? To sleep here?” 

“Mm. Yes. And Severus too. Goodnight Hermione.” 

She looked up at professor Snape in startled confusion. He raised an eyebrow at her and appeared to shrug slightly without having shrugged at all. She wondered how he did that.  
Professor Snape scourgified his hands, then placed his wand on the bedside table and gingerly let himself down to lay on his side alongside her, facing her, his arm snaking under the pillow. He closed his eyes. 

The Dark Lord lifted his hand from her abdomen wearily and waved it in an impatient curling twisting gesture and the covers of the bed vanished from below them and reappeared a half metre above them, dropping lightly down. He flicked his hand again and she just knew from the surprised intake of breath from Professor Snape that the Dark Lord had vanished his boxers.   
Finally, he clicked his fingers and the fire and the torches extinguished.

She heard him sigh softly, his arm delving under the blankets and wrapping itself around her once again, resting just beneath her naked breast. 

She stared into the dark and saw the shiny glint of Professor Snape’s open eyes. He was watching her, a strange expression on his face. It was hard to make out in the dark, especially as her eyes hadn’t yet adjusted but it seemed to be something like awe.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated and will receive a response

She woke up in the morning feeling almost unbearably warm. There was..too much.. all around her.

She wondered in her half dreaming haze if she was perhaps wrapped in the duvet or something because she felt pressed on hotly on all sides.   
Then she recognised the sensation of skin pressed against hers, it was slick and sweaty and far far too hot.

She raised her head muzzily. 

She was half draped over Lord Voldemort, who lay on his back, his head turned slightly toward her, eyes closed, breathing slow and regular. Her head rested in the crook of his shoulder while his arm stretched out behind her.   
Her own arm was slung over his chest, one leg curled over his thigh possessively.   
But that wasn’t all.   
She also felt the heavy hot weight of professor Snape who was pressed seamlessly up against her back, his face was tucked into her neck breathing warmly against her and his arm stretched just below her own, around her to lay palm down on the Dark Lords abdomen, his leg was raised and pressed below her own but instead of curling over the Dark Lords leg it was merely pressed against it.   
The angle nevertheless pressed his pelvis tightly against her ass and she could feel a hot heavy weight that was quite obviously his morning erection. 

She gulped quietly. 

The Dark Lord sighed sleepily “Go back to sleep, Hermione, it is not time to rise” 

Everything felt hot and sticky and now itchy too. She wanted a shower. 

“It’s too hot” she whined softly. 

“Ridiculous” Professor Snape rumbled against her neck. “It’s wonderfully toasty. Think positively.”   
She felt his sleepy smirk. 

She tried to go back to sleep but it really was intolerably hot. She couldn’t even cast a cooling charm because she didn’t have a wand anymore.   
Oh that was just IT. She had to get out of this bed or she was going to scream. It was TOO DAMN HOT.   
She struggled to drag herself up.   
Professor Snape’s arm at first pulled in and wrapped around her tightly, stopping her from getting out but Lord Voldemort’s tired voice told him to let her get up if she absolutely had to.

She climbed out of the covers with difficulty, feeling as she went, professor Snape’s hand brush down her spine and over her ass.   
She stood naked in the half light of the room, blissfully cool now and looked back to see Professor Snape roll forward to curl against the Dark Lord who twisted slightly in his half doze to wrap protectively around him. 

It was.. a peculiar but lovely image. She found herself feeling privileged to be witness to this soft gentle moment and almost wished she had stayed where she was between what had to be the two most brilliant wizards in the world.   
Not to mention dead sexy, her mind tossed in unhelpfully. She sighed. Cold shower it is. 

 

In the end though, when she got in the bathroom she decided against a shower of any description and paid attention to the enormous swimming pool-like bath, trying to figure out what all the strange gold taps and nozzles did. She turned a few experimentally and tested the scent and texture of the liquid that fell from the various golden tubes hanging over the corner of the large slate enclosure. 

It appeared that the bath-pool was enchanted to fill more quickly than would be possible if the laws of physics held any sway over the relatively thin streams of water that fell from the delicate golden tubes.   
She managed to run a tangerine and elderflower scented bath with large blue mounds of foam at the perfect temperature and slipped into it sighing in pleasure.

Against the left wall of the ‘bath’ a wide curved underwater shelf offered a comfortable surface to recline upon; the angle perfect to allow her to lie with the water gently lapping at her chin..   
If she had a wand now she could summon a glass of orange juice and a book to hover in front of her while she soaked, she groused under her breath.   
She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to relax.   
Thoughts kept wanting to intrude on her mind. Too many things she wasn’t attending to. Too many worries. 

She didn’t want to think about any of them right now. If she thought too much then she might start panicking and that was almost certainly not going to help anything very much. 

She almost jumped out of her skin when the hand touched her brow, stroking away the moisture that had beaded there. 

She looked up into the inverted face of professor Snape.   
“May i join you” he inquired softly. 

She smirked. “If it doesn’t bother you to be a tangerine and elderflower scented death eater for the day, Professor” 

He raised one eyebrow and stepped to the side of the ‘bath’, slipping a leg over the edge and lowering himself into the heated depths.   
At that part of the small pool the water was quite deep. He sank in up to his chest and swam a couple of strokes over to her, sliding up onto the sloped shelf next to her.   
She was hit by a strange moment of unreality. She was having a bath with professor Snape.   
For a bizarre moment she almost wished Harry and Ron would come walking in and pack a fit over it. 

“Are you alright, Hermione?” 

She jolted, surprised and turned to him. He raised an eyebrow questioningly at her. 

“It’s..nothing.. it’s just I think that’s the first time you have ever called me anything other than Miss Granger, Professor.”

He looked away. “Would you prefer I didn’t call you by your given name, Miss Granger?” he asked in a more formal tone with only the faintest tinge of resigned disappointment. 

“No.. “ she blurted hurriedly. “No.. I’d like you to...I’ve always wanted to hear you say my name, professor. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to give you that impression, I was just surprised.” 

He turned to study her, his eyes betrayed that he was struggling with some internal debate.   
Eventually he hesitantly, in a very soft voice, offered – “If you like.. you may call me Severus, Miss Gr-..Hermione”  
He immediately looked away, turning his head to inspect the apparently extraordinarily fascinating clouds passing overhead. 

“Severus” she tried it on for size.   
He turned back to face her nervously and she saw him swallow.   
“Hermione..” He pronounced, and the hushed way he said it was delicious.. it made her name sound like some ancient guarded secret. “say it again..” she pleaded. 

“Hermione” he whispered, in a raw voice. 

She lifted herself lightly in the water and rolled, letting herself float over his body.   
“I like the way it sounds when you say it..” she murmured. 

She felt his hands brush over the small of her back and then he caught her gently, slowly, as if he expected her to struggle to get away and was prepared to release her again. He cautiously pulled her down to press against his body under the water.   
She raised her arms and let them drape over his shoulders, loosely curling around his neck and lowered her head to rest on his warm damp chest.   
After a moment he let his head drop and leaned his cheek against the top of her head. She thought she felt him sigh.   
They remained like that silently for some time until a thought occurred to Hermione.   
“Prof.. Severus?” she asked

“Mm?” his chest rumbled against her ear. 

“Can I ask you a personal question?” 

She felt him tense. He was silent for a while.   
“You can try. Perhaps I may answer it” he finally responded. 

She nodded, satisfied.   
“I wanted to know when you became close to the Dark Lord..”

He appeared to consider whether or not he would answer. 

“I’m sorry.” She said quickly. “I was just curious. It’s not important. It’s none of my business” 

He spoke quietly, decisively. “..I was a year younger than you are now. He was, to my perspective then, an adult man - Perhaps as old as I am now; which seemed quite old to me at the time i suppose.” 

“Lucius brought me to him because.. well.. Lucius had been a ...friend to me throughout school, he was a couple of years ahead of me and he took me under his wing. He protected me.. at least from the other Slytherin purebloods. I remember I was proud that Lucius Malfoy thought well of me.” 

“He first took me to see the Dark Lord at the end of my fifth year just before he graduated.” 

“There were many reasons.. most of them are not important anymore..or I would prefer not to talk about them at least. I was very... angry.. about a lot of things at the time and Lucius thought I might benefit from the association.   
I was also..quite able in the dark arts and he thought that I might be of use to the Dark Lord in that capacity.”

“-And of course my being of use would reflect favourably upon Lucius in the Dark Lord’s eyes.” Severus trailed off pensively.   
A few seconds later he continued, his voice softened with memory, “I remember meeting him for the first time and feeling a sense of... awe. The power boiling off him in waves was so overwhelming. I wanted to know more about him.  
”   
Hermione was suddenly reminded of seeing Lord Voldemort in the ballroom for the first time. She had felt exactly the same thing, except she was simultaneously appalled, trapped and terrified. 

“I was of course, terrified” Severus added, slightly sheepishly. “I had..heard ..certain things.. and then I was side-along’d to a rather dark imposing hall and Lucius left me with him.”   
“I thought he was going to kill me if he didn’t think I could be of use” 

Hermione suddenly lifted her head and looked at her former professor with wide eyes. How could their situations   
be so alike?! Perhaps the Dark Lord had told him what to say.   
His face looked almost vulnerable - alight with his most private memories, but this was a man who had fooled Albus Dumbledore for decades apparently.   
She wished she could be sure.   
She wished she could trust professor Snape again. She so wanted to.   
She wanted to curl up in his arms and know him. 

“Hermione?” he asked uncertainty on his face. 

“Nothing, it just touched a chord. Please don’t stop..” 

He was silent for a while and then he spoke   
“He..wasn’t as I had expected. Well.. in some ways perhaps. But he was interested.. in me. He wanted to know what I thought about things. I hadn’t experienced that attention much in my life at that point and it was heady.   
By the time we had finished talking, he had offered to be my patron and I had decided to become a potions master.”

“I had always had a great ability in Potions, that I had to a large extent hidden from professor Slughorn, because I knew even at that age that the man was a despicable parasite with no true ability in his field, who would, if I allowed it, steal my ideas and suck me dry.   
The dubious benefits of joining his ‘slug club’ were no temptation to me. I had the Dark Lord’s support and a position waiting for me after my apprenticeship.” 

He snorted. “Even my best effort toward mediocrity was sufficient to earn Slughorn’s outstanding.”

“Mm, I know” she murmured 

“Hm?” Severus queried. 

“I’ve always known you were far far better than anyone got to see, professor. It was a privilege whenever you would demonstrate anything in class.   
I was so angry when Harry was using your book in Slughorn’s class to get top marks. It was wrong. Like cheating.   
He didnt understand why the amendments worked, he just followed the notes and took the credit from slug, that slug.   
He was just itching for Harry to be a potions prodigy.” 

“I always suspected that it wasn’t chance that that book ended up with Harry.   
I suspect Dumbledore because Slug would have simply stolen it and been done with it if he’d known. Ooh it was SO irritating though.. Harry refused to give it up and he would insult you while he was reading it.   
I couldn’t say a word when I found out because he hated you so much that if I had he might have destroyed it and that would have been a horrid waste.” 

There was a long pause and then Severus said in a peeved tone “..I am sorry that you lost your best friend, Hermione but I really did dislike that boy. Intensely”. 

“At first I thought it was merely my memory of his wretched father coupled with the unfortunate fact that he was apparently destined to kill someone I cared for greatly that caused the almost visceral aversion, but eventually I had to accept that it was also to a large extent that he was a doomed brave hearted moron. - He believed so completely in everything he was told, never questioning, never seeking to take control of his own fate. Dumbledore led him around by the nose since his very birth.” 

“He hurt him - you do realise that Miss Grang.. “ 

Severus sighed at the second slip with her name he had made only minutes after she had offered him the more personal form. Hermione turned and looked up at him solemnly.   
“It’s difficult to change established views of people we know, isn’t it sir” she whispered.

He paused.. “Perhaps I enjoy you calling me sir and professor a little too much, Miss Granger” he murmured back, sliding his hand down her back, his gaze heating slightly. 

Hermione pulled herself up, bracing on his shoulders and arching further out of the water to bring her face closer to his. 

“Did you ever notice me at Hogwarts professor? I mean.. as a girl..not as a know-it-all student”   
She bit her lip, looking up at him nervously. 

“...Of course, Miss Granger” he responded in a low voice. His eyes moved over her features, seeming to take in every nuance of her appearance and flicking down to her breasts pressed against his chest, submerged in the water. 

“When?” She was surprised and pleased. 

“I..observed one of your fantasies in class in your fifth year.” He hesitated.. “Afterward, whenever I looked at you I couldn’t help but imagine carrying out those... or other, even more ...extreme, acts on your person.”   
He had the grace to look slightly repentant at his thoughts about a fifteen year old girl.   
Hermione was not sure whether to feel embarrassed, angry or excited. 

“What was it about?” she asked curiously. 

“Oh.. i don’t recall anymore. Its not important, Miss Granger.” 

She frowned. “Of course you recall, professor. You remember everything. I don’t believe for one minute that you have forgotten something you say you thought about often, almost as frequently as you saw me in fact, and we had two hours of potions twice a week for a whole year!” 

Severus looked uncomfortable. 

“You can tell me, professor” Hermione tried a different angle. She leaned closer to him, startling him slightly, and pressed a hot little kiss to the corner of his mouth. She looked him in the eye and leaned in again, placing more little butterfly kisses on his lips.

He smirked at her. “You do know that this method of persuasion is more likely to cause me to remain silent in hope of further ‘torture’, Miss Granger?   
“Mmm. Ok..” she said, distractedly. She curled her little pink tongue out and licked his upper lip. 

He leaned forward to capture her mouth and she moved back slightly out of reach, curving her pretty lips into a pout almost worthy of lavender. She leaned in again and brushed her lips against his, her tongue darting out and swiping the seam of his lips and he followed her with his mouth as she moved back out of reach again. 

“Tell me what it was...professor” she butterfly kissed him again and he tried and failed again to capture her lips.   
“Why so shy? It came out of my head. It’s hardly going to offend my delicate sensibilities, now is it ?!” 

She leaned in and he met her this time, his hand moving at lightning speed from her back to grip her hair and hold her head in place while he forced his tongue in her mouth and plundered her thoroughly, bruising her lips with his own, his free hand sliding down from her waist onto her ass and pushing her down against him.   
She could feel his thick hard cock pressed against her and he let her float up again, pulling her down once more while he still devoured her mouth brutally, and this time his cock floated up and positioned itself between her thighs when he held her down.   
She gasped into his mouth, suddenly struggling.   
He tugged roughly at her hair, hurting her, to force her to settle down. He was pumping his hips at her gently, his cock sliding up with the movement till it slid to the top of her thighs and brushed against her pussy. 

“MMM, MMmMm Mm Mmmk Mmm” 

She felt the huge head of his cock nudge lightly against her tiny entrance and suddenly fought with everything she had, scratching and pushing at his chest and biting at his tongue, fighting to clamp her thighs together.   
He finally released her, his face dark, harsher than she had ever seen it.   
“CUT THAT OUT, YOU BLOODY HELLCAT” he growled at her.   
“You were begging for it, you little tease!!” he spat the words at her cruelly. She could see though that he was upset at her apparent rejection.

“Stop, Severus!! Not yet! I belong to him!! Just like you do. What do you think he’ll do to us if you take my virginity?!” 

The look on Severus face was stunned. “your virginity?! You mean you didn’t last night..you haven’t.. ..ever?!..” He had gone white as a sheet. 

She shook her head. “He threw my innocence in Ginny’s face in an insulting manner so I assume he values it in some way.” 

Severus looked queasy for a moment. “ I see”.   
Suddenly a thought apparently occurred to him and he gripped her in both hands, rising, bending and lifting her beneath the knees, causing her to yelp in surprise. He carried her to the broad flat edge of the bath and laid her down on the side then moved down her body to gently part her legs.   
Hermione felt uncomfortable at this but a warning glare from Severus persuaded her to obey. 

He inspected her carefully. She felt his finger brush feather light against her and couldn’t help reacting slightly.   
He darted a look up at her. “I believe you just saved me from a truly horrendous amount of pain, Hermione.” 

“I don’t think he would have killed me ..or at least I hope not...but Rodolphus and his silver box would have been a pat on the head compared to my suffering if I had torn you.” 

She felt embarrassed as well as guilty suddenly and sat up, wrapping her arms around herself protectively 

“Well how was I supposed to know you were about to do that?!” she squeaked defensively, “I presumed he would have told you or something. You didn’t exactly let me get a word in edgewise there. I’m sorry for your chest. Um.. and your tongue. Please don’t be angry with me.” 

He hesitated, looking at her.   
She was worried that he would stay away from her again now. “Please can we go back to the bath? She asked in a small hopeful voice.” He looked at her and it was obvious he was reluctant.

“Oh come on! You were with me in here all that time without trying to fuck me, I’m sure you can manage to restrain yourself, professor.”   
His face turned from hesitant to angry. Not the best move, Hermione, she thought. 

“look.. I’m sorry! I’m sorry I scared you and I’m sorry that I just upset you again and I’m really really sorry if you thought I was teasing you. I wasn’t. I would never. I just... wouldn’t have done that one particular thing if you had let us continue.   
I would have done...something else...   
Professor.. please.. you’ve seen yourself in my head.. you know how I feel about you. I promise that I won’t do anything at all if you’re worried. I’ll sit over on one side of the bath and you can sit all the way over there. but please don’t go!” 

Severus looked at her, a faintly distrustful look on his face as if she were liable to suddenly leap upon his cock at any second. After a tense minute he let himself sink back into the water backward and breath stroked lightly back to the underwater shelf they had been resting on, laying himself back down on it and watching her warily. 

Hermione carefully slipped back into the hot slightly foamy water and sank down to her chin, approaching him slowly, ready at any second for him to tell her to stop.   
When she reached him lying on the shelf, she stopped and simply floated, waiting. 

He looked back at her silently. 

After interminable minutes he suddenly said, infuriated “Oh Merlin! Get back in my arms then you insufferable little witch!”   
She beamed and floated up onto him. He gripped her and turned her onto her back in the water, pressing her down, her back against his chest, and holding on to her with both arms. 

She felt...warm.. protected... wanted.   
She let her head fall back onto his shoulder and he leaned his own head against it. They both tried to silently get over the shock of the last minutes and relax again.   
Eventually she felt Severus rumble into her ear. “How could I possibly anticipate you were a virgin after viewing the dark, twisted and above all detailed images in your fantasies, Hermione?” He gripped her tighter and she had the strange feeling that he was afraid for her.

“I thought you were the most sexually precocious witch in Hogwarts, for Merlin’s sake.” 

Her mind caught up with her ear. “fantasies? You saw more than one?” 

“Mm.” He demurred neutrally.   
After a long pause he confessed.. “Once or twice I even entered your dorm room disillusioned and watched your dreams. They were less detailed but your own reactions were more extreme. I could watch you orgasm from the vague idea of things I was doing to you” 

Hermione was stunned. 

Professor Snape had been IN her dorm room watching her while she slept?! 

Watching her dreams while she fantasised about him?!! 

She knew she should be furious and feel invaded and molested and a host of other thing associated with righteous indignation but all she could really think was.. ‘that’s so hot.. God.. if I’d known about that at the time I’d have brought myself off to it. I’d have pretended to sleep and waited up in the hopes of meeting him. Oh god.. I wonder if he...um..wanked..(even in her own mind she whispered the illicit crude word) while watching me.. while I slept..’  
‘Oh GOD!! I wonder if he ever touched me?!   
She could feel her nipples harden and she was beginning to feel a certain ache between her legs. 

“Hermione? “ Severus sounded uncertain. “Are you upset? I’m sorry. I..” 

“-No!! i’m..I’m not...”   
“If I were to tell you that it turned me on, you wouldn’t believe me, would you?” 

She heard his breath catch. “indeed..” He sounded thoughtful. “And what were you wondering about just now?” 

She blushed.. some things were so hard to say out loud..   
“I was thinking about how if I’d known that at the time... I’d definitely have... have touched myself thinking about it.”   
“I’d probably have tried to set some kind of trap to catch you so that I could have my wicked way with you.”

“...I was wondering whether you just stood and watched... “ her voice trailed off “or...” she paused meaningfully. 

“Are you asking whether I stroked my cock while standing over your unprotected sleep-fapping, entirely illegal, fifteen year old body, Miss Granger? Whether I watched you having dirty little dreams about me and beat off to you like some kind of personal porn channel?” 

“Uh.. yes.. that pretty much it up I suppose.” She felt a bit rude suggesting it when he put it that way. 

Professor Snape smirked against her face. “Of course I did, you silly girl. What would be the point in taking the trouble to disillusion myself and bypass the sliding stairs and sedate your dorm mates if I weren’t going to get off?!”   
She felt him laughing low against her.   
“I am a death eater, Miss Granger. I assume you have understood by now that I was never at any point truly working for the order. I have done..far far worse things than consuming underage pornography.. if you wish to think of it in that manner.” 

She felt a tickle in her core and countered quickly “did you ever do more than watch, professor?” 

He hesitated.. “Well as you are obviously still intact, we can say for certain that there are some things I certainly did not do.” He paused and she had the strong feeling he was debating whether to continue.   
She wanted him to.   
She held her breath. 

After a while he did..   
“Yes.. I did more than watch sometimes.”

“Once or twice I brought a potion with me that would prevent you from waking for a few hours while allowing you to continue dreaming. Loud noises, touches, ...tastes.. all these things would not disturb your slumber.”

While he spoke, Severus unwrapped his arms from around Hermione’s body. His right hand slid up to cup her breast, stroking and squeezing it gently as his dominant left hand trailed slowly.. slowly down her abdomen until he could tease her pubic hair between his fingers, dipping down occasionally to stroke through her folds 

“The first time I brought the potion with me ...I simply wanted to know what it felt like to have your hand around my cock. I was terrified that the potion would somehow fail and you’d wake up and discover me.”

“Mmm?” Hermione said, growing more excited by the second as her former professors well trained fingers teased her, building her up to a slow boil. 

“I held your little fingers around my shaft, wrapped my own hand around them and beat off to your dream. You were fantasizing about a detention in which I took you into the forbidden forest and immobilised you, then donned my death eater robes and mask and raped you in the dirt.”

“That was the keystone experience that hooked me...” 

“It was the perverse notion of forcing you to pleasure me.. while you fapped yourself unconsciously with your other hand to the idea of me raping you dressed as a deatheater - I was riding on a high for days..” 

“Your dreams were a little...darker.. than your fantasies, even if they lacked definition. They were more like.. vivid ideas of things happening without much context, together with your feelings and sensations.”   
Hermione rocked her hips against the professor’s fingers..that were now moving slightly faster.. brushing down over her clit more often. She sighed in pleasure..   
“Mmmmm.. what else did you do Sir?” 

He turned his head slightly toward her and licked slowly deliberately up the shell of her ear. 

She shivered pleasurably.. She reached behind herself and put her wrists together.   
“Can you bind my wrists without your wand, Professor?”

He hesitated and his left hand lifted off her pussy sliding between their bodies. He held her wrists together and murmured something in Arabic and her wrists were fixed together immovably. 

“Damn. I have to learn Arabic” she murmured.   
He sniffed amused. “I suppose I’ll eventually teach you, Miss Granger” 

She reached down with her bound hands and searched for his cock. She had been floating slightly while he was playing with her pussy and she couldn’t feel his body against her, below the middle of her back, but she had a couple of times felt his cock brush her ass and she knew he was hard.   
She reached down and found it, sliding her hands up and down the shaft as best she could.   
He growled appreciatively and his hand returned to her pussy, fingering her more roughly than he had before. 

“You were about to tell me what you did after that first experience, Sir” she reminded him politely, her hands moving up and down slowly. 

“Mmmm yes,”   
He turned and looked at her hungrily, brushing his face against hers. His right hand plucked at her nipple.   
His touches were becoming more aggressive. 

“I forced myself to wait for almost three weeks before I went back, Miss Granger. I wasn’t going to go back at all.. I told myself I was risking myself frivolously. If Dumbledore had caught me, spy or no spy he would probably have tossed me to the aurors”   
the professor hesitated..   
“Or perhaps not. He was a self serving old bastard I wouldn’t put it past him to sacrifice you for ‘the greater good’” 

She nodded against his face.   
“Thats probably exactly what he did. He had Harry’s marauders map. It was probably just more convenient to pretend he didn’t know. ...maybe he knew I wouldn’t mind.. no.. that would be expecting too much of him really, wouldn’t it?”

He nibbled her ear lobe and whispered in her ear “It doesn’t matter now, miss Granger. I killed him, if you recall. He won’t be telling us much one way or the other.”   
She squeezed his cock in her small hands and he moaned softly next to her ear, before continuing in a rough voice 

“Three weeks later I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to visit you again. I wanted more this time..” 

“I sedated all your room mates and waited, disillusioned, for you to enter a dream state. You were tossing and turning. But instead of falling asleep you woke up. You walked past me, no further than a hands width away from brushing my cloak with your bare feet on your way to the bathroom. I could have reached out and touched you.. I considered following you in but it was safer to remain in the room.” 

“It was strange to be around while you were awake. More dangerous of course.” 

“When you came back, sleepy and unguarded I sent a warming spell at you in the hopes that you’d give me a live strip show but you ignored it and went back to bed.   
I waited for half an hour till you were obviously dreaming and fed you the drops. And then you were my doll for a while.” 

“I uncovered you completely..straddled you and unbuttoned your pajama top.” 

“It was even more thrilling than your hand on my member had been.. exposing you further with each second.” 

His hand in her pussy was cruelly pinching at her clit now, his other hand alternately stroking and squeezing her breasts and punishing her nipples and she found she liked it.. the pain with the excitement. She increased the speed of her hands moving up and down his shaft and bucked against his rough hand in time with her movements. He growled low. 

“When I had bared your small breasts I tuned in to your dream. It only reinforced my growing obsession with you, Miss Granger.   
While I straddled you on your bed and licked and sucked your little breasts, you were having an erotic nightmare, of sorts.

“You were dreaming that the Dark Lord had you in a dark frightening place and he was tearing your clothes off and touching you. You were terrified one minute and excited the next, but each time you were excited and tried to touch yourself your hand met my body preventing you reaching your pussy and you became instantly terrified again.”

“I was amused by it for a while. Restraining you made you panic even further, so I was holding your wrists down and licking and sucking your throat when an interesting thing happened in your dream: I appeared.”   
You thought at first that i was there to save you.. but oh Miss Granger.. that is just not how you like to see me in your dreams, it seems.” 

Hermione had closed her eyes. The dark bitter-chocolate voice next to her ear set off shivers in her spine that crashed against the tingling urgent need in her clit as he alternately thrummed and abused it.

“.. No.. instead of saving you from the Dark Lord in the dream I joined him in tormenting you. I pushed you down onto your knees and forced you to take my cock into your mouth.”   
And it occurred to me as I watched, that I could make your dream real. “I was a little concerned about doing so, after all you could bite down and then where would I be?! ...But after seeing you come so hard while dreaming about being raped by me, I thought that you would probably be just pleased as punch to suck me in front of the Dark Lord.   
In fact, now that I think of it, I imagine you would be.. Perhaps later we’ll test that theory.” He turned his head and nuzzled her ear while thrusting up at Hermione’s bound hands playfully.   
“Tighter, mudblood” he murmured tenderly.   
She shuddered and bucked her hips into his fingers, a small orgasm rushing over her. He didnt stop playing with her and she tried to grip his cock harder. The position was beginning to hurt her arms and she suspected he knew and was enjoying it. 

“I lifted you up and twisted you into position on your knees, holding you by your hair, mimicking the dream and got my cock out, ready to fuck your mouth with it. When the Professor Snape in your dream roughly forced his cock into your mouth I prodded your lips with mine gently, to see if you’d react and lo and behold you opened your mouth and let me in, suckling me like a baby.” 

“MERLIN.. it was all I could do not to come immediately.” 

“You were not the most inventive cocksucker, but the sight of your peaceful sleeping face contrasted with your contorted misery and tears in your dream.. your begging and choking..”   
“Outside the dream you didn’t choke once. You swallowed my entire cock without a murmur.”   
“It was breathtaking to behold.” 

“I held your hair in my fist and fucked your mouth for all it was worth, far more brutally than in your dream, where you whimpered and cried and made a terrible fuss while the Dark Lord and professor Snape laughed cruelly at your pitiful state.”   
“You just smiled and suckled my prick beautifully. It was sublime.” 

Hermione was almost at the edge, almost at tipping point.. she moaned desperately as Severus held her just on the brink, his hands rough and merciless.   
She whimpered and he hissed into her ear suddenly “Beg for it, Mudblood..”   
“Beg me to let you come like the whore you are..”

She jerked, her lust spiking and almost tipped. It was painful to be so close for so long.. his hands were hurting her and it only increased this teasing urgent need she felt. 

“Beg, little mudslut” he whispered into her neck. She felt herself breaking. 

“Please! Please Professor Snape, please let me come!.. I need it! PLEASE sir!!!!” she wailed.   
His hand bit painfully into her breast and she moaned. He hissed in her ear “The next time, I’m going to take your tight little ass and make you bleed, my delicious tainted little know it all! And you’re going to beg me for it, you’re going to thank me in tears while I tear you wide open.” 

Hermione gasped but she was too far gone and the thought just made her even more excited. ‘yes!’ she thought ‘professor Snape fucking me till I scream in pain.. oh God YES! In that second he growled at her “Come now Hermione!”   
He suddenly pinched her clit like a vice and bit down on her throat and the combined sensations sent her sailing over the edge.  
She screamed as her climax roared over her like a freight train, bucking and contracting inward, water splashing.   
In her state she had let go of his cock and he had placed his right hand around himself and brought himself off in two jerks while she splashed and writhed over him, her ass brushing against him in her wild movements. 

His head fell forward, his forehead against her shoulder as he groaned his own breathless release.

 

When they had both come back to earth sufficiently and Hermione lay scooped upon his chest on her side, playing her fingers through his chest hair contentedly Severus spoke softly 

“I was wrong, Hermione, when I said you were exquisite.” he paused. “There is not a word for what you are. You are breathtaking, terrifying. You are a goddess..” 

She looked up at him, unsure what to make of his unexpected words. 

“Was any of what you told me true?” she asked, more curious than anything. 

Severus smirked. “You still think too highly of me..” 

“Oh no.” She corrected. “I’m not saying you couldn’t do it, just that you didn’t do it. Possibly if you had realised at the time how desperately I was panting for you, you might have done something, but then again – I think the Dark Lord would have had your balls if you’d risked your position for a bit of messing about.” 

He grinned now evily, “How did you know?” 

She shrugged noncommittally. “Well for one thing.. I always, always, sleep naked.” 

He sighed. “I must be getting soft in my old age adding a stupid detail like that when I hadn’t checked the facts.” 

She laughed. “Dont hang up your flaming pants just yet. I was this close to buying it.”   
“And even after I realised, god.. you were just so HOT. I actually wanted it to be true.. I must be going stupid.   
Do you know, last night I almost bought the Dark Lord’s line about how I had to help him mend his soul so he could become pretty again and be a nicer person.” She sniggered.

Severus remained silent.   
When he spoke, his voice sounded hollow and slightly guilty. “Hermione..” 

Her ‘trouble is on its way senses’ screamed into life. “Mm?” she said casually.   
“He wishes you to take the dark mark tonight.. Every Death Eater has been informed to be there. ...I will be bringing you to the great hall at ten o clock tonight” 

She felt that enormous “You are missing a vital piece of information” feeling once again that she’d felt in Ginnys cell when she took the oath. 

“Sev?”   
Severus seemed to flinch for some reason at this nickname. She didn’t know why she’d used it.   
“what are you not telling me?” 

He stiffened.   
“The bath is cold. We should get out, the whole day is going by. Shouldn’t waste any more of it.” 

He pushed her off him, not unkindly but firmly and moved toward the side of the bath, climbing out and reaching for a towel.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Some readers may be infuriated by this chapter.

When she came out of the bathroom in her towel, Severus was gone. 

Now she really was worried.   
Something horrible was going to happen to her and it was so bad that even Severus Snape had a guilty conscience about it and couldn’t face being around her any longer in case he accidentally confessed. 

She laughed at herself. Now that really was self indulgent.   
Severus had slept and bathed here but he had no clothes here and of course some people in this place probably had actual work to do.   
Nevertheless she couldn’t quite tamp down the feeling of disquiet. 

Why had the Dark Lord decided she’d take the dark mark today? He hadn’t seemed that eager yesterday.   
As far as she knew his offer had been entirely unexpected and he hadn’t seemed to think she’d take it. 

... there was something wrong, her senses screamed at her! She was missing something!   
The warning blared loud and clear.. ‘you fool, you’ve been had! Run away!   
Its a wand oath, the worst he can do is snap your wand and banish you from the magical community. Well think!!, the magical community is in the toilet and you dont even have a wand to use. What do you have to lose?! RUN!! 

She began to have a surreptitious inkling where the flaw she was ..feeling.. not even seeing..was.   
Where the shard of misconception lay. 

Something she hadn’t noticed.. hadn’t seen because it was hidden. It had tickled at her, at her mind, and she hadn’t known what the feeling was at the time. 

She didn't quite know how she knew it now. 

It was irrational. She had no real..reason..to think it. None at all in fact.   
She didn't know why she had this..feeling - this angry suspicion and this..unaccountable drive to act upon it. 

She couldn’t understand all of the strange feeling yet, couldn’t account for how violently it gripped her and pulled at her mind, it was just a piece of the puzzle..   
but there it was.. 

She needed to see Ginny. 

 

“DILLY!!” she screeched. 

The poor little house elf popped in holding its hands over its ears. 

“Missy is always being yelling at poor Dilly. Dilly hearses Missy even ifn she whispers.” 

“I’m sorry Dilly. I didn’t realise that volume wasn’t a relevant factor. I just really needed you. Can you help me?“ 

Dilly brightened. “What does Missy need, Dilly bring it” 

Hermione crossed her fingers. “No, not bring here this time. Dilly, can you take me to Miss Ginevra Weasley? She should be here somewhere.” 

Dillys ears dropped like flaps on a plane landing on a runway and she started shaking fit to burst.   
“No no missy, Dilly not allowed to take the missy out of this room !! She be having orders to look after missy here and not go nowhere else with her!”

Hermione thought.. “Well.. can you bring Ginevra Weasley here possibly?”

Dilly appeared to consider this and it was clear that the elf remembered the last time Hermione had asked someone to be brought to her.   
“It being important, Missy? Dilly not supposed to bring peoples to Missy”

“Oh its incredibly important, Dilly!!” Hermione reassured her. “But i need you to do two things. Ok? I need you to bring me a watermelon and a knife to cut it so that I-“ 

“NO NO NO!! No knifeys allowed in missys room, Master said!” The elf seemed to pale to a lighter shade of gray.

Hermione thought hard. “Ok... well then can you bring me a tall glass?” 

Dilly thought hard. Obviously the Master hadn’t said anything specifically against glasses. To elves glasses were for drinking and drinking was safe 

“Ok, Dilly bring.” 

“The next thing is, Dilly, after you bring me the glass, could you wait five minutes and then bring me Ginevra Weasley to exactly this spot??” 

The elf nodded “Dilly do.” 

Hermione hesitated.. She wondered..unaccountably.. whether Ginny might have a wand.   
It made absolutely no sense for Ginny to have a wand but the thought was there naggingly in her mind. 

If Ginny had a wand then she might be dangerous. 

She felt dangerous to Hermione’s mind in its current somewhat irrational, strangely compulsive state. 

Hermione decided to see if she could go for the gold. “Dilly..”she asked with a look of trepidation on her face.   
“Missy??” the elf asked, her ears drooping again. 

“When you bring Ginevra Weasley.. do you think you could please bring her without her wand if she has one?   
Its just.. Master said I wasn’t to have any wands and if Ginevra Weasley brings one then Master might be angry with me and punish me.   
...But if you just bring her without her wand, Master will be satisfied and missy – I mean I - won’t get beaten.” 

The little elf nodded wide eyed. “Missy is very wise. Dilly bring the Ginevra Weasley without her wand. Dilly be sad if Master beats missy” 

“There’s only one last thing I need to ask you, Dilly – Please don’t talk to Ginevra Weasley before you bring her here.   
She doesn’t seem to like house elves much and I don’t want her to know your name in case she decides to report you for some imagined offense. I don’t want anyone hurting you Dilly.”   
“I don’t want you hurting yourself either, please! If you ever feel like you need to be punished for anything Dilly, please come to me and I will decide the appropriate punishment. Ok?“

The house elf glowed. 

Hermione thought it bizarre how the little creatures thought it some kind of compliment if their masters took the time to punish them themselves.   
Irritatingly her last conversation with Severus Snape flashed through her mind.   
Perhaps house elves were happy in their own tragic twisted little way, she conceded reluctantly. It was still exploitation.   
She wondered whether she was exploiting the house elf right now by lying to it and having it perform tasks that it would not wish to complete if it understood their purpose. 

Yes. She was. Obviously.

Nevertheless.. her options were limited. She’d just have to make sure that the little elf wasn’t punished later for going along with this.

 

Hermione crouched about a metre from the spot where she had told Dilly to bring Ginny and held her broken glass in the pocket of her robe just in case the elf had orders about anything sharp.

She was feeling unnaturally still. 

Her mind seemed to have stopped twisting and reacting suddenly and she just felt this slow patient deranged determination permeating her.   
The information from her senses reached her slowly, as if from far away. 

Suddenly there was a crack and the elf appeared holding Ginny by the leg and then popped away again virtually instantaneously.   
‘Good Dilly’ Hermione thought darkly as Ginny was swaying and looking around herself dazed.   
Yeah gin. Side-along Apparition per house elf is a bitch isn’t it?! 

Ginny was wearing a very pretty.. very revealing.. cream robe, which showed of her legs and cleavage.   
She was wearing make-up. Or spells approximating it. Her hair was woven intricately on her head.   
She looked like she was off to a very slutty ball.   
Hardly prison garb and a far cry from her appearance only last night.

Hermione launched herself off her haunches, colliding with the back of Ginny and knocking her to the ground where she quickly pinned her arms behind her back and reached for the robe-tie she had laid to the side, binding Ginny’s arms and looping the sash around her neck before tying a few final knots and affixing them. 

“What the hell is going on?!!” screamed Ginny. “Who are you?! Where the fuck am I” 

Hermione didn’t know whether she hoped she was right or hoped she was wrong right now.   
Still sitting on top of Ginny’s ass as she kicked her legs ineffectually and struggled with the tie around her wrists, Hermione held her breath and dragged both of Ginnys robe sleeves up. 

Her heart sank. Ginny had the dark mark. 

Had he glamoured it when she was naked in the cell? Did she not have it then?   
The feeling was clearer now, dull glowing rage within her, but the details were somehow even more clouded.   
What was wrong.. where was the danger located?!   
She fumbled at the feeling inside her and watched the dark mark move and undulate around itself on Ginny’s forearm. 

For a moment it felt like her mind cleared of its stormy swirling.   
Hermione took a deep breath and ran her hand over her face. What was she doing?! She didn’t know if she could do this. It was.. really a bit much.   
But then her mind was whispering at her darkly – this is the last chance.. ever.. to get this traitorous bitch, this WEASEL, in fact..   
If she didn’t do something now, the Dark Lord would be obligated to protect Ginny indefinitely from her, due to the oath that she asked him to make. 

She had thought herself so clever to be getting away with such a good deal for poor little horrible lying nasty Ginny Weasley.   
If she didn’t kill her now she would have to look at the bitch’s face at bloody Death Eater meetings, would have to either cosy up to her and pretend to be ignorant of how royally she was screwed over by her, or acknowledge the ruse and have Ginny rub her invulnerability in her face. 

What had the bitch done to get the Dark Lord to give her such a sweet deal?! 

God.. what if he really did care for her. What if Ginny had been with the Dark Lord since the diary ...   
what if the Dark Lord was just playing with Hermione to get her to somehow fix his soul, and he and Ginny were...

STOP THINKING. Her mind screeched at her DO IT NOW!!! The Dark Lord could arrive at any second. 

‘Yes, yes! Do it now’ she thought. ‘Do it now or they might come and I’ll never have the chance again..   
he’ll protect her...from ME.   
They’ll both be laughing at how stupid I was'. 

Standing, she kicked Ginny over onto her back and sat back down, this time being sure to sit on her thighs.

When Ginny saw her face, lit from within by a dark excitement, she went white.   
Almost as white as the Dark Lord.   
She started to stammer and didn’t seem to know whether to apologise, make excuses or curse her. 

Hermione took a deep breath. “Hi Gin!” she said brightly.   
“I want you to answer some questions. I don’t want you to be difficult or I am going to have to hurt you.”   
“If you don’t believe me, I will be happy to give you a demonstration. I really hope you understand what I’m saying to you here because I am not going to repeat myself.” 

“Now, first question - when did you take the dark mark?” She smiled in a politely inquiring manner.

Ginny gulped and appeared to try to wriggle into the flagstone floor. “Hermione..” she whimpered.

Hermione slapped her hard with the back of her hand across the cheek, sending her head reeling to the side.   
“Answer me Ginny” she said in a sweet voice. 

“Last year! The beginning of last year, I’m sorry! They grabbed me in Hogsmeade; Threatened to kill me. I had to spy on Harry. Please Hermione!! You don’t under—“ 

Hermione frowned at her “That’s enough. You’ve been lying to everyone.. to ME for a long time Ginny. Next question – Where have you been since the battle? Those robes are rather flattering for a cold empty cell where no one will see you.. you were dressed differently last time we met.”

Ginny swallowed, her face pleading “Hermione!! You don’t understand.. you don’t know what they can do..” 

Hermione rolled her eyes, beginning to find her tedious. She wrapped her hand gently around Ginny’s throat and tightened her grip a little to remind her to focus.   
Ginny choked and gasped when Hermione released her throat slightly.   
She responded, her eyes pleading “I-I’ve been in a place with Lucius Malfoy and some of the girls from Hogwarts. We.. we.. have to.. I didn’t want to! but he said he’d put me in the cells if I didn’t. I thought he had when you came.” 

Hermione nodded at her, mock sympathy all over her face.   
Ginny might have been reacting naturally yesterday and not setting her up.   
Then again she might be a lying little weasel like she had apparently been for the last year.   
She seemed to have lied to everyone about her level of awareness with the diary too. Perhaps she was lying now.   
There was no way to be sure. 

“Are you and the Dark Lord..” she faltered. Ginny had wide eyes and was shaking her head urgently.   
“No! no Hermione! What’s wrong with you?! Have you gone mad?!..you were..you were kissing him..that.. how could you do that?!”   
Hermione narrowed her eyes and snarled at her. “Last question Ginny and then I’ll let you go. Tell me what you know about why the Dark Lord wanted so urgently to mark me. Tell me the truth! If I think you’re lying, I’m going to slit your throat with my oh so very muggle weapon” she waved the broken glass before the terrified girl’s eyes. 

Ginny looked ill. She gulped and spluttered 

“I.. I don’t know. He just put me in the cell and told me to pretend I hadn’t met him before. He didn’t tell me why. He told me.. he said If I didn’t play the game he’d send pensieves to my family of...of the things he’s made me do here.”   
“Hermione –whatever it was, it wasn’t me. I’m sorry! I’m so sorry for whatever is going on!!” 

Hermione hardened her heart. “Oh pull the other one Gin, it’s got bells on. This is the same bullshit you sold everyone when you had the diary. ‘It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know. I had to. I’m sorry for whatever I did to you Hermione. Blah Blah Blah. Lies!! Ginny...”   
“You convinced me I was a traitor because I knelt, when you had taken his bloody mark”   
You betrayed me Ginny!”   
“I agreed to take the mark to protect you! To stop anyone from hurting you. You hurt me!“

Ginny was shaking her head frantically saying she was sorry. Hermione sighed 

“I really don’t want to do this you know. I’m sorry but you don’t give me a choice. I can’t trust you. I have to kill you Gin. Because if I don’t I’ll never trust anyone again. And I’ll have to look at your despicable lying face constantly and I won’t be able to do a thing against you and I’ll go mad, Ginny!!!”   
“Madder than I already am, obviously!” 

“I’ll think of that day every time I see you and everything will always have been a big fat LIE. fuck!! I wish I could just Avada you, it would be a nicer death. I would give you that much.” 

Her head dropped..she felt...nothing. just.. nothing. Big gaping piles of NOTHING filling her up completely.   
Her mind was dark.   
...she looked into the eyes of the red haired girl who was lying, bound, petrified stiff, her mouth gaping in shock; pleading soundlessly 

“..Oh Ginny.. you stupid, stupid, sad bitch.. I sold myself to the Dark Lord to save you!” 

She felt tears coursing down her cheeks as she gripped Ginny by the hair, pulling her head up and held the sharpest edge of the broken glass to her carotid artery and sliced along it hard, feeling the hot pulsing blood spray up at her, covering her.

She barely even heard Ginny’s flailing screams or the moment when they finally stopped.   
Ginny had become a red wet object on the floor. There was no Ginny.   
She was completely covered in her blood.. She had just sat there and let it drip down her hair and face.. Like something out of ‘carrie’ she mused incongruously.   
Carry was a fitting parallel. A wronged overly naive girl taking a horrible revenge. 

She thought to herself manically how happy she was to have flagstones instead of carpet. Soon enough there wouldn’t even be a faint mark to show where Ginny had been. 

She stood up wearily and dragged herself into the bathroom, turning on the shower and simply walking inside fully dressed, standing in the spray, not moving for a long time.   
Eventually she began to strip off her robes and underclothes until she stood naked.   
She cranked the water up as hot as she could stand it and then a half an inch more, feeling the pain of the scalding water distract her from the fact that she had just reached a decisive turning point in her life.

There was .. her life before she brutally slit a 16 year old girls throat with a piece of glass.. and her life after she became a bloodthirsty murderess.   
And just think!! tonight she would get to have another decisive moment when she took the dark mark. Wasn’t she just the luckiest girl at the party?! 

She turned off the water. She had to dress, quickly. She needed to see Voldemort’s face when he found Ginny.   
It was important. She needed to know.   
It would give her some rough estimation of exactly how screwed she was likely to be after tonight.   
To judge by Severus’ long face this morning (ah.. this morning.. a mere hour ago. like a different era somehow..) she was going to be pretty screwed in fact. 

Think.   
Think Hermione.   
Why would he want you to take the mark? What does the mark do?! Well... it means he can always find you.   
He can call you to him or can apparate to your side. Can hear if you say his name. Can give you pain..   
What else, what else? She couldn’t think of anything else relevant.   
It wouldn’t be enough to think it was just being able to find her. 

Ok.. stop. Back up. What is the mark.   
She stepped out of the bathroom and skirted delicately the enormous pool of red surrounding the dead girl on the floor and walked all the way around to her wardrobe, pulling out another set of robes for today. 

She chose black. 

She had been tempted to select pink, just to tick the Dark Lord off at his little ceremony later. 

As she was dressing, she thought about the time when she had used a spell that was similar to the one used in the dark mark, in order to enchant galleons to respond to magical command and display messages.   
What did that mean exactly?   
It meant perhaps that by binding things with a mark, you could influence and control the physical configuration of the bound objects.   
You could change the shapes on the galleon. 

What did that mean for a person?! 

Well.. ok.. you could cause them pain. Yes.. proven. 

What if the binding wasn’t equal.. what if it was in only one direction.. as it almost certainly was in the Dark Lords case.. 

What if the mark not only affected the physical state of the bound wizard (or witch as the case may be) but also their magical state? Were the two related?? 

She had moved in the meantime while she thought frantically, over to sit in the chair by the fire where she could see the door.   
She had the vague idea that she wasn’t thinking properly right now. That there was something in the way.   
Perhaps she was in shock, she wondered. 

An idea occurred to her suddenly and she jumped up and retrieved a towel from the bathroom, laying it carefully over Ginnys face. She ran back to the fireside and took the chair with its back to the door, pulling her legs up and waiting.   
Now she was fully hidden.   
This would give her even more information, just so long as the Dark Lord came in through the door and not via apparition. When he first entered, he’d assume it was her body on the floor.   
Then, when he lifted the towel she could see exactly how upset he was at Ginnys loss. 

She reminded herself again that she wasn’t mad. 

She had had to kill Ginny. Beating her once would never be enough for something of this magnitude. 

Was she going to lose control of her magic tonight when the Dark Lord made her take the mark?!   
Where was he anyway, she was getting impatient. What if he wasn’t even coming by today?   
Severus had said that he would come by and get her later for the ceremony. 

Fuck. 

She couldn’t have that. 

She thought for a minute. Where there was a will there was a way. 

After a time she went to the bathroom and got another towel. It was marvellous they way they just replaced themselves infinitely. It reminded her somehow of a box of tissues. Such a wonderful bathroom!   
She went out to the other room and carefully took off her outer robe and hung it over the chair.   
Wouldn't want it to get messy. She wanted to wear it later, after all. 

She laughed a high pitched, unbalanced laugh, her thoughts slow and surreal. 

She knew there was something wrong with her thinking.. that everything was skewed somehow.. but she couldn’t understand why and couldn’t stop. Everything just seemed to unfold automatically and irreversibly now ever since she’d somehow had that strange dizzy foreknowledge sensation after Severus had left. 

After much consideration she took off the charcoal underrobe also. Now she was only standing in her black bra and thong. 

She took the towel and gingerly dipped it in Ginnys blood pooling all over the floor, then wrapped the towel around her arm and went into the bathroom, closing the door. 

“Dilly” she whispered. 

The little house elf popped into the bathroom looking perky and pleased with herself. When she saw Hermione with the bloody towel wrapped around her arm her face fell in dismay and she started to fuss at top volume   
“MISSY!! WHAT HAS MISSY DONE?! OH ME!! MASTER GOING TO BE ANGRY! “ 

“DILLY!” Hermione cut through the elfs shrill cries impatiently. “Go and tell Master missy is hurt and I’ll be in the bedroom, ok?” The house elf nodded and popped away. 

Hermione dropped the towel to the floor and raced out the bathroom door launching herself into the chair from two metres away and curling up into a ball hiding. She wasn’t a moment too soon. 

The Dark Lord cracked into the room and a heavy silence fell.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are always appreciated - also, I update stories that get reviews way more often than stories that don't. Just saying... If you want more - let your voice be heard.

The Dark Lord cracked into the room and a heavy silence fell.

He stood a moment stock still and looked around and then seemed to notice Ginny. 

“...Hermione?!” he shouted and actually ran full pelt across the room to the body on the floor skidding in the blood to a halt and dropping to his knees. It was so peculiar to see the dignified..not to say terrifying..dark lord frantic on the floor. 

Hermione peered out from around the edge of the chair cautiously. 

The expression on the Dark Lord’s face was terrible. He looked horrified and wounded.. As if he were reaching for someone he cared for..   
Could he tell it was Ginny already perhaps? Was that why? 

Was his hand shaking?! 

She watched as the Dark Lord reached for the red and white towel over Ginnys head.. he reached and drew back his hand hesitating and then finally seemed to steel himself and twitch the towel away from her face.. 

His expression metamorphosed rapidly.. his shock and horror turned to blinding relief, then rage.. oh wow.. God he looked pissed.. But then his expression changed again and became...thoughtful. 

“Hermione?....” he called gently as if trying to summon a timid cat. “Hermione... I know you’re here.. come out.. I’m not angry.. Don’t make me look for you, there aren’t that many places to hide here.” 

She uncurled herself from the chair and stood up. 

Voldemort looked at her confused and she remembered that she was only wearing a bra and thong.   
She looked down at herself and inspected her bloody arm. That would have to be washed before she would put her robes back on. 

He saw her arm and jumped up, striding over to her and turning her arm over and over.   
“you are unhurt.” He stated finally, looking into her eyes speculatively.

“Yes” she said. 

“Or no! I am hurt. You conned me!!” 

“What is all this about?” he waved in a general circle about him. “How did ..this.. get here and what happened? Why are you standing in your underwear.. not that I mind you standing in your underwear necessarily, it is merely.. unusually underdressed for a bloodbath.” 

Hermione responded matter of factly 

“Ginny is here because I had her brought here. She’s dead because I killed her” 

The Dark Lord’s eyes widened slightly and she thought she detected something approaching approval 

“-And I am in my underwear because I needed to convince Dilly I was injured in order to get you here so that I could see your face upon finding her, and I didn’t want to dirty my robes.” 

The Dark Lord appeared to require a moment to digest. He turned away and moved to sit in the chair by the fire. 

“Are you telling me, Hermione, that in the.. oh.. lets generously call it two hours, give or take, since Severus left this morning you for some inexplicable reason designed and carried out a murder in..what would appear to be relatively cold blood to judge by the way the girl is tied.. which also involved not getting your preferred robes dirty so that you didn’t have to choose another for the ceremony?” 

Lord Voldemort had steepled his fingers before him and was looking rather introspective. 

“I suppose.” Hermione responded. 

He immediately drew his wand and drew a sigil in the air in front of him, igniting it with a tap. 

A few moments later Severus apparated in and did a rapid shocked scan of the situation  
..blood, dead ginevra, Hermione in her underwear.   
He raised an eyebrow and stepped cautiously forward. “My Lord?.. Have I missed a party of some kind?” 

Lord Voldemort smiled a wan smile. 

“I am not sure what to think, Severus. I think I have..or we have been some kind of ..bad influence.. on Hermione.”   
“..At least.. I don’t recall any rumours of a body count while she was at Hogwarts” 

Severus turned to look at the body on the floor again. “it was Hermione?!” he said incredulously.   
She stared at him coolly. 

“So it seems” the Dark Lord responded with faint astonishment and pride still clinging to the edges of his voice. 

“It appears Hermione has absolved me of my part of our wand oath without forcing me to release her from her promise, since I truly.. had no inkling she intended to butcher Miss Weasley on her bedroom floor.. 

“Yes.. I’ve thought about that” Hermione mused aloud. “I’ve decided you can break my wand. I’ll go live in the muggle world, if you like. I don’t want to take the mark.“ 

The Dark Lord leapt to his feet “WHAT?! You can’t do that! You agreed! “ he thundered. 

“Yes well you’re a liar. You tricked me into agreeing. In the worst possible way you set me up..   
I ..I stupidly believed you. I believed all of it.. All the things you said. I didn’t realise until..”  
She lost her grip on where she was going with the thought and grasped at the closest flapping string of meaning. 

“..it only struck me this morning just what my mind had been trying to tell me. The pieces that weren’t quite right in the whole business.   
I don’t know why you want me to take your mark but I don’t want it. I don’t choose it!! I retract my decision.   
Toss me out of the wizarding world., see if I care” She folded her arms and glowered at him.

“But if that is what you want, why did you kill Ginevra, Hermione” Severus asked, bemused. 

“BECAUSE SHE BETRAYED ME!”

“Because she sold my freedom with her lies!” 

“Because.. Sev..” she observed him flinch again “If I somehow were forced to go through with it, I couldn’t stand to have to face that horrid cow’s deceitful face all the bloody time knowing that there was not a damn thing I could do to her.   
That she was protected BY THE DARK LORD AS A REWARD FOR BETRAYING ME!! 

“I had to destroy her Just in case. ...If I had to look at her every day.. Merlin.. if I had to look at her once a year, knowing, and not being able to do anything at all in any way, I’d go mad.”   
Her mind added, entirely against her will – ‘I needed to see how Voldemort looked at her dead body. I needed to know what she was to him.’ 

The Dark Lord looked at her, taken aback.. He rose and walked very slowly and cautiously, as if not to frighten her, until he stood before her and looked down into her defiant hurt eyes. “you were jealous?!” he murmured, in a tone of wonder. “You orchestrated and carried out this...truly marvellously bloodthirsty and ice-cold murder, unhindered by the small fact that you were locked, wandless, in a room while your target was.. anywhere.. possibly armed – You did this because you were concerned that I might care for Ginevra?   
...That I had lied to you about..what I thought of you” the Dark Lord seemed bemused and flattered. 

“NO! Thats not true. I already told you why I did it” Hermione cried but it sounded hollow to her own ear. 

Severus looked aghast. “Hermione? Really?” he appeared to think and then looked faintly impressed. 

“Fine.” The Dark Lord spat, turning away.   
“If you will not accept my mark, I cannot force you to take it. I will release you from your part of the wand oath. You do not have to leave unless you want to. Should you choose to, I will have Severus take you wherever you wish to go and leave you there.”

“But you will not return if you decide to leave, Hermione! I will not allow it. I will not ..pander.. to this kind of behaviour.”   
He stared into the fire again and there was a bitter look on his face. 

Hermione felt wrong-footed. That was not expected. He wasn’t supposed to say that.. She didn’t know what to make of this statement. She turned to Severus and he raised an eyebrow, his expression screamed “I don’t know either!!” 

The Dark Lord seemed to remember something and spun..rounding on Severus.. “Oh yes. Now I remember, that was why I summoned you Severus. What did you both talk about this morning? I want to see it. I want to know what led to... this.” 

Severus looked uneasy. “My Lord? We talked about – “ 

“No, Severus, show me.!” 

Hermione exchanged a look with Severus, who swallowed. 

“Show me from the moment you woke up until the moment you left. Should there be any missing time you will feel my anger”   
Severus expression showed his resignation. He appeared to expect to be punished whatever the outcome at this point.   
He strode to the Dark Lord and opened his mind to him. 

Hermione stood and wrung her hands and tried to think why the idea that she could freely leave didn’t fill her with jubilation. She should be over the moon, deciding between the Caribbean or a south pacific island.   
Instead she felt.. forlorn.   
This morning she had awoken, curled in the embraces of the two most brilliant wizards on the planet and had felt..warm.. and now she was a murderess facing what inexplicably felt like self imposed exile. 

The Dark Lord had seemingly finished scanning through Severus memories.. he turned to her and his red eyes glinted lustfully.. Oh Hermione..you are so.. deliciously.. twisted.. my dear. Oh how I desire you.. Why can you not simply accept me as your lord and let me enjoy you as we both know you desperately want me to.. Why must you fight so?”

Hermione looked at him sadly. “Because i can feel the lie.. I just can’t make out where it is yet. I can feel the trap closing around me and its worse because I wish it all were not an illusion.” 

“This morning, when I woke up.. I was happy. It was too hot, but still –...” 

“But everything is just lies and manipulation. If I let myself believe anything around me then I’m a fool. I don’t believe it when you say you’ll let me leave. It’s just a ploy to make me think i’m not in a cage.   
Like this room..these robes.. all your attention.” 

“Its very simple. You want something from me. You require my willing participation..submission even, to get it..and you are using honey rather than vinegar.   
When you saw Ginny and believed it was me, I thought you were upset, but it was self interest wasn’t it?!” 

The Dark Lord’s face displayed nothing. She rounded on Severus. “and you!”   
He sneered at her. She ignored it   
“You know what it is.. You knew this morning and you believe I don’t deserve whatever it is happening to me! Yet you would stand by and watch it anyway, whatever it is.   
I can’t trust you Severus!, although I desperately wish I could. I always have.   
To have the chance to be this close to you, to actually talk with you...” 

“But it doesn’t matter. I finally understand that you have no ideals, no principles, no loyalties bar that to him.” 

“ENOUGH!!” the Dark Lord roared and his magic flared out like an explosion, like waves of fire. 

Severus and Hermione both dropped like stones, falling to the floor whimpering and mewling, unable to move for the prickling wonderful threatening heat of his magic.   
The stifling glorious weight of it shifted and flexed now as the Dark Lord paced in front of the fireplace. 

Hermione managed to turn her eyes up toward professor Snape who, it seemed, was overpowered by the same ecstasy as herself at present. He groaned in joy.   
She wanted to be closer to him. She wanted the Dark Lord to come over and join them all. She felt so apart like this..   
none of this really mattered. If she could just stay around them both - did it matter if she was locked in a box and had her magic taken away?

“You believe I will take your magic away from you, Hermione?” The Dark Lord sounded shocked. 

‘It doesn’t matter’, her mind sang. ‘Just come closer’ 

The Dark Lord walked toward Hermione and Severus and they each moaned at the shifting velvet firestorm of raw magic undulating over them.. He crouched down onto his haunches looking at them both and sighing. 

“Oh Hermione.. What am i going to do with you?! You are..infuriating..and yet I find myself showing you mercy over and over again.   
Have you any idea how ridiculous the idea that Ginevra Weasley might appeal to me really is?   
But that wasn’t it, exactly, was it – you were afraid that that kiss.. the one I gave you, was a lie.” 

“But you can feel the truth!.” 

“You are mine because your magic chose mine, Hermione.   
The fact that I want you, just as I can feel you want me too, is but a side effect of that fundamental truth.”

“You fear i will take your magic away.. but which Death Eater ever lost their magic by taking my mark? What use would they be if they became powerless?   
All my mark can do is prevent you from doing harm to my person.. and allow us to find each other when we need to.   
And since..I can feel that you have no desire to do harm to me.. if you really do not want it, I will not ask you to take it.” 

“It...bothers me that you would renounce the wizarding world just to refuse my gift.   
I have already told you twice what I wish from you. I did not lie.   
I will tell you again under veritaserum if you really insist on being so tedious.   
Isn’t the thing you really desire right here, Hermione? I know you don’t really wish to leave. You were disappointed when I suggested it.” 

The Dark Lord reached down and picked up Severus hand. Hermione watched the potions master toss his head in bliss. She desperately wanted.. needed.. that. 

He turned to her. “I can feel your hunger right now Hermione. He raised Severus hand and placed a soft kiss to the inside of his wrist and the man writhed, his back arching in pleasure his lips whispering ‘My Lord..Yes’   
“But I am ..hurt. I invited you to join us. I offered more than a brief tryst. I offered you...”   
He turned away, his face dark.   
“-And Severus! Although he was afraid that you might supplant him, he still showed that he was prepared to accept you. And you say you want to leave! You tell me I deceived you.” 

“YOU MADE ME BELIEVE YOU WERE DEAD, HERMIONE!”   
“In that puddle of blood over there, I mourned you”   
The Dark Lords voice was cold and hard and it penetrated her vulnerable body in the maelstrom of magic like nails from a gun. She wanted to weep.. and then she realised she was already weeping and must have been for some time. 

“Please don’t send me away” she whimpered, heartbroken. 

The Dark Lord, still holding Severus hand, now placed it down against Hermione’s cheek, being careful not to touch her skin with his own hand. For a moment, while he touched Severus hand, and Severus touched her, it was as if all things in the universe were balanced. Everything was right with the world.   
Then he released Severus hand and the strongest note dropped out of the chord.   
It was still a faint warmth, but it was..less.. There was no other way to describe it. 

He scaled his magic back slowly until she found herself able to function again. It was still there, thrumming, but she could sit up. She noticed Severus next to her reacting the same way. He looked at her sheepishly and his face took on a note of sorrow.   
“..Hermione..” he said softly “I should not have left you this morning. What have you done?!” 

She looked away ashamed. 

“I am not angry over..this” the Dark Lord waved his hand vaguely in the direction of the body. “In fact I am pleased that you took the chance you correctly perceived would soon be gone, to avenge your friend’s betrayal.   
As you say... you expected better from her - she was a false friend. I would have done the same thing.”   
his face hardened. “But you have ..hurt me.. and you have spurned both of us. ...Will you be leaving?” 

He waited, tension written all over his body. 

She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. Every logical rational inch of her screamed at her to say yes!   
\- To leave if this was truly being offered to her..but.. she found she didnt want to..   
She wished she could think clearly.   
That infernal..wonderful..hum..of the Dark Lords magic was still there faintly. She felt it like a fire in a chilly room and wished she could move closer. She could see that he knew it too. 

“Severus. Stay with her. I have to deal with things. Celebrations to cancel, you know..” He snarled and apparated out of the room. 

It was like the fire went out and left only a candle in the darkness. She felt tears burst anew from her eyes and looked at Severus, who seemed to be almost sympathetic. He lifted a hand to her and she rushed into his arms, clinging to him as if the world was ending.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/reviews are encouraged and will receive a response

Severus stood and held her gently, her form wrapped around him, swaying slightly in a manner she faintly recalled from childhood when she was being comforted in the midst of hysterical crying.   
Which was appropriate, since she was crying her eyes out and didn’t think she’d be able to stop any time soon.  
After a long while he sighed heavily and pulled away.

She thought he would now leave her too and tried to hold on to him but instead of departing, he only bent and lifted her under the knees, cradling her to his chest and walking over to the chair by the fire that the Dark Lord had been sitting in when he arrived, lowering them both down together.

She buried her face in his neck sobbing and he let her, his hand stroking her head slowly. 

The fire cracked and in time she found she could stop crying.   
She felt as if she had been pulled through a wringer backwards and she also felt.. guilty.. but not in the way she knew she should. And that was strange.   
She should be tormented about Ginny. 

She knew it to be the case..but she found she still felt an odd little sense of satisfaction about Ginny.   
‘The Dark Lord was proud of me” a silibant little voice inside her hushed. 

She felt guilty because she had said nasty things to this man who was now holding her, comforting her, things she had tried to hurt him with.   
His skin was warm and soft against her nose and forehead. She lifted her face and inhaled slightly, wondering if he would smell of tangerine and elderflower, but no.. his soft, soft, skin had a different unfamiliar scent. It was very pleasant for all its unfamiliarity. She sniffed again and her nose tickled slightly when his voice rumbled low through his throat where her nose was pressed.   
“Bergamot” he said lowly.   
“You couldn’t really have expected me to enter the assembled ranks of the death eaters smelling like a fruit basket, could you?” 

She had the feeling he was smirking and raised her tear streaked face to see him. He was. And more..   
He was...so professor Snape...suddenly.   
She was sitting in professor Snape’s lap being held. How did life become this wonderful so rapidly. 

“You have a strange way of showing your happiness Miss Granger” he said sadly. 

Her face crumpled and she looked away, unable to look him in the eye any longer.   
“I’m sorry..” she aspirated. “I shouldn’t have said those things to you.” 

He appeared to consider this carefully. “How do you feel?” she caught the inflection now – she was back to being Miss Granger, for him.   
It hurt, she found. The distance he imposed.   
He had called her Hermione earlier. 

She looked back up into his eyes wearily.   
“Old..” she whispered. “And confused.”

He nodded slowly. After a long pause he spoke again, tentatively. “Will you allow me to look into your mind? I need to know..what happened here.” 

She looked away startled and unsure. She realised she felt..embarrassed. 

“Why?!” she asked quickly. 

“Please..” he interrupted her before she could slip into a lengthy distracting rant.   
She stopped, her eyes flicking wildly about for a moment and she felt his warm hand stroke down her back. 

“I need to understand, Hermione.” 

After a long hesitation she turned to him and opened her eyes but he shook his head slightly and she felt him lifting her body, shifting her position until she lay in the crook of his right arm, curled like a child in a tender embrace.   
She felt..strangely comforted, looking up at him.   
His other hand moved to stroke the hair away from her face and then retrieved his wand. He looked into her eyes and murmured “legilimens.” 

When she felt him enter her mind it was nothing like the Dark Lord. He was somehow rougher, though she had the feeling he did not mean to be. Her recent memories since he had arrived were paged through rapidly and then she found herself back in the bath, watching him depart, his back broad, droplets running down it, a towel slung around his sexy hips.   
The man was sex on legs! 

From far off she could almost feel a smirk at her appellation. 

Then she remembered again as she stood wrapped in a towel and came to her moment of anomalous realization, ranted internally, sat and planned, manipulated a house elf – she thought she felt an alien sense of faint surprise there – then she was crouching on the floor.   
The memory of the murder seemed to go on and on, it was as if her every sense was on high alert, she wished she could close her eyes to it but eyes weren’t really a factor here. 

When the memory progressed to the place where Severus apparated into the room she felt him let go of the strand gently.. But instead of withdrawing from her mind as she had expected, he now suddenly seemed to thrust back into the depth of her memory, flipping backwards rapidly. She saw herself running the bath, then she was lying naked in bed pressed between Severus and the Dark Lord..   
he lingered there a moment observing her discomfort and suffocation at the heat and her soft inner happiness despite it. 

The scene flicked back further and he was kneeling over her, healing her while the Dark Lord held her gently in his arms. He seemed to focus in on the moment when her scar suddenly healed. Feeling that cooling rushing flow moving through her. 

She felt him withdraw slightly and then he pushed forward again and the scene shifted and she was looking at his dripping naked form and it flicked again and she was on her knees between the Dark Lord’s legs, his cock in her mouth.   
He paused momentarily apparently indecisively.   
Her head was beginning to throb uncomfortably. 

It felt like he ripped into her suddenly and her memory of Ginnys cell suddenly rose to the surface and she was forced to experience the whole episode over again.   
It was horrible. In its way it was worse than the murder. She felt so much pain and confusion and shame and desperation. 

Her head was really beginning to thump achingly now. It really hurt when Severus jumped forward to the moment Lord Voldemort brought them back to her room. He paged quickly, pausing when the Dark Lord transfigured his appearance for the second time in a few hours. He watched what ensued from her perspective. 

Hermione was confused and slightly embarrassed to be sharing this with him but he apparently had no intention of pulling back and giving her privacy as the Dark Lord began to kiss and caress her naked body in his transfigured form.   
She wanted to blush as she remembered her blinding pleasure and then the Dark Lord collapsed shivering and panting into his true shape, clearly wracked by pain.   
She could almost taste Severus disapproval of her selfishness to bring him to this state. 

Indeed, she felt ashamed now remembering it. 

She watched herself begin to kiss and lick his chest and felt what had to be Severus mental equivalent of a facepalm.   
But the Dark Lord had said her touch soothed him! She wondered..   
They watched the memory of her pleasuring the Dark Lord and somewhere.. in another universe.. she felt Severus’ hand stroke down her body tenderly.   
When the Dark Lord arched and collapsed and she remembered her panic, the memory sped up as Severus flicked through his appearance and disappearance. 

Her head was killing her. It felt like Severus had driven two thick long nails into her temples.   
She wasn’t sure but his hand might have brushed soothingly across her forehead. 

She remembered herself again sitting by the still, ashen form of the Dark Lord wanting desperately to help him, tortured by worry and guilt at the change to his beautiful proud form that she was to blame for. She watched herself place her hand over his heart and felt that cool rushing flow again. 

This time experiencing the memory she understood somehow. She had done something to heal him. 

Had she truly given him some of her magic as she had wanted to so urgently in that moment? 

She cramped suddenly as the world suddenly returned and Severus arms tightened around her, holding her to his chest and making Shhhh shhh sounds. It hurt!

“What did you do?!” she choked out. “I am sorry Hermione” he ground out “I had to know.. I should not have stayed so long in your mind..moved through your memories so much. ..I was concerned that you might not willingly show me those memories if I withdrew and asked you for them.” 

He removed one hand from around her body and fumbled around in the pocket of his robe. She heard faint clinking. 

He pulled out a tiny vial of blue liquid, uncorking it with his thumb and pressing it to her tight lips.   
She glared at him through the wretched throbbing clenching ache in her head contracting all her body toward the centre. 

“Drink it!” he urged. “it will make the pain fade” 

Grudgingly she parted her lips, hoping she wouldn’t regret it.   
Severus just seemed to demonstrate over and over that she shouldn’t trust him - yet over and over again her heart wanted to. 

He tipped the acidly lemon flavoured trickle of liquid into her mouth and she swallowed it.   
It didnt taste bad at all.

Presently she felt the pain lift sharply. 

Things also took on a distinct haze of unreality. 

“...drugg me?..” she slurred horrified through numbing lips. 

“A side effect.” He whispered at her widening eyes.   
He replaced the vial in his pocket and wrapped his arm around her. She felt quite removed from things now.   
She could see him above her with concern in his eyes wrapping his arm around her again and pulling her tight against his chest. 

Everything was fine. She was warm and comfortable and nothing was wrong in the world. She thought she might possibly sleep.. but when she closed her eyes she realised she wouldn’t. Didn’t need to.   
She opened them again and gazed at the intricate weave of Severus’ black frock coat.   
It was interesting the way the lines tangled. 

Her eye wandered to the row of tiny black buttons. 

With difficulty she dragged a strangely dull and unresponsive hand to slap against his chest.   
Oops.. hadn’t meant to do that. Hand isn’t working properly she observed idly. Her numb thick feeling fingers twitched and brushed against the buttons she had wanted to touch. 

Shortly, she felt an odd dizzy shift and realised Severus was lifting her body up. Her head lolled and he lifted his arm to catch it, positioning her to sit upright on his lap and adjusting her head to lean back against his right shoulder.   
He tilted his body and raised his other arm. She stared interestedly at the black line of it bisecting the world, feeling his voice vibrate against her ear through the cloth. 

“Look Hermione. Look at the flames” 

Her eyes followed his arm to his pointing hand and on till she noticed the fireplace.   
She gasped breathily in wonder. Tongues of purple and orange and red and yellow and white flame danced.   
When she looked at it it was like it seemed to shift, sometimes licking and twisting slowly like liquid, then flickering and glittering rapidly like a shimmer.

“s pretty” she observed solemnly. 

“It is” he agreed seriously.   
“Shall I make it prettier, Hermione?” he asked in a voice like one might use on a very small child. 

“How?” she wondered aloud. “yesss..” she said, her fingers twitching again as she tried ineffectually to lift her arm toward the flames. 

He chuckled softly. “Watch the pretty flames, Hermione and I’ll show you.” 

He drew his wand again from his left pocket, pointing it at the fireplace. He murmured and she watched delighted as the flames shifted and became liquidlike. A large ball of flame hovered like the sun radiating flames outward. It split into two smaller spheres and then four that circled as if being juggled invisibly. 

One of the balls became a hand and appeared to catch and toss the other balls which sharpened into stars with points of shivery purple flame tongues. 

Hermione stared, enraptured.   
Severus eyes flickered across her face and then back to the fire. 

The balls and hand melted together and rolled, the mass undulating in golden orange light. Suddenly a very lifelike cat of orange and white fire stood and arched its back, turning in a circle, appearing to fixate at them both with slitted red glittering eyes, its orange and white tail flicking back and forth before curling up into a ball within the hearth. 

Hermione giggled at the sight. Crookshanks.. the Dark Lord... Cats didn't sleep in the fire. 

“Just for you, my sweet Hermione” rumbled Severus into her ear. 

He whispered and the cat fell apart into flames and then they melted into the indistinct shapes of a woman in a ball-gown dancing with a male figure in circles around and around the fireplace. They were the most intricate illusion yet.. the figures moving so realistically, like tiny people.

“You were so beautiful that night.” Severus whispered and sounded pained. “I wanted..desperately.. to dance with you” he breathed into her ear. 

“I love you, profess..ess...sss” she trailed off, seeming to lose her trail of thought in the fascinating feeling of the silibant S sound, startled when she felt his arms clutch her tightly, his cheeks wet. 

“Hermione..” he moaned softly, sounding so sad “Don’t leave me”. His voice dropping into choked breathlessness. 

She watched the little people dance and then they stopped and the male dancer held the female close and kissed her passionately.   
Her heart gave a faint twitch almost like pain, that faded away immediately. Severus stroked her hair as if she were something fragile. The couple became ragged at the edges and then collapsed into flames again. The fireplace returned to normal. 

She watched the flames peacefully while Severus gripped her tightly, his head resting against hers. 

After some time a crack sounded. “Severus?” the Dark Lord’s voice called impatiently. 

“Here, my lord.” Severus responded softly. 

There were brisk steps and then the Dark Lord stood by the chair, his posture aggressive. Looking down at them both and taking in her state, the sharp angle of his shoulders shifted slightly in surprise. 

She gazed up at him serenely. His face was even more interesting to watch than the flames. Bright and white and smooth and delicate boned.   
His red eyes were so glittery and strange with their black vertical slits.   
She wanted to lick them. 

He drew back startled, confusion all over his face and raised his perfect hairless brow, his eyes sliding to Severus who seemed quite amused. 

“I looked at her memories, My Lord. I was a little..overeager. I gave her some reddock juice for the pain..   
she is currently...” he snorted “feeling no pain.. as they say” 

The Dark Lords lips quirked.. “Yes.. i noticed. Apparently she would like to lick my eyeballs.” 

She felt Severus laughing beneath her. 

“Leave her, I would speak with you, my servant” 

Severus appeared reluctant and didn’t move. 

“Oh for ..” the Dark Lord was impatient. He abruptly reached forward and plucked her from Severus, lifting her carefully in his arms and carrying her to the other chair. He placed her down gently to lie in it with her legs resting over the arm, grumbling under his breath and then whispered something, moving his hand in a strange pattern.   
A small emerald green snake materialised coiled around his fingers.   
He inspected it and stroked its diamond shaped head with a fingertip. Its eyes became glittering red. 

He dropped it to Hermione’s lap and turned, striding across the room to the body on the floor. 

Severus had risen now and followed him with a faint concerned backward glance at her. 

“Oh stop, you sap.” The Dark Lord grumbled. “Do you think I would hurt her?!” 

Severus gave him a slow even look. 

“Well I have no intention of hurting her at this moment. Satisfied? Good. Come and see this.”   
The Dark Lord turned and crouched next to the body. 

Hermione shifted her attention to the small green creature coiling silently upon her abdomen.   
She had never had a phobia of snakes. She hadn’t really seen that many before except in the zoo.   
She had a vague feeling she should be..something.. other than entirely entranced right now. 

It was a lovely little thing.   
Each shining green scale seemed to twinkle in the firelight. 

She fought with her heavy ponderous limbs to lift her hand. She didn’t want to hurt the small creature.  
She shifted her hand jerkily four or five inches until it lay over a coil of the snake, wishing her fingers weren’t so deadened so that she could feel the smooth cool texture of its body. 

Concentrating and felt a tiny faint trickle of cold within her. What had she been doing again? Her finger twitched.

“-with this” the Dark Lords voice floated over to her. He was holding the broken glass that had rolled under the bed earlier. “the cut shows no hesitation slips, no nervous jag..”   
Severus was crouched low, looking at Ginny’s neck. 

“I watched the memory, my Lord. Her mind was ...quite strange. She felt some measure of..regret.. in a cold distant manner but did not falter a second in carrying out what she had planned to do if she found Ginevra had betrayed her.   
She was most concerned about being caught and stopped by you before she could do it.   
I am not sure but I believe that if she had been certain she would be undisturbed, she may possibly have taken her time with the act.” 

Hermione agreed placidly with his judgement and turned her attention back to the snake.   
It was moving. Its body uncoiling and slithering up her chest, raising its head and wavering before her.   
It rose up, balancing itself on the long muscle of its body, tiny red slitted eyes fixated her as its head moved hypnotically and a little pink forked tongue darted out to taste the air.   
She wanted to stroke it.   
It ventured forward slowly and butted its pointed nose lightly against her cheek. She blinked at it slowly. 

It was like a little dark lord with its eyes. But it shouldn’t be green. It should be white. 

She felt a stronger trickle of cold slip down her spine and the green colour melted off the snake, dripping down its body as if washed off under a stream of water. 

The snake appeared to twist and inspect itself, turning back to her and moving close to her face again, its tongue darting out and tickling over the skin of her chin momentarily.   
Now it looked like the Dark Lord.   
Its red glinting eyes mustered her from its white head. 

Oh but she really, really wished she could pet it now.

“-happening too quickly, Severus” the Dark Lord was saying. She focused on her arm struggling to force it to obey her.   
It was so heavy and dull. 

“My Lord!!” she saw Severus looking at her alarmed. He looked quite amusing like that.   
The Dark Lord stalked over to her hurriedly and tore the snake off her, inspecting it. 

Now there were two dark lords blinking at each other with glinty red eyes. She wanted to clap at the sight. 

The Dark Lord glared down at her suspiciously.   
“..So you can do more than merely heal, my pet. What am I to do with you?!” 

“kiss me” she slurred “fixed th snake.” 

He dropped to kneel by her chair, his eyes suddenly strangely feverish. “So you did, sweet girl. Show me! Make it   
black” 

she thought the snake was wonderful white. It wouldn’t want to be black. It looked like the Dark Lord like this.   
She looked at the small snake watching her, coiled around the Dark Lord’s pale hand. It didn’t need fixing.   
She looked back to the Dark Lord. He needed fixing. He wasn’t happy.   
She thought he looked good this way, like the snake, he was so much more interesting to look at this way.   
But she knew he wanted... 

She concentrated hard through the fuzz in her mind and pulled at..something.. she had no words for it..but a big coldness rushed through her and she watched with interest as the Dark Lords face changed.   
Where he had a flattened expanse with small angled slits the flesh rose up and formed itself into his beautiful roman nose. Black hair sprouted at his brows and all over his head and lengthened rapidly. 

It was just like grass, she mused dreamily. Watching the grass grow. 

The Dark Lord became aware of the changes in his field of vision and jerked back from her, falling in disarray onto his buttocks, the snake-free hand flying to his face, moving over his skin.   
His face contorted in extreme shock and then he discovered his hair. 

“Aaugh!” he cried and it was equal parts shock and joy. 

He dropped the snake, tore his wand out and pointed at the bricks of the fireplace “spiegelum” he hissed and sat and stared, dumbfounded. 

He looked..almost exactly..like his Tom Riddle form except blinding marble white with ruby red slitted eyes.   
It gave him an appearance more like a fallen angel.   
Regal. Ethereally beautiful but dark and otherworldly. 

He turned to Severus who had rushed to crouch next to him at his cry and looked almost as confused, shocked and emotional as himself.   
The Dark Lord opened his mouth and said nothing, gaping almost helplessly 

She giggled and their faces flew to her in synchrony, matching one another in fear and awe. 

“Happy now? She burbled. I liked your other face more though” 

“NO!!!” the Dark Lord screamed “STUPIFY!!”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and reviews increase the frequency of updates and always receive a response

Hermione rolled away from the sunlight streaming down onto her pillow and pulled the blankets over her head.   
Ugh.. she remembered the irritating way her mother would bustle into her room on Saturday mornings at an ungodly hour and tear open the curtains with a “rise and shine sleepyhead, you’re wasting the day” or something to that effect.   
She had always felt particularly peeved off because it was almost invariably the holidays and she had nothing pressing to do and sleeping in was what Saturdays were for, for Merlin’s sake. 

But she wasn’t at home, and she hadn’t the foggiest notion what day it was, and why were the bloody curtains open?! 

Her head felt slightly fuzzy and when she tried to think about last night she only remembered vague highlights.

Oh god. Lord Voldemort had yelled at her and Severus had cuddled her and something happened.. she had the faint feeling something had happened to the fireplace. 

She peeked out of the blankets, scrunching her eyes up at the fireplace. Still there.   
But the fireplace dimmed in importance now because Lucius Malfoy sat in her chair by the fire in elegant pale blue and midnight robes, his hands resting on the silver snake head of his cane stood between his legs- and he was leaning forward now and watching her with interest. 

She jerked as adrenalin flooded her sleep addled mind. 

FUCK!! What was he doing in her room?! 

God.. did the Dark Lord know he was here?! 

The indistinct memory returned that the Dark Lord was a bit ticked off with her right now. He had been yelling! 

Surely at least Severus wouldn’t let him..   
But this too fell away as she knew quite well that Severus, whether he was overjoyed about it or not, would do whatever the Dark Lord wanted him to, even and including leaving her in a room with Lucius Malfoy, who he also in the past hadn’t seemed to regard as that much of a threat. 

“Ah miss Granger, you’ve risen I see. I’m so glad! I had hoped the light might gently nudge you into wakefulness, I was getting impatient with waiting. It was going to be an aguamenti next.” He smiled disarmingly.

She became aware of another unpleasant fact in her world. Whoever put her to bed had removed her bra and thong. 

She blushed. “Lord Malfoy.” She acknowledged as politely as she could manage. “ I wasn’t aware you would be visiting me this morning or I would have risen earlier.”   
'Come on, come on-', she thought.. 'what can I say to make him go away or at least leave the room while I dress?!'

“Do you think you might return in perhaps ten minutes, sir, so that i might get up and dress appropriately?” 

“Oh I don’t believe so, miss Granger”   
he smiled broadly, exposing his teeth wolfishly. “But I would be pleased to assist you in whatever manner you might require.” 

Now she began to get quite worried. He was not going to leave no matter what she said. She could tell.   
She didn’t want to yell or curse because she knew this man had another side and she preferred the overly genteel Lucius that was currently referring to her as Miss Granger rather than the sadist who would enjoy raping and torturing the mudblood. 

“It’s quite alright Lord Malfoy.” She ground out “I don’t require any assistance dressing.” 

She wrenched the sheet out from under the covers and wrapped it around herself. 

“I’ll be right back” 

She climbed gingerly out of the bed, her legs visible to mid thigh for a few seconds before the sheet fully escaped the bed and fell in folds around her. Lucius’ eyes glinted, crawling over her body. He seemed on the brink of standing.

Hermione didn’t think it wise to remain where she was for much longer. She turned and quickly strode to the wardrobe. 

“It was unfortunate that I could not meet you the other day, Lord Malfoy. I apologise for any disruption it may have caused you. The Dark Lord disciplined me and I was indisposed for ..a while.   
I wanted to ask when i saw you, How is Draco, Sir?” 

Lucius seemed to cool again somewhat at the mention of the Dark Lord’s name. “Draco is quite well, Miss Granger. He is eager to see you again. When he learned you were currently residing in the Dark Lord’s chambers, he was surprised and hopeful that you both might have the chance to ..catch up.. at some point. ...He sends you his..fond wishes.”

She wondered just what those wishes might be. Probably not for a lovely day and a puppy at Christmas. 

“Really? I’m pleased to hear it. Please do give him my regards” she said absently while taking out a pale blue and cream set of robes. It might perhaps mollify Lucius somewhat if she chose robes to compliment his. He was the kind of person who placed worth upon things like that.   
That or it might encourage him. Not good.   
She put the robes back and took out a set in pale green and silver. The Dark Lord might like these. She hoped. 

She selected underwear and hid them inside the robes behind the wardrobe door. Tucking the sheet slightly more tightly around her breasts she closed the wardrobe door and nearly walked into Lucius. 

“OH!” she gasped, leaping back slightly in fright. “That is the second time you have jumped out at me like that Lord Malfoy!” 

He stepped closer, disdain and amusement plain on his elegant features.   
“Why don’t you call me, Lucius, Miss Granger” he offered, his eyes steely. “After all.. we are on friendly terms now, are we not?”   
He stepped closer still and she took a step back, knowing that in a few paces she would hit the bed and there was no way out of the room. 

“Thank you, Lucius” she said, her voice just a touch higher now as she tried not to panic.   
If she had a wand and a dark mark she could call for help. Probably. Lord Voldemort might ignore her right now.   
Why was he so angry with her? She needed to try to remember. It was important. 

“Um.. If I could trouble you to move slightly, L-Lucius, I need to get to the bathroom and dress.” 

He sneered. “Oh I don’t think so, mudblood. You don’t need to do anything at all except what I command, and I certainly don’t remember giving you permission to dress.”   
He snatched the robes out of her hands and thrust them haphazardly back into the wardrobe. The underwear she had selected fell out onto the floor.

She started to shake. Oh god oh god.. someone help me.. she remembered suddenly – the elf.   
“Dilly?” she tried.   
No elf appeared.

Lucius eyes glinted at her and he bent to pick up her lingerie. “I believe you’ve lost your elf privileges, Mudblood. Something about luring hapless children to your lair to slit their throats?”   
He sneered again, his grey eyes excited. “No one is coming for you. We finally have the chance to get to know one another properly” 

Her fear tipped over the precipice and fell into true terror. “Please.. please dont hurt me.” She stammered. 

He inspected the underwear in his hand. It was a rather brief silver and black set in lace. 

“Oh.. Miss Granger.. I do believe I will allow you to dress after all.” He said while running his fingers over the underwear. “Put them on!” 

She didn’t move.   
He couldn’t really expect..   
of course he could, she corrected herself tiredly.

She remembered the Dark Lord mentioned this man ‘peeling the flesh from her bones’ happily. 

Reluctantly she took the underwear Lucius politely proffered. 

“I will even..look away.. Miss Granger. Will that make you comfortable?” he asked nastily. 

“Yes please” she said miserably. 

“Please..what, mudblood?” he responded quickly. 

“Please..Lord Malfoy?” she tried 

“Try again” he snarled. 

“Please ..Lucius?” 

“Much better, Hermione” he responded mollified. There was a hint of ‘good dog!’ in his voice.   
He turned away, folding his arms. “Hurry up now, Mudblood or I’ll change my mind about allowing you clothing. 

She slipped into the underwear as quickly as she could. It was rather fine, nearly translucent, black lace with tiny silver ribbons threaded through the edges meeting in little bows at the straps of the bra and the waistband of the panties. It hid..nothing.   
At least I didn’t pick a thong today she thought morbidly as she wrapped the sheet back around herself self consciously. 

Lucius turned and his eyes darkened angrily. “I didn’t give you permission to wear this” he hissed and tore the sheet away. 

She stumbled and recovered, folding her arms in front of her and blushing, trying not to cry.   
Its just my pride, she said to herself. Remus said.. when it comes to a choice between pride and skin, pick skin. 

Lucius was admiring her thoughtfully. 

Unexpectedly his hand shot out and he grabbed a large handful of her long flowing hair, tearing her forward and shoving her toward the open space in the centre of the room.   
She almost fell and steadied herself with her hands before wrapping them around herself again, looking away from him. 

“Not bad..” he muttered looking her up and down. “Turn on the spot for me, Mudblood, and take your arms away - you look ridiculous like that” 

She hung her head slightly, the first burning tear squeezing itself from the corner of her eye and lowered her arms.   
She shuffled in a circle, showing herself to Lucius.   
“Please..don’t do this..” she whispered. 

“Do what?” he asked innocently “we haven’t even started yet, Hermione.” 

He drew his wand and conjured silver manacles at her wrists, ankles and neck. If she thought she had been panicking before she had been wrong. This was the beginning of true panic. She turned and ran for the door, wrenching at the handle and banging on it when it refused to open. 

“LORD VOLDEMORT!!!, SEVERUS!!! PLEASE!! SOMEONE HELP ME! 

In a shot Lucius was on her, his hands in her hair and on her small bicep tearing her off the door and casting her back into the middle of the room. She skidded on her hands and knees across the floor and ended up sprawled on her hip, looking back up at him fearfully 

“INSOLENT MUDBLOOD!! You think that the Dark Lord would protect something like..you?!”   
His face twisted into an ugly incredulous sneer.   
“You are filth. You are not worthy of His attention. You will learn to obey. I will teach you your place in this world.” 

He pointed his wand at her splayed terrified form and her arms were wrenched upwards. She felt herself lifted until she dangled, her toes barely touching the floor, scraping frantically trying to get purchase so she could take some of the weight off her wrists.   
Her arms hung vertically and peering upwards, she flexed and wound her hands trying to get loose but there was absolutely no feeling of give or movement in the silvery manacles that disappeared into the high ceiling. She had the feeling that they were, visually, only decorative, she was being held by seamless bindings on her wrists in this position in space. Perhaps a kind of fixed levitation charm or something.

Lucius was standing watching her struggling form.   
“I think you know what comes next mudblood” he smirked. Rodolphus told me all about his wonderful time with you.” He paused significantly. “eventually..anyway. He was a little reluctant at first. I had to tease the information out of him a little when I got him out of his box.” 

He stepped close to her and she kicked wildly at him, furious. “What did you do to him?!” She had caused Rodolphus so much pain for so little. It was horrible! 

Lucius stepped out of range, frowning. “My my, you really have no idea how to behave, do you, you harpy. I will have to break you, I see, before we can conduct any sort of civil discourse on your role in the world”   
He flicked his wand and her ankles were now loosely restrained. She could move them perhaps twenty centimetres in any direction with effort. 

He stepped forward again and reached out, groping her breast and crushing it viciously in his hand.   
“Good. Now that I have your attention you unclean little trollop, we are going to play a game. I think you know this game! It sounded so much fun that I thought you might like to play it with me.”   
Hermione swallowed, a leaden weight settling in her stomach. No! No! She didn’t want to play this game. Not at all and certainly not with Lucius.   
Her mind reminded her unhelpfully. No one is coming to save you.   
She wondered if that were entirely true. Perhaps no one had realised she needed help.   
Perhaps the Dark Lord or Severus would come by at some point naturally. She had no way of knowing. 

“I believe you already know how this game ends mudblood so lets begin... Pleasure or Pain?” he watched her calculatingly. 

Hermione shivered. Oh god.. oh fuck.. what kind of a choice is that?! Give my bloody virginity to Lucius sodding Malfoy immediately.. like this.. after which he may or may not choose to torture me a little for kicks - or choose to have the man torture me until I give him my bloody virginity.   
She thought suddenly. ‘the Dark Lord might come. Someone might save me. He can’t have me. I won’t give myself to him. He’ll have to force me if he wants it. I’ll never ever choose to give myself to him’.

“...pain” she whispered miserably. 

Lucius clapped his hands together in delight, joy positively dancing in his eyes. 

“You know.. I SO hoped you might say that, mudblood. We are going to have such fun together” 

She closed her eyes and actually prayed for the first time in years. Please god.. or anyone listening really.. please send someone to save me. Please. I’ll be good. Or bad. Or whatever you want. Just save me from him!   
She opened her eyes again. No miraculous lightning bolts descended to cleanse the world of Lucius Malfoy.   
Instead, he was now holding two objects. One was a long slender rattan cane, the other a leather flogger with thin braided thongs. 

“Choose, Mudblood. Which one will you taste?” 

She swallowed. It actually almost didn’t matter really. She had no idea which would be worse.   
She remembered the inflagrare hex on the flogger that Rodolphus had used. 

“Are they cursed?” she asked weakly. 

“Oh mudblood, you ruined the surprise!” Lucius chided her “The cane is imbued with a Keritis hex – keri from the greek, you understand. The Flogger I charmed with the flagrate hex you observed already.   
I thought perhaps you might like to gain deeper insight into its effects” 

Hermione recognised Keri, in greek ‘pin’ and imagined the probable effects of that one. She had seen how horrible the burning curse was.   
“The cane” she breathed. 

Lucius smiled in pleased anticipation. “A good choice, Hermione. I do enjoy using a cane on a woman. I have been looking forward to using one on you for quite some time now”   
He strolled around her slowly, stroking his hand over her skin as he passed.

She shivered. How long had he been here? Someone must come soon, surely. 

“Ready yourself Mudblood” Lucius intoned ominously. She heard a faint whistle and then it felt like someone had pressed a burning poker against the flesh of her upper thighs. She shrieked and jerked, struggling at the bindings, her whole body in revolt.   
The pain didn’t stop but seemed to grow and burn deeper into her. 

“Oh.. pardon my error, Hermione. I suppose the flogger must have had the Keritis hex then. One confuses things like that easily at my age.”   
She felt him come closer and his warm fingers touched her hips.. He stroked the skin over her panties.   
“I think we might remove these after all, Hm? I wouldn’t like to see them damaged. They are venetian lace, as I very much doubt you even realised. They are worth infinitely more than your unclean little body.”

His fingers teased the silver ribbon bows and untied the panties, snatching them away from her body. She thought she heard him sniff.   
Turning her head quickly, out of the corner of her eye she saw him slipping the tiny panties into the pocket of his robe.

He reached for her again..sliding his hand over her skin on her lower abdomen.   
Craning her neck she saw him pull a face and he drew back. He hesitated and then moved back to her, quickly unfastening the back of her bra and yanking the ribbons in the front releasing the straps, pulling the bra off her and tossing it aside. 

Then he drew his wand and scourgified his hands. 

She had never felt as ashamed as she did in that second, watching Lucius Malfoy pull out and slip on thin black leather gloves. 

The word had bothered her a little in the beginning: Mudblood, when Malfoy the younger or his little gang had thrown it at her in the halls. Over time it had lost its punch and become just another word.

When Rodolphus had used it on her..it had felt like nothing really.. hearing Lord Voldemort say it.. it was.. well. expected, somehow.. it didnt really bother her, and when professor Snape had used it it was positively sexy in some delicious, but obviously sick and twisted, way.

Lucius Malfoy was the only one to ever make her feel like she was..dirty.   
Like something disgusting one wouldn’t want to touch. Infectious. Unseemly. A mudblood. Dirty blood. Untouchable.

She felt his hand on her again, his gloved hand. Touching her waist, brushing up her side to her underarm.   
The leather was cool and unnatural. 

“That’s better, isn’t it. Now I can show you my affection without getting all muddy.” 

She bit back tears.   
His hand dropped to the searing line stretching across her thighs. 

“Stripes suit you, mudblood. Shall we give you an entire outfit?” 

He stepped back and did not warn her this time. She heard the whistle and there was no time to brace herself when the cane landed on the bare cheeks of her ass. She screamed in pain and struggled, but it was already coming down again.. and again   
and again. 

Over and over with hardly a breath between the blows.   
Tears flowed freely now and she struggled and screamed until she thought her lungs would burst. 

Lucius had laid lines of molten lava across her thighs and ass and she felt him beginning on her back. it was even worse. She tried to shriek but as he beat and burned his way up her back it felt like she couldn’t force the air into her lungs anymore. She screamed silently, writhing and she wasn’t even under silencio. It was just.. too much. 

After her entire back half from knee to nape was in flames, he stopped and nothing happened for a while except the pulsing of her burns and the slight sensation of something dripping down her skin.   
She wondered if it was blood or fluid from popped blisters.

Lucius wandered into her now slightly foggy field of vision again. Her head was lolling forward onto her chest and she tried to lift it and keep her eyes on him. 

“I knew we would have fun together, Hermione” he said quietly with satisfaction.   
“Time for another choice I think. Beg me to have you now..or perhaps..”   
He reached into the pocket of his robes and withdrew a silver dagger with an ornately bejeweled hilt and a wickedly curved blade. “-We could play a little together with this?” 

Her eyes widened. She really didn't want any more pain.   
It seemed no one was coming after all. 

She should just give up. 

She wondered if giving up now would mean he had ‘broken’ her. 

She felt like she was lying in a pool of acid. Why wouldn't it stop?! 

Lucius had stepped close and she could smell his cologne. It smelled smoky and somewhat pleasant. It was probably indecently expensive and made of endangered species.   
His gloved hand gripped her by the jaw and shook her slightly. “Wake up Mudblood. Merlin, you are weak aren’t you, I thought you would last longer than this!” He pushed her face unkindly and stroked his hand down to slap her breast.   
The heavy globe wobbled and it hurt.   
‘stop hurting me’ she thought.   
He smiled and slapped her breasts some more, watching their jiggling with enjoyment.

“What is it to be?” he looked up at her again, now gripping her at her ribs on each side, his fingertips just touching her burns, and sliding his gloved hands down her body.   
The fingers of his right hand slipped down and stroked the hair of her pussy gently. 

“Do you want me to fuck you, little mudslut? You are not at all deserving of such an honour .. you know that.”   
He looked down his nose at her.

“NO!” she yelled with a harsh cracked voice. Struggling anew against the manacles and trying to pull her body away from his hand “NO!! Dont touch me!” 

Lucius smiled a cruel little smile. “There now.. that wasn’t so difficult, was it? The dagger it is.”   
He unsheathed the small dagger and waved it in front of her face, showing it to her. 

“It is a rather rare piece in my collection. You are lucky indeed that I am willing to use it on you. It is an antique, priceless. It belonged to a Transylvanian witch whose name you might recognise, if you are as glutted with facts as Draco says you are. Ecsedi Báthory Erzsébet. 

Hermione’s stomach did a slow flip and she grimaced. 

“Oh I see you do know of her” Lucius said pleased. “In which case I can spare you the vivid description of her predilections for torture and murder. This knife is.. in a certain sense.. entirely useless.”   
He paused, looking into her trembling sweating face. 

“God.. you are so revolting, Hermione.. If you would try to control yourself a small measure..”   
He reached with a gloved finger and gingerly smeared a droplet that was crawling down the side of her face from her hairline.   
She flinched away from his hand and he smiled in satisfaction at her reaction. 

“As I was saying.. as a knife, this object is useless. It is imbued with a healing spell. Whatever it cuts is healed almost immediately. It is simply a..toy.. that the countess enjoyed playing with.” 

To illustrate his point he sliced the knife swiftly down her chest and across her right breast. She screamed hoarsely.   
Blood dripped down her skin warm and wet and then she felt the cut seal itself again.   
She looked down at herself, craning her head and found her skin unblemished.   
Only the strange line of blood and dripped trails showing where the cut had been. 

“So you see.. we can enjoy your pain for a very very long time, Hermione” 

She moaned in horror, sobbing, despairing. No one is coming to save me. 

“Please! “ she croaked. “Please Lucius. Don’t hurt me!” 

Lucius laughed, clearly delighted. “Oh mudblood.. your begging is like music. Please continue. Tell me what you’ll give me, what you’ll do for me.”   
“Don’t you see.. the thing I want most from you is your suffering. What could you offer me that could possibly be more appealing than the glorious sound of your screams while my blade opens you up?”

“If you beg.. perhaps I’ll let you have the comfort of the hex i created for you - Sinestima letochi.   
But not yet, i think.   
No.. you and I have all day, mudblood. There is still plenty of time for me to learn the sounds you make in the extremes of pleasure – I am not yet sated with your agony.” 

It felt like a vast dark cavern had opened up inside her heart. ‘this is like what the priests talked about when i was a child’ she thought suddenly, out of the blue. ‘hell. Pain without hope.’ 

She had stopped listening to any of the religious figures in her parents’ lives when she’d asked a priest one day if god gave people special blessings sometimes, such as making Marie Bonnet’s hair turn green in the playground if she called her a name.   
The priest had very curtly explained that God didn’t do things like that, only the devil gave people those kind of ‘wishes’ and people who served the devil and could do things like that were bad – were witches.   
God and the church wouldn’t suffer them to live.   
He went on to tell her that it was very bad of her to hope god would make Marie’s hair turn green. She should say one Hail Mary and one our father and pray to god to forgive her. 

She had been very afraid for a long time and had refused to go back to church, thinking that god or the priests might kill her because they found out about Marie Bonnet's hair. 

When she was told that she actually was a witch, it came as no surprise but it took her a while to understand the real meaning of the word. Always in the back of her mind there was the old bald fat priest and the devil.

She didn’t believe in any of that. Well.. she knew there were demons now. But she didnt worship anything.’   
..except the Dark Lord maybe’ her mind tossed in unhelpfully. 

She was brought rapidly back to the here and now by the efficient, practiced movement of Lucius’ knife through her flesh, sliding down between her breasts and over her abdomen, trailing off at her thigh.   
She gasped and moaned in pain.   
The warm drips skated down her skin and the cut sealed.

He smiled and now it seemed he had the ambition to coat the entire front of her body in blood because he started low on the skin just above her pubic bone drawing slices across her body one after another, mere centimetres apart, his hand barely wavering when she struggled and bucked in torment.   
He raised his left hand and gripped her hip hard, holding her in place, continuing to slice her skin into thin strips. 

She cried and begged pitifully, half articulated pleas and exhortations spilling from her lips.   
Lucius ignored them entirely, fully absorbed in what he was doing. He had reached just below the swell of her breasts now and slid the knife beneath them, cutting upward as if he meant to slice her breasts off.   
Instead of continuing up he sawed along the same line several times while she shrieked, twisting and wrenching her body. 

“Do you know Hermione.. I feel we have reached the stage where i might share some of my intimate thoughts with you, he said in a dreamy voice.   
He stopped sawing at the seam of her breasts and continued upward again, striping them in even more closely spaced lines. 

“Right now, you remind me of a witch I once had. She was the only other person I have ever honoured with this blade.   
She was a pureblood and I felt, for that reason, she merited some small sign of respect. A knife to respect her blood..”   
“you see the irony, of course.“ 

Hermione was trying to stay perfectly still, wincing only at the progress of his hand. He had reached her nipples and she was very, very, afraid that he might decide to cut them off if she did anything at all to distract him, interrupt him, irritate him. 

“We played together, just with this knife, for hours. I almost grew bored of her blood. But it turned out she had one last wonder to share with me.”

“I teased her with my fingers until she was responsive and then I fucked her with the knife until she came.   
It was one of the loveliest things I have ever seen.“ 

Hermione fought suddenly not to be sick. She felt her stomach turning and threatening urgently to rise.   
Lucius was easing the knife just over her nipple and she felt his gloved fingers suddenly take it, pinching the very tip of her nipple and pulling it out from her body.   
He positioned the knife over it with an expression of extreme fascination and she knew he was going to do it.   
He would cut her nipple off on a whim. 

It was too much for her mind to handle. 

He was going to destroy her body.   
This wouldn’t heal back. She would be forever scarred.   
When anyone saw her-  
..when the Dark Lord saw her..  
-they would know she was a filthy worthless mudblood and that Lucius had taken her. 

No one was coming to save her. 

The Dark Lord was not coming to save her! 

Her mind seemed to fall suddenly into red and black tangles. She could not think anymore.   
She felt a massive tearing deep inside her and it seemed like coldness was pouring out like water from a burst dam. 

“NO!!!!!!” she screamed and the knife flew out of Lucius’ hand, clattering away into the corner of the room. 

He looked confused and dumbfounded, swinging around rapidly as if expecting to find someone else in the room. 

She flexed and dropped lightly to the floor, her arms released.   
Lucius was still facing away from her scanning the room suspiciously. 

She reached out her hand at the height of his chest and made a motion as if she was gripping his heart.   
She then squeezed her fingers together and Lucius dropped to his knees as if felled, falling forward onto one hand, the other clutching at his chest spasmodically. He wheezed breathlessly. 

She kicked lightly at her feet, feeling them still fettered, tightened that cold flow inside her and felt the tension dissipate in them. Her back still burned and prickled whenever she moved and she focused on the feeling and willed it away.   
It stopped.   
She reached a hand absently behind her and slid it over her smooth unblemished skin. A smile rose on her lips. 

No one would know what he did. 

And now.. she would repay him for daring to hurt her. 

 

She stepped around Lucius’ ailing body on the floor and struggled to concentrate. 

The blond wizard abruptly flipped hard onto his back and stretched, unnaturally, his limbs pulling away in four directions to the point of pain. His eyes were clenched and his face wracked. He could only wheeze a faint wailing response. 

She retrieved his wand from his pocket and vanished his clothing, inspecting his body coldly.   
His body, while trim, was nowhere near as toned or muscled as Severus, Rodolphus or the Dark Lord.   
Perhaps it was the indulgent luxurious lifestyle Lucius had been accustomed to since birth.   
His cock was smaller too.   
Not small, by any means.. but smaller. 

She considered the irony for a moment that if she had given her virginity to Lucius, it would possibly have hurt less than the Dark Lord.   
She knew he’d hate that. 

She used his wand to accio the knife. It seemed to thrum in her hand in a strange appealing manner. 

Lucius had opened his eyes now and was looking up at her in horror. 

“What are you do-.. How did you do that?” he stammered.   
It sounded wonderful in his arrogant voice, its veneer of superiority not quite entirely lost yet. 

She didnt bother responding. She just knelt and slid the knife down the side of his ribs deeply, seeing the bone flash at her briefly and a lot of blood spatter out onto the floor while he croaked in pain before the cut slowly healed. 

“You are right” she whispered. “This is a wonderful knife. I think I’ll keep it.” 

She amused herself for a while by cutting him deeply in various places across his body and viewing the contents of the cuts. Out of curiosity she crawled around him to his head and cut his ponytail off, wondering if it would grow back. It did not. 

Fury flashed in his eyes and he clearly wanted to say something, curse her, scream at her.. but he restrained himself. 

She looked at the ponytail in her hand, his pale silky blonde hair and tickled his nose with it. 

He raged and struggled and cut her to pieces with his eyes. It was wonderful. She could suddenly understand why he liked to hurt others. It was unbelievably freeing.   
She wondered what would happen if she cut his eyelids off.. or his tongue?.. but a better idea occurred to her. 

She stood and walked around his body to kneel by his hips. His eyes widened and now he was afraid.   
Now he was absolutely terrified.   
His head craned up to watch her every move. 

With his shoulder length hair like this he looked a bit like an older Draco. It..suited him.. somewhat. She had done him a favour. 

She slid her eyes down his body to his cock, which astoundingly enough was now hanging at half mast. 

Was he turned on by this?! The thought that she might any second castrate him? How sick was the man?! 

She reached up lazily and dragged the knife down his sternum and deeply across his abdomen, cutting through muscle almost to the interior of his abdominal cavity. He yowled pitifully, throwing his head back, cracking against the flagstones. What a nice sound that was. She wanted him to do it again so she repeated the action, but this time only received a shuddering whimper. 

She scowled and pressed the knife to the base of his semi hard cock, slicing lightly. Blood sprayed upwards for a second before it sealed and she watched his cock harden fully. 

Yes. It appeared he was quite excited by the thought of her castrating him.   
God!!. She thought exasperatedly. Well that just took the fun out of it. 

...oh.. she suddenly realised. That was what he meant when he said he preferred her suffering. Oh... 

“This toy is only fun when you don’t want it” she said softly, laying it down at the side. 

“No.. Don’t stop..” Lucius whined “a little more.. just a little more..“ his face showed needy hunger. 

“It’s not permanent enough” she growled. “You are enjoying it too much”   
He groaned and his head fell back lightly against the ground. His cock twitched.   
“Merlin, witch, I need you.. Don’t leave me like this” 

She raised his wand so that he could see it and cast a lumos, brightening it till it was incandescent and white..   
Then she proceeded to burn the word “filth” across Lucius’ chest. He yelled and whimpered and moaned until she was finished, then lifted his head and tried to read what she had written.   
When he realised what it said he groaned and bucked his hips.

“I am not going to touch you. Don’t even bother” she hissed at him angrily. 

He whined and turned his head to look at her piteously. “But why?!!.. I would have touched you. I would have allowed you to climax when we had finished our game..” 

She glared at him. “I didn’t want to play Lucius.” 

He seemed to abandon reasoning for begging again. “PLEASE HERMIONE. Mudblood! Queen! PLEASE..touch me” 

She stared at him, thoroughly irritated. “I wanted to prolong this for a while. Enjoy my revenge. But you are making it awfully hard not to simply kill you now, Lucius” 

He stilled immediately, suddenly looking fearful. He whispered “You..you won’t.. You couldn’t. You.. Severus and the Dark Lord won’t allow it.. “   
She smiled at him malevolently and informed him “No one is coming for you, Lucius. I’ve sealed the doors and put up an anti-apparition ward”. 

She hadn’t. She didn’t have any idea how anti-apparition wards worked. She wasn’t an auror.   
But Lucius apparently wasn’t sure and didn’t put it past her to know since he was shaking now and his cock had wilted somewhat. He babbled at her   
“Please Hermione..I shouldn’t have frightened you. I just wanted to play a little. I didn’t realise.. I won’t do it again.   
Don’t ...”   
He seemed to remember something and his eyes lit up in hope “Draco.. you’ll leave Draco fatherless. I know he was not a friend to you in school but he would be an orphan now that his mother is gone!” 

She considered this. He had a point. 

On the other hand, Draco was an utter git who couldn’t possibly be any worse without a father.   
Lucius clearly hadn’t been a very good father to him for him to have turned out the way he did.   
And he was almost grown up now. The same age as she herself, almost. A year younger actually if you counted time-turner extension.   
She had managed without parents for a year already. Losing his father wouldnt destroy him. Probably.   
And if it did..well.. good! 

To tell the truth she didn’t feel particularly strongly motivated to kill Lucius anymore. But it was..in the back of her mind. Like something she had put on a to-do list and hadn’t ticked off yet.   
She didn’t need to do it, didnt even particularly want to do it.. but she’d feel a little better if it was done.   
-If she didn’t have to worry about him anymore. 

She stood and raised his wand, pointing it at his chest. “I’ll make it quick and painless, Lucius.” 

His eyes widened and he started struggling frantically, screaming “MY LORD!! MY LORD, SAVE ME!!! PLEASE, MY LORD!!” 

She raised an eyebrow, unsure now..   
Nothing happened, save for Lucius increasingly panicked cries for Lord Voldemort to save him. Hermione concentrated 

“Avada- “ 

The wand sailed from her hand into Severus’ hand several metres behind her.   
“Hey!!” she cried out, surprised and irritated. 

“Stop, Hermione.” He said quietly, insistently. 

“I will not! – give that back!” she replied. “and where were you when he was torturing me?!” Severus shifted his eyes. The thought snuck into her mind darkly.   
“You were HERE the whole time?!! You watched him hurt me like that and did nothing?! You LET HIM?!” 

“Are you mortally wounded, Hermione? Are you in dire need of medical attention? “ he spoke quietly, sneering down at her.   
She spluttered. “Are you insane?! He beat me, burned me, cut me and was about to cut my bloody nipple off!” 

Severus made a pff noise. “I would not have allowed him to harm you ..permanently... Hermione. He couldn’t even crucio you because I forbade it.”   
Severus was acting like she was being childish and unreasonable. She started to get annoyed.   
He seemed to notice her rising ire and changed approach.

“Please Hermione.. Do as I say? Pretend that I am still your professor and obey me! You may not believe it but I am acting in your best interests. I swear to you on my wand that I am. Stop! Let Lucius go now.” 

She hesitated and then she turned to Lucius, looking down on him. He looked up at her tensely, but was more composed now that Severus was in the room and she wasn’t holding a wand. The knife on the floor sparkled at her eye. 

“Lucius - offer me your knife as a gift for sparing you!” She said impetuously. 

He hesitated – it was clear that it was very cherished and he had no intention of parting with it. He was wondering whether he could agree now and get it back later.   
She concentrated and felt around inside herself for the place that was now becoming a little more familiar and flexed slightly against..whatever it was. A little coldness seeped up her spine and Lucius cried out as his arms and legs were effortlessly wrenched almost to the point of dislocation. 

“HERMIONE!!” Severus roared. “LUCIUS, GIVE HER THE BLOODY KNIFE!” 

Lucius looked up at Severus petulantly. “But it’s the only one like it. Its priceless!” 

Severus glared at him.   
“It. Is. A. Bloody. Knife. That. Doesnt. Cut Things. Merlin, man. Have some perspective!” 

Hermione smiled down at him sweetly.   
“I’ll take excellent care of it Lucius. Perhaps I’ll use it on you again someday. You never know.”   
He looked up at her and his expression cycled through petulance, hunger and disappointment 

“Since you asked so nicely and your reasoning is so persuasive, how could I ever live with myself if I disappointed you?!”   
He smirked bitterly. “ Take the thrice damned knife, mudblood. I give it to you as a gift. Now release me!!” 

Hermione smiled and looked at him speculatively, admiring the word she had carved in his chest. It was fitting.   
Lucius was filth. He would not get off scot free for hurting her. She concentrated on the scar.   
Lucius valued his pride more than his skin. It might have turned him on when she did it but it would drive him mad when he realised it was there to stay. He would not be healing it if she had anything to say about it. 

Lucius and Severus didn’t seem to notice she had done anything. She concentrated and flexed once again and Lucius collapsed, the strain suddenly removed from his arms. 

“Very good, Hermione.” Severus said from behind her. She felt his body press lightly against her as his hand brushed aside her hair.. She turned slightly to see his face.   
He pressed a swift rough kiss to her mouth, his hand turning her face further toward him so that he could deepen it, tongue thrusting into her. She felt his hands suddenly at her neck and then there was a tiny click and she pulled back. 

“I’m sorry, Hermione.” He growled and pulled her face back, quickly forcing another kiss on her.

She struggled and stumbled backward feeling around her neck. There was a thin seamless chain. She followed it with her hand, looking down in front of her at what looked like a small black pearl.   
Severus had put this on her. She wanted it off.   
She tried to lift it but when it came level with her chin it seemed to melt through her fingers like water and fall back to her chest. 

She couldn’t take it off!!!. 

Over and over again the same thing happened. She tried to find that place inside, the muscle she could flex but it didn’t work. Nothing happened. There was nothing there. 

She whirled to Severus crying pitifully “what did you do?! ...What have you done to me?!” 

Lucius was standing, dressed again and was feeling around the back of his head at his much shorter hair. It was almost even and hung perfectly straight to his shoulders. He was fuming.   
Severus on the other hand looked sad and regretful and stood, clenching and unclenching his fists, watching her struggle desperately with the necklace. 

“It’s a charm that blocks your ability to use magic, Hermione. ...I am so sorry..” 

She had already thought as much.. but hearing him say it made it real.   
It wasn’t just her lack of focus. Whatever it was, it was really gone now.   
She dropped to her knees, tears springing to her eyes.   
“..Severus. You betrayed me..” she whispered softly, her heart breaking.   
“-again..” 

He rushed to her, sliding to his knees beside her.. “NO!.. no.. Hermione.. I’m sorry.. It was not my decision..   
The Dark Lord had to be sure you couldn’t harm him.” 

“Last night you used your ability intentionally for the first time.. he was very concerned and refused to come near you. He instructed me to have Lucius frighten you a little to see if you would do it again.   
When you did – when he saw how easily you used it and how ruthless you were once you had Lucius at your mercy he commanded me to bind you.” 

“I didn’t want to.. I didn’t want to deceive you.. but you are too strong, Hermione! If you had known – what might you have done to me?” 

Hermione turned away from him, curling down over her knees and wrapping herself into a ball, weeping helplessly. ‘Helpless.. now i am for the first time utterly helpless’ she thought disconsolately. 

Lucius had finished preening and was reaching down surreptitiously to pick up the silver knife on the floor.   
“Lucius!” Severus growled. “You gave the silly little knife away. Leave it and depart. I will speak with you later.” 

Lucius frowned childishly and brushed himself off. 

“Thank you for an.. interesting.. morning, mudblood. I’ll be seeing you again soon, I’m sure, now that you’re well and truly collared and muzzled. Next time we can have a nice leisurely discussion on your behaviour today. Perhaps I’ll even invite Draco to contribute his thoughts.” 

Hermione only curled up more tightly She heard the pop of Lucius’ disapparition. 

“Severus..” the Dark Lord said quietly. Hermione jolted up, her eyes red and puffy, glaring blindly through her blurry tears in the general direction of the voice.   
“  
leave us” 

Severus nodded silently, placing his hand on Hermione’s back briefly. She stiffened and tried to move away from it.   
He hung his head sorrowfully and stood, turning on the spot and disapparating.   
Hermione curled back down and sobbed as if her heart was tearing apart. 

 

 

The Dark Lord walked quietly to her and lowered himself to the floor, kneeling next to her. She felt a black woollen robe materialise on her frame, covering her nakedness. “Hermione..” he whispered. “I wish there had been another way..” 

She turned away, pulling herself in tighter. She sobbed at him “Didn’t I say you would take my magic away!.. I wish I had left last night as soon as you offered to let me go. I want to leave now! Call Severus and make him take me away from here!”   
She rocked slightly, her hand clutching the awful pearl.   
The Dark Lord touched her back but she shied away, crawling blindly to the side, her face still turned away. 

He said in a strangely weak queasy voice.. “Yes.. you did say that. I had forgotten.. I – I didn’t..intend..to.” he trailed off. 

She shuddered and whispered “I’m a squib now.” 

“NO!” he countered forcefully. “NO.. you are not a squib, Hermione. You are a witch, powerful beyond measure, whose magic is ..temporarily..bound. It is something happening to you but it is not what you are.” 

She moaned softly.   
“Will you ever release me? I don’t think you will.. I’m better off in the muggle world. At least everyone around me can’t curse me there.” 

“Hermione..” the Dark Lord said imploringly “look at me..” 

She didnt move. 

“Hermione.. Look at me! Look at me and remember!” 

She was unnerved by this.. what should she remember?! She blinked away her tears and turned to face Lord Voldemort.. then she blinked again in surprise. He looked...  
he looked like some kind of strange mix of his two forms. He was beautiful like his ‘Tom Riddle’ self.. but his skin and eyes looked like Lord Voldemort.   
“Wow” she whispered. He was more darkly breathtaking than either of his forms. His amazing eyes in that face.. 

“Do you remember...” he began, piercing her with those eyes, “last night Severus gave you something to drink that made you a little..” he hesitated “..tipsy. uninhibited. And a little later I arrived and gave you a snake to play with?”   
She wrinkled her forehead. She did sort of..vaguely.. remember something with the fire this morning.. and now she was suddenly thinking about a little white snake with red eyes. A little Lord Voldemort snake. 

“was it...was it white?” she whispered. 

“No, Hermione.. it was green when I gave it to you. I made its eyes red because you had earlier seemed fascinated with my eyes; and if you were going to lick anyone’s eyeballs. I preferred it to be the snake” 

Hermione was baffled by this rather bizarre statement. 

“It doesn’t matter. The point is that because the snake’s eyes were red and it reminded you of me, you decided to make the rest of the snake white. You transfigured it. Permanently. When I asked you to show me what you did to the snake and change its colour again, you instead transfigured me.” The Dark Lord looked at her meaningfully. “permanently”.

She gaped. “I could do that?!” she blurted shocked. 

The Dark Lord smirked wryly. “Apparently. But then you said you preferred my face the way it was and I had to stupefy you before you could transfigure it back.” 

She furrowed her brow again, suddenly understanding. “Oh. And then you ... oh... I see.” She looked sadly at him. He was afraid of her. She had done something wonderful and then she seemed to want to take it away again. 

“Yes.” He confirmed sadly. “and so it was necessary to bind you.” 

He hesitated for a long moment. “I will release you if you agree to some..terms..”   
She looked away. “the mark” she said flatly. 

“Yes.. among other things.” 

“.. I realised your powers were manifesting rapidly when you healed me. I wanted to give you the mark quickly so that I could be assured of safety from you as they developed. Our mingling magic will probably have- Well... observably has had some effects on your..willingness to give yourself over to the darkness within you.”   
“My mark would have enabled me to prevent you carrying out any dark little fancies you might have had to harm me.   
But then you had to go and kill that irritating Weasley girl and refuse to take it.” 

“Hermione – the mark cannot be forcibly given, it must be accepted. I had expected to have more time..I did not think you would become cognisant and in control of your abilities so quickly” 

She looked at him, suspicion growing in her mind   
“Why do you not seem particularly surprised about any of this? Severus was shocked. You’d never even seen me before the battle and it feels like you expected this to happen.” 

Lord Voldemort pursed his lips uncertainly and stood up. “I have had enough of sitting on cold flagstones. I am past the age where it is comfortable. Join me on the bed Hermione. I wish to lie down. If you lie with me, I will tell you what I know.”   
He extended a hand to her and she looked at it a long hard moment, taking it just as he was starting to withdraw it. 

He pulled her up and walked with her, still holding her hand, to the bed, where he lay and opened his arms for her. 

She hesitated again, wanting to go and be comforted by him even now.. even knowing that it was he who had hurt her.   
He had used Lucius.. and Severus.. but it had been him.   
It didn’t matter what he looked like.. or if her magic resonated with his.. She had no magic now because of him. 

She lay down some distance away and looked at him. 

He frowned disappointed and closed his arms, looking away. “You are..a conduit.. Hermione”. He said, narrowing his eyes at the window where the sun shone brightly. 

She realised suddenly, she had never seen him in sunlight before. His eyes reflected the light brightly and he squinted slightly.   
“The light hurts my eyes. I try to avoid it. It is compensated for by better night vision. .. may I?” he gestured at the window. She shrugged. The curtains hushed closed and the room was bathed in soft yellow half light. 

“What does that mean” she asked quietly, although she thought she had an idea 

He looked at her in mild irritation. “Exactly what it sounds like, girl. You channel raw magic through yourself.   
You redirect the flow of ambient magic, which is of course inexhaustible. For that reason, when you use your ability you never tire and you are able to work magic that requires unsustainable levels of power – hence your capacity to permanently transfigure me.” 

“It is extraordinarily rare. A conduit has not been observed in more than a small handful of cases since the beginning of recorded wizarding history. I have engaged in extensive research into the phenomenon. Wizards or witches who were able to channel raw magic have in all but one case been killed shortly after the age of puberty.   
The ability is mediated by the development of sexual maturity you see. Until that point it is dormant.”

“...I have suspected you were a conduit since the end of your fifth year at Hogwarts.” 

She blinked at him, surprised.   
“Its hardly likely you’d suspect it for no reason if it’s so rare. But I haven’t done...anything.. like this till I came here.   
And if you thought I was so useful why did you wait until the final battle to grab me? That just makes no sense.” 

The Dark Lord shifted uneasily, looking over at her. “I wish to hold you in my arms Hermione. With or without your magic you are still mine. Your strop is justified but tedious. Stop it now. Come to me.” 

She didn’t move and looked at him warily. 

Without warning his arm snaked out swiftly and grabbed her at the elbow, wrenching her across the small space between them and rolling her into his body. She barely even had a moment to struggle before she was pressed against him, looking up at his face with his arms wrapped around her back.   
He felt warm and hard, and her body responded traitorously with a small shiver. 

It was amazing what a difference a nose and a bit of hair made in his face, she marvelled.   
He was like an infernal prince. Fallen angel.. 

He made a mildly appalled face at her. “I see you have also been contaminated by the wretched muggle religions. Fallen angels? Princes of hell? Really, Hermione, I had enough of that nonsense in the orphanage. Priests are vicious hypocritical sodomite bastards. I am not the devil!”   
He looked bothered by associations she didn’t understand. 

“I never said you were. You look like..” she blushed.   
“When you were Tom Riddle.. you looked like what I imagined angels to look like when I was a child. Now.. you look like a darker version of the same. It wasn’t meant to offend.” She hesitated, troubled..“I know priests are hypocritical bastards..   
I wasn’t aware of any sodomites when I was growing up.. but then I wouldnt be, really, would I. I’m not their type. ...I’m...sorry.. you had to be in that awful place.” 

She found she couldn’t call him her Lord right now, not while thinking about him in the orphanage, but knowing how he felt about it, she didn’t want to call him Tom either. 

He clutched her more tightly. “It doesn’t matter..” he said hollowly and she wondered whether he was talking about religion, the orphanage or his name.   
“You have healed before.” 

“At the end of your fifth year Severus displeased me greatly and I sent him back to Hogwarts severely injured and without his wand. I saw later in his memory of the event that he was barely able to drag himself from the forbidden forest to the castle walls.   
Apparently you had for some unknown reason left your bed, travelled downstairs and gone outside the castle to find him lying nearly unconscious, bleeding profusely, near the wall where his hidden entrance to the dungeons was located.   
He had misjudged the location in his confused pained state and had been pressing desperately against bricks that would never open the portal, before his strength left him and he fell.” 

“You were dressed in your black school robes and you knelt next to him and wept at his condition. He tried to send you away but you would not be told.   
You kissed him.. he was very surprised. And then you healed him completely.   
He thanked you for your kindness and devotion by immediately obliviating you and sending you back to bed.” The Dark Lord smirked wryly. “ah yes. Our Severus. He certainly knows how to deal with admirers.” 

Hermione felt a small pang in her heart for Severus. “He of course then went to his quarters, retrieved a spare wand and activated his mark. He returned and I observed the memory” 

Hermione saw the explanation looming “and then obliviated him and sent him back to Hogwarts” she finished for him. 

“Precisely, my dear. I couldn’t have Severus wandering around Dumbledore with that kind of information in his mind. The old buzzard would have somehow smelled it on him and then who knows what would happen to you.” 

She wondered.. Would Dumbledore have tried to use her as a weapon? Would he have locked her up, taken away her magic as Voldemort had, killed her?   
Lord Voldemort lowered his head to brush a kiss on her forehead. “Do stop saying that, my dear, you know I didn’t want to bind you like this. I wish I could trust you not to turn on me..”   
He held her more tightly to him once again. “You said you would leave. You said it again today.. I don’t wish you to go.   
No. I won’t allow you to go. I take back my offer. You cannot leave. I will not permit it. I would rather have you as my prisoner than lose you completely.” 

She was concerned. This line of thought did not bode well. 

The Dark Lord sighed. “I instructed Severus to slip you a slow release potion that would inhibit your sexual drive somewhat. I would assume that this accounts for your decline in attraction to him in your sixth year.   
It was natural for you to desire him, Hermione. Like calls to like. Your magic interacts with his as it interacts with mine in a milder form.” 

“But if you had continued to express sexual feelings, if you had attempted to pursue those feelings and he, in his innocence had reciprocated...” 

“– yes it truly was innocence, Hermione.. Severus never even allowed himself to imagine that you could desire him although he watched over you like a hawk in the guise of watching over Potter. He was determined to protect you from Potter’s dangerous ill conceived plans. It was for you he went into the shrieking shack after seeing the werewolf enter, even though his memories of a similar occasion in his childhood made this a frightening course of action, it was you he came to check on in Umbridge’s office.   
After he informed the mutt by floo, he went immediately to the forbidden forest to search for you. Hence he was missed at the ministry of magic. I was ..inconsolable..that he ignored my call.” Hermione shivered. 

“What did you do to him?” 

The Dark Lord smiled horribly. “Never you mind. It was a long time ago. Severus has forgiven me for my temper with him.” He continued. “Since you have been here he has been worried that he will do or say something that will cause you to attract my ire. ..but it is..different... with you, Hermione.” 

“With Severus, our little relationship revolved from the start around dominance, punishment, reward, devotion. I have already told you that your professor Snape is just as much a sadist as Lucius.. that is true. He ..greatly enjoyed.. your treatment at the hands of Lucius, despite his long standing protective feelings for you. Your screams and tears and begging excited him terribly as he knew you weren’t in any true danger”

“When Lucius started to cut you and you cried so beautifully he came panting your name, Hermione, although he may have felt somewhat guilty, and thus defensive, about it after the fact. I believe he was actually intolerably envious of Lucius in that moment.   
I would not be surprised if Lucius were somewhere in a state of discomfort right now at the end of Severus wand as a result of that jealousy.” 

“But.. just as you saw with Lucius when you held his, pardon me –your, little knife upon his cock, Severus also has a side which enjoys his submission to me. Desires even to be punished mercilessly.” 

“I know you can understand that feeling, Hermione.. I saw his memory of you in the bath, you recall?   
Severus and I have a special relationship in that way. I give him all the punishment he requires.. and he is able to live out his dominant urges with as many unwilling victims as he desires.” 

“Since you have arrived however..things have been complicated.   
He is struggling to understand your place in our relationship. Are you the same as he, someone he might have a relationship on even footing with, perhaps even be allowed to love?   
Is he allowed a private relationship with you at all – will I take you away from him if he becomes too attached?   
Are you above him - my most favoured treasure? Or are you below him – are you his as well as mine, and therefore able to be used and punished at his desire just as I take him and hurt him at my will?   
He tried to articulate that particular position when I first brought you into our bed..into your bed. And yesterday morning he asserted his dominance over you again obviously. And you responded favourably.” 

“Now he has watched while you were punished and I have no doubt he will want to discipline you himself soon, to take back what he probably feels Lucius stole from him.   
He may decide to do this even if I explicitly forbid him to do so. He is familiar with paying for his privileges with pain. He will probably consider the prize worth the cost.   
I hope you are ready for him, Hermione. You have chosen his role yourself, you tantalized him with your eager excited submission. He can be..an exceedingly cruel man...” 

“But I digress... to return to your questions for a moment – there were many reasons why I let you remain outside my domain until recently.   
At first I thought to have you here would constitute a potential threat and would in addition have made it difficult to convince Severus to return to Hogwarts and function effectively knowing you were here the entire time..vulnerable.   
He would have functioned less effectively as a spy in that condition.” 

“So I convinced myself that as long as I was the only one who knew of your possible nature, and as the threat of that nature breaking out again was relatively contained, there was no reason to attempt to acquire you and potentially risk Severus position or worse, alert Dumbledore to the situation and risk him harming you or using you against me.” 

“Of course I found quickly that the thought of you played on my mind constantly – worry, curiosity.   
So I had Ginevra taken in order to have her spy on Harry in my service. She was quite disinclined to assist me at first but she came around.   
It was doubly beneficial since you and Potter so often seemed to be joined at the hip.   
That bothered me also, Hermione!”

He drew back and fixed her with a possessive, faintly threatening, stare.   
“Even then.. I viewed you as mine. You are mine!” His gaze softened slightly “But you did not know it yet so I tried to forgive you your dalliances with Potter. 

When you kissed Ronald Weasley, probably the most undeserving wizard to walk the earth, I changed my mind and ordered your abduction.   
Unfortunately It proved difficult to find the opportunity to acquire you. You were suddenly constantly with others.   
You hardly left the castle at all. It was with the utmost reluctance that I ordered the attack on your parents, hoping it would bring you out into the open.” 

Hermione jolted, trying to pull away but his arms suddenly held her like iron bands. She had not thought about her parents deaths really, since she had been in the morgue. She had just assumed that... what? That the Dark Lord hadn’t known? Hadnt cared much either way? What?! 

She’d just.. thought of him differently then.. and it had been expected.. not a betrayal at all..   
It somehow was different now.. Things had changed.   
He had killed her parents simply to trap her and she was lying in his arms. This was FAR FAR beyond Harry’s disapproval or Ron’s accusations – this was a whole other spectrum of wrongness. She stiffened and she felt him stiffen. 

“Hermione.. you knew I had ordered your parents killed before. Nothing has changed.” 

She shook her head wildly. “Everything has changed” she whispered. “You killed my friends, my parents..you took away my freedom and now my magic. I - ..” she hesitated, searching for something that might hurt him..at least upset him in some way. “I wish Harry had killed you.” She hissed coldly.   
“You are evil. You don’t deserve to live. I wish I had learned to control my power before the final battle so that i could have killed you myself” 

He pushed her away roughly and stared searchingly into her face. 

“You don’t mean that! I know you don’t truly wish me dead” 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You have taken away EVERYTHING I ever loved!” 

“Everything!” 

“Even professor Snape. Even my cat. My school. sunlight! Everything is poisoned and ruined because of YOU.   
You have tried to make me believe that the only thing of value in the world IS you. Its a lie! You are a plague!” 

His face darkened frighteningly. “This is how you feel? After everything I have done to.. After I have thought of you..desired you beyond reason.. moved the heavens and the earth for you. You would have me dead?!”   
He sat up suddenly and leapt from the bed, reaching across and gripping her arm painfully, dragging her toward him and dumping her on the floor.   
He shoved his hand into her hair and fisted it, apparating immediately.

 

A torch flared to life. She looked about in disorientation. 

They were in a cell. 

There was nothing.. just stone walls. Not even a bed. 

The Dark Lord released her hair, pushing her head down aggressively as he did. He stepped back. 

“So be it, my dear. Welcome to your new home. It may not be as comfortable as your last but you will get used to it in time. I thank you for all your assistance. In transfiguring me you have obviated the necessity for my soul to be repaired.   
I can live with this face for all eternity I believe. I no longer need you.”

“I will make it known to my Death Eaters that you are back on the menu.” 

“Have a delightful existence, Hermione.“ With a hateful sneer, he disapparated.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reviews increase update frequency, and will receive a response

She sat for a few minutes, shocked. 

What had just happened? 

What had she done?! Had she really forgotten where she was? Who she was with? Expected the Dark Lord to treat her well as she would expect any normal person to? 

..well..sometimes.. he almost had she told herself. She could explain her confused expectations that way.   
But she had gone and done it again.. Remus would shake his head at her if he had seen how she let her pride get in the way of protecting her skin.   
She had offended Lord Voldemort beyond reason on principle for something he had done over a year ago and which she had already known about the entire time. 

Nothing had changed. Well.. ok.. he had..let Lucius do that..and hadn’t saved her.   
But only two or three days ago she had fully expected to be treated exactly how Lucius had treated her..   
no.. worse actually,   
and it was only the simple fact that she had, against all expectations, been treated well.. almost kindly..almost with affection that caused her to feel so upset when she found the Dark Lord had put her in that position, had ignored her pleas for him to save her 

That small nasty voice in the back of her mind wondered exactly how long it would be before Lucius got the memo and turned up to pay his respects. 

She wrapped her robe around herself more tightly.   
At least the Dark Lord hadn’t taken it away again with him when he went. There was at least that.   
Sure.. the world is in tatters and i’m sitting in the gutter facing an oncoming angry mob but at least it isn’t raining. 

What if Severus came now.. 

She plucked at the necklace absently, lifting it and letting it melt between her fingers over and over.   
She didn’t think she could stand facing a cruel and merciless professor Snape right now. Someone should hold her.. someone she could actually trust not to hurt her unexpectedly the next second. 

The torch began to flicker. 

‘Don’t go out!’ she thought desperately at it.   
The idea of being in this little stone box..in the dark.. She wanted to go home. She wanted her mother suddenly. To sit in the living room and read a book while her mother knitted and her father watched a documentary on television. What had happened to that?!. 

The torch flickered again in an unfelt wind and she crawled on the floor to the farthest corner of the little cell and put her back into the corner. 

It dimly registered that morel had been braced exactly like this when she had first seen her in the cell after Rodolphus lit the torch. She understood now why. She wanted to have the walls at her back, to know that nothing was behind her, that whatever might come, it would be only from in front of her. 

The torch went out. 

She whimpered slightly between her teeth and tried to see. Waited for her eyes to adjust but they didnt. There was no light at all in here. There wasn’t the faintest glimmer for her optical receptors to make use of. 

She shivered. It was cold. It would be even worse in here if she had no robe. She tucked her knees in under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs tightly, bending her head to rest her forehead on her knees. She tried to stop thinking. 

 

There had been a sound. She had woken. She wasn’t sure. It was dark. Much darker than her room usually was. 

Reality hit her again and she remembered she was in a cell. 

She had thought she heard a crack of apparition. 

She listened as hard as she could but everything was silent. It might have been in her dream.   
She had been dreaming of the Dark Lord. He had been beautiful and young and he had held her tenderly and told her he forgave her and that he was going to give her back her magic. And then he asked her to marry him.   
She smirked faintly at the idea. Stupid! 

A faint scuff sound brought her senses to full alert. 

Something had moved. Someone had moved their foot. There was someone in the room. 

Her hair felt like it had become wires in her scalp and her body prickled with goosebumps. 

Should she try to move? There was nowhere to go.   
Who was here? Where were they?!   
She thought she heard a breath over to the left a few metres away. That was not where the scuff had come from.   
Was there more than one person or were they just very good at moving quietly? Why hadn’t they lit the torch?   
They were doing this intentionally to frighten her.   
It was working. 

She started to shake. It was too much to think it might be the Dark Lord come back to forgive her.   
Could it be Severus? 

Would that be a good thing?   
He had held her.. he had comforted her.. and that was after the bath.. maybe he would come here and save her? 

But if he was here to save her he would have lit the torch by now. If it was him, he was not here for anything good.. 

It could be Lucius. It could be Lucius and Draco. It could be some other horrible person she didn’t even know.   
Somehow that was the worst thought of all. It could be some unknown man (or woman, she acknowledged, trying to be fair) some person who just decided to drop in and torture her for a while for a laugh. 

She tried not to breathe and to listen as hard as she could. 

There was silence for a while and then ..over to the right by the wall, only a few metres away – the worst sound she had ever heard.   
She had never heard it before but she could identify it immediately even so.   
Someone was scraping something metal, something sharp, across the stones of the wall slowly. 

She clenched herself around her knees and tried not to go mad and start screaming. 

She did not see or hear anything but she felt a body lower itself slowly to its knees before her, there was a feeling of enclosure. Whoever it was had put their arms on the two walls either side of her, boxing her in.   
She felt them leaning in toward her, couldn’t judge the distance.. Her heart was threatening to beat out of her chest.   
She tucked her head in even tighter and felt the now familiar tears starting to slip out and dampen her robe.   
Hair brushed her cheek and she flinched away. 

The next thing she felt was a rough face press itself against her ear and a voice rasped angrily 

“Hello pet...did you miss me?” 

She stiffened. Rodolphus!! She didn’t know whether to be terrified or sing for joy. Rodolphus hadn’t hurt her before..   
but then she was protected then..   
and he had certainly proved that he could hurt others..   
And she had caused him so much punishment and pain from the Dark Lord and then Lucius. It was horrible what they had done to him. He hadn’t deserved it. 

She whispered relieved and guilty “I’m so glad you’re ok!” 

He drew back slightly and she felt the point of a knife dragged gently down the curve of her back.   
“Are you now..” 

Fear bubbled up in her anew. But she couldn’t deny that she was also still relieved.. and a part of her felt reluctantly that Rodolphus probably deserved retribution upon her body for his treatment. 

“Yes” she whispered. “I’m sorry..” 

The torch suddenly sparked into life and she looked up, blinking in the unaccustomed light, into the unnaturally haggard looking.. face of Rodolphus. 

“Oh my god..” she murmured, shocked at how changed he looked. Thinner.. his skin mottled and rough..his eyes burning in his tight skull. She couldn’t help herself, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself to him.   
Angry, hurt, her heart aching.   
“Its wrong. What he did.. I didn’t know.. I’m so, so, sorry.” 

He seemed to stiffen in surprise but then she felt his tense body soften slightly and he dropped his head into the curve of her neck. She held him more tightly..until she felt him lick her neck, slowly.. lingeringly.   
She tried to remain perfectly still.   
Alarm bells were flashing in her head. ‘Vampire! Vampire! Vampire! You just threw yourself at a starving vampire!’   
She felt him snigger against her throat.

“I had forgotten how amusing you were, pet.” 

He kissed her throat gently, licking up the pale column again.. but now it reminded her somewhat of the way one eats an ice cream. He was nuzzling her. 

“You will let me now.. won’t you pet?!.. after I bled for you.. I bled..so much for you..”   
he growled the last words, snarling slightly. She flinched at that.. feeling her heart break again slightly like it had when Severus had told her what happened to Rodolphus. She was more than afraid..but..she felt a sense of oweness. And..perhaps..maybe.. a little attraction.   
Possibly.   
But that was not the point obviously. 

“Will you kill me if I do?” she whispered against his ear. 

He growled low in his throat, nipping her neck with his teeth. “...I will try not to..”   
She tried to pull back and he refused to let her. She turned her head against his face, rubbing up to him and licked at his ear. He growled again and opened his mouth against her neck.. she could feel two sharp points now. 

“Will you kiss me?” she whispered? “Will you...make it nice.. for me..” she hushed, unable to keep the hope out of her voice. He turned his head and violently crushed his mouth against her. She met him as forcefully as she could manage, thrusting her tongue against his..   
His arms wrapped around her and she uncurled her legs, lowering them and fumbling, putting her hands on his shoulders, not breaking the hard passionate kisses as she struggled to her knees before him, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

He pulled her tighter against him and she felt herself lifted to straddle his knees, her robe riding up her legs, lifted further till her naked sex rested over the hard bulge in his leathers. 

Probing with her tongue she could feel the sharp extended points of his teeth now. One of them pricked her tongue sharply and Rodolphus responded rabidly, sucking at her mouth.   
She could not help but feel his blind need, his hunger. She turned her face, kissing his jaw.   
He licked her. Nipping and sucking his way down to her neck again. 

His growl didn’t sound quite..human.. anymore.. and she was a little afraid again. She could feel the solid bar of his cock hard in his pants pressed tightly against her flesh.   
The leather was strangely exciting and was damp with her juices now, slippery. 

He held one hand in the small of her back and the other around her shoulders, pinning her to him, and now he began to grind against her.   
She reacted, rocking her hips, feeling herself beginning to pant.   
His mouth was pressed over her jugular again..his hot tongue licking it somehow mindlessly, like a hungry animal. 

She could feel her orgasm building. “Say yes..” he ground out against her skin.. low.. threatening, pressing her harder against the thick raised line of his cock, as she rubbed herself against it. 

“Yes..” she sighed and his sharp teeth suddenly bit down. 

She stiffened in shock.. it hurt.. but he was bucking against her pussy harder now and the pain seemed to fade away..   
it felt like..   
it felt a little like when she was using that new magic.. a pulsing rushing feeling.. but it was darker.. warmer.. 

He was making little sucking slurping sounds, she registered faintly. Little murmurs of pleasure.. 

She felt slightly faint but the thrust of his hips and the wonderful slick slide of that thick weight against her was forcing her body to respond..She felt the crest approach and Rodolphus seemed to bite down on her throat again, harder, and a towering wave of pleasure drowned her, flowed through her entire body, melted her mind to a single shuddering naked neuron.   
It went on and on, it didn’t abate at all, she was flying at the highest point, aching in bliss...even while she felt herself weaken..her hands falling away from Rodolphus neck limply. 

She dimly registered him growling in fury and frustration, tearing himself away from her throat. She thought she felt his wand stroking over her wound.. it all didn’t matter very much. It was time to sleep for a while. 

 

She woke slowly, groggily, in the dark. There were arms around her holding her tightly. She attempted to make out where she was. She felt strange.. somewhat disconnected from everything around her. 

A hot tongue traced up the shell of her ear from behind. She startled slightly. It was dark. She felt afraid and confused and the urge to panic hovered at the edge of her mind threateningly. 

A candle flickered into life a metre or so away on the floor.   
It illuminated stone. She was in a cell.   
She was lying on a thin mattress facing the dark expanse of a room. 

A sudden pinch of panic gripped her. Who was with her?! She last remembered being with Rodolphus.. being.. most enjoyably.. with Rodolphus in fact.   
‘Please, please, please let that be him behind me’ she thought.   
A hand stroked down the side of her body gently, as if stroking a cat. 

“I’m glad you feel that way, pet” Rodolphus gravelled from somewhere just behind her neck.   
She struggled to turn. He lifted his hand, not touching her, allowing her to move until she lay on her back looking up at the him lying on his side along her length. 

It almost didn’t look like the same person. 

His skin was full, smooth, taut, healthy, his eyes glinted blackly in the dim yellow light, his lips had colour. They were darker. Even his hair appeared to shine with health.   
She sighed in satisfaction. She did this.. she made him better. She had caused him pain but she had made him better.   
She breathed out, relieved, and let her eyes close. 

He lowered himself from the elbow he had been resting upon to lie lower on his side, his head on his curved arm, the other arm curling over her waist possessively. After lying peacefully in the dim candlelight for a minute he spoke softly.   
“I moved you to another cell. I will not let them have you. As you are no longer his you will be mine. Are you in agreement?” 

She thought about this. Did she want to be with Rodolphus.. She was slightly surprised to find a not insignificant part of herself that did. That agreed eagerly and wanted to turn and cling to him and kiss him again. But the rest of her immediately started putting up arguments. 

The Dark Lord wanted her to be miserable and wracked with pain. He wanted to punish her.   
..for hurting him.. she added reluctantly.   
He would check on her one way or another to be sure she was suffering and give her a chance to beg him for forgiveness. Then he would realise that Rodolphus had helped her and he would hurt him again. 

She didnt want him to. She didnt want anyone to ... what if he killed him?   
The thought abruptly fell on her mind like vultures picking at a weak lamb. 

He very nearly killed him last time.. This was so much worse. This was open insubordination. He would be destroyed! Probably agonizingly. 

“Ah pet.. it touches me that you worry what could happen to me more than what will happen to you. What makes you think that the Dark Lord won’t be happy to allow me to make you suffer?” 

She hadn’t thought of that.. But the thought was discarded before a shudder could even build.   
He wouldn’t. He was jealous and possessive.   
Even in his wrath. 

It hadn’t been what Rodolphus had done before that put him in harm’s way, it had been what she had wanted him to do to her.. she had wanted him.. and the Dark Lord saw and was jealous.   
He punished Rodolphus because he couldn’t punish her without damaging his own interests.   
After she had responded so strongly to his cruciatus he had left and sought the other person involved.

He would probably allow any death eater here to harm her right now except Rodolphus. 

He would be pissed when he ..if he..found her with him.   
Lucius would probably be the first in line to seek her out and then he would run and tell the Dark Lord she was missing. 

She felt a horrible aching dread in her gut. She was going to have to go back to her cell and ..endure.. whatever happened. Or Rodolphus could die.   
The Dark Lord would probably make her watch. 

“Can you obliviate me?” she whispered miserably. Rodolphus stiffened and his hand that had been gently stroking her stilled. “You want to forget me?” 

“I don’t want him to hurt you when he sees how I feel in my mind” she tried to explain. 

“No. Pet. I can’t obliviate you. I don’t want you to go back. You are mine now. He said he didn’t want you. He told everyone they could have you. I will have you now. “

She sighed.. wanting to just forget concern and cling onto that idea.   
She could be Rodolphus’ girl..pet..whatever.. because the Dark Lord didn’t want her anymore. 

“It’s not true.” she said finally.   
“He will never let me go. I’m too valuable. Or.. what I can do is. I’m not. He won’t stop till he finds a way to bend me into what he wants. He only put me here to punish me for saying something rather nasty.   
He’s... he’s taken my magic away.” 

The arm around her tightened suddenly. “What are you talking about? Why? You don’t even have a wand. What did you do?!” 

She rolled her face toward him, watching the unease and concern flash over his face.. he was so much more expressive than the others she realised. His face was more.. alive.. which was rather paradoxical, she mused. 

She said in a small voice “I shouldn’t tell you. It won’t be good for you if you know. If he hasn’t told you then he doesn’t want you to know. But it’s enough to say that this lovely trinket” she lifted her necklace slightly “binds my magic. I would be utterly helpless now even if I had a wand.” 

He took the necklace from her fingers quickly and lifted it, peering closely at it and was surprised when it melted through his fingers falling back down on her chest, when he lifted it too high. 

“It doesn’t come off” she sighed. “I suspect only He can remove it.” 

Rodolphus shifted around, slipping onto his back and stretching till he could reach his wand and draw it. He cast a bright lumos and picked the necklace up again inspecting it closely. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it” he said finally, uneasily, letting it fall.   
He hesitated for a moment before offering her his wand. “You really can’t do any magic at all?” 

She took his wand and a tiny spark of hope that had ignited in her extinguished while she watched her lumos fail. She tried several times and eventually passed the wand back. “It’s just a stick to me now..” she muttered. 

He lay back and stared up at the stone ceiling. “I understand” he said finally, quietly. 

She turned to him questioningly. 

“The only way you can be a witch again is if you give the Dark Lord whatever it is he wants from you. Even if I could save you from the other death eaters and were permitted to keep you..our lord would never release you. You would live like a squib for the rest of your life.” He paused.. “It is too much to sacrifice.” 

Her heart melted suddenly. Rodolphus was..so..   
She turned quickly and curled herself around his body. After a second he extracted his arm and wrapped her close to him, turning his head against her.   
She felt a cool sensation and knew that he had sniffed her again. She quirked. 

“What do I smell like to you?!” she asked curiously. He smiled against her skin. 

“Fresh..” he said. “and bright, clear.. like the sound of a silver bell. And sunlight.” He licked her gently. “Taste clean. So young. Woman. Virgin..” he growled the last word softly and his tongue slipped out to lick her again as if she were some kind of lollipop. He was turning his body toward her now, both his arms slipping around her and pulling her closer.   
She didn’t know if she could survive letting him feed on her again so soon. 

“Mmm.. don’t worry, pet. I won’t break you.” He murmured against her, nuzzling her with his nose, his hands wandering down her body. 

She wondered whether he was talking about killing her or taking her virginity. His face dropped to hers.   
“Both” he growled against her lips and kissed her, gently this time.   
She clung to him, afraid of ...everything.. and afraid for him too. 

His hand slid down her body as if he were stroking a cat. “I will take you back now. You make me hungry again.” 

He withdrew one hand and reached for his wand, apparating them where they lay back into the cell Hermione had been in before.   
It was identical with the exception that it was dark and lacked the thin mattress so they fell the few inches to the floor together. 

Rodolphus rolled her onto her back on the stone floor and kissed her some more. She felt intoxicated by him.   
He stroked his hand down her arm till he found her hand and gripped it gently, pulling it up their bodies till he could hold it against his cheek. 

“You will give me a small taste before I leave you, pet, wont you?” he breathed against her face in the pitch black room.

She was unsure. He might get carried away.   
He had turned his face against her hand and was licking up the length of her fingers with his hot slick tongue.   
It tickled and felt..very interesting.. her sex reported that it was an interesting sensation indeed and wouldn’t he like to suck her finger a little. 

No sooner thought than done, he was slipping her index finger into his hot wet mouth and nibbling on it.   
It was incredibly arousing in the pitch darkness.   
He turned her hand slightly and then she felt a sharp pain in the pad of her finger as he bit down on it lightly.   
It hurt.. but no more than a paper cut or a slip with a knife in potions.   
He was sucking at her finger harder now, moaning softly with obvious enjoyment. 

She raised her other hand and ran it through his hair gently. “will you visit me?” she asked, knowing she shouldn’t.   
It would be better if she didn’t get him in any more trouble. 

“Yes” he growled around her finger, almost helplessly. 

He sucked harder and she felt his tooth prick lightly against her finger again before he reluctantly, almost angrily, pulled her finger from his mouth and kissed her again. He tasted coppery and sweet. He drew back again. “Goodnight, pet..” he gravelled at her and rolled off her.. a second later he disapparated. 

She lay on her back on the stone floor in the pitch black silence feeling empty. She wished he would come back – knew that there was no use thinking about him. 

It abruptly occurred to her that someone might have visited her room the Dark Lord might have visited her room while she was wherever Rodolphus took her.   
She hoped not.   
Maybe no one would notice. 

Perhaps the Dark Lord wouldn’t think to look at her mind if..when.. he eventually turned up. 

She felt better now though. Less frightened than she had been before. 

Rodolphus was the master of the dungeons. If anyone came to her cell he would know. He would..maybe.. protect her from the worst death eaters.   
Unless the Dark Lord had specifically given them access. 

He wouldn’t though, she hoped. He didn’t really mean it. He hasn’t really abandoned me. 

She turned onto her side and curled up into a foetal position, closing her eyes, which made no difference to the quality of the darkness around her.   
She could feel her bladder pressing slightly. Soon she would need to use the bathroom and then she would have to crawl around in the dark looking for that horrible hole in the floor. This really was a terrible place to put a person. 

How many others were in here. There had been dozens and dozens of rooms.. Rodolphus had three floors of them.   
How many of her former friends and allies were only a few walls away right now?   
Kingsley or Luna or even Ron could be in the next room and she’d never even know. 

Would Luna be in here?   
She was a pureblood and a Ravenclaw. She’d probably see the sense in giving up the fight and bowing to the Dark Lord. 

She felt her thoughts beginning to drift slightly. It was so dark and there were no sounds.   
It was..peaceful, in a ridiculously ascetic way, in here, now that she had accepted her fate.. accepted that she could do nothing to prevent whatever would happen to her. 

Good.. she thought absently.. if I sleep maybe I can put off peeing a little longer. 

She rested her head on her arm and let sleep take her again.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reviews increase upload frequency and will receive a response

She woke in the darkness, a long or a short time later, there was no way to tell. 

It was still and the room felt vacant in a way it hadn’t last time she’d woken. 

Her bladder was now quite urgently informing her that she needed to find the little hole in the floor before she wet her robe and left a puddle on her floor.   
Her floor. How peculiar.   
She had better not wet her floor because she might spend some time in her cell before the Dark Lord came down from his strop and released her.   
If he ever did..Perhaps he really just didn’t need her anymore after all. She wasn’t worth the trouble. A little mudblood. Easy to replace if he just wanted a warm female body. Couldn’t trust her with her powers anyway.   
Perhaps he would just leave her in here to rot. 

The idea sounded false in her head. 

IF the Dark Lord decided she was truly of no further value and he didn’t want her, she thought he’d probably simply kill her. Just in case someone else got any pleasure from her when he no longer could. 

On the other hand.. perhaps it would please him to see her in here suffering at the hands of countless faceless men.   
He had said that Severus had enjoyed her torture.. he hadn’t said whether he had. He had watched too without raising a hand. He tortured people constantly, when he was angry, when he was bored. Of course he probably enjoyed it. 

Oh! Her bladder was really not comfortable now. She couldn’t put this off any longer.   
She got up onto her knees carefully. Where had the hole been in the other room? They were probably all identical.   
The door was over..there.. probably..   
She paused.. Rodolphus hadn’t put the light on in this room after he apparated her back. Was she still in the same place she had been before? Best be systematic unless she wanted to waste even more time and possibly get completely disorientated in the small room. 

She crawled to her left till she found the wall and then crawled along it till she met the next wall.   
She about turned and then took a step on her knees sideways out from the wall and crawled forward, feeling all around with her hands till she reached the opposite wall again.   
She continued the systematic grid search and finally, when she had almost crossed the room again she felt her fingertips brush the filthy edge of a hole – a stone circle carved into the floor.   
She raised her robe, flicking it up over her back and holding it up against her chest with one hand as she gingerly positioned herself over the horrid hole and let the stream go. There was no sound of splashing or tinkling. Obviously the hole didn’t lead to any kind of cistern.   
When she had finished she realised the next wonderful thing about a completely bare cell with a hole in the floor.   
No toilet paper. It seemed tissue was a privilege she had lost in her life.   
She attempted to shake herself awkwardly and widened her knees, hoping she’d air dry. 

God.. if anyone came now, they wouldn’t have to torture her, she’d die of mortification. 

After what certainly felt like half an eternity she crawled away from the hole and after a metre or so stopped to pull her robes down and readjust them into modesty.   
She crawled forward till she met the wall with her stretched blindly reaching fingers and then followed along it till she found the corner. 

She sat then, her knees crossed in front of her and wondered what she was supposed to do now.   
What did other prisoners do in here? In the dark one had a limited range of options she supposed.   
She wasn’t really good at doing nothing. It was why she applied herself to so many things at Hogwarts.   
When she was doing nothing she would start to feel tense.. worry about things.. feel insecure.   
What could she do in here?   
Meditation was obviously out.. she’d end up meditating on how completely screwed everything was now.   
She couldn’t sleep anymore at the moment.   
She could masturbate, she supposed.. but Rodolphus had cleared up that urge for a while.   
She could do math.

Vaguely a book whose title she couldn’t quite remember swam out of her memory. In that story the prisoner who was sentenced to solitary confinement kept himself sane by adding numbers. She wondered whether that would actually work or whether it would be more likely to drive her completely mad eventually. 

It occurred to her.. she could sing.   
She couldn’t hear screams so the rooms were probably pretty soundproof. It wasn’t as if anyone would grade her on her performance. It was like being in the shower. 

Yes she thought.. like being in the shower in the dark for a really, really long time. 

What should she sing? She fumbled through her memory looking for a song. A perversely satisfying song popped up.   
She began to sing softly.. “ Amazing grace.. how sweet the sound..that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found.. was blind but now I see”. She smirked. The Dark Lord would probably disapprove of her song choice.   
The room had quite a nice resonance though. 

She had sung this song at her grandmother’s funeral when she was little and at the time they were just pretty words without any religious connotation.   
She remembered all the verses and sang them, her voice slowly growing more confident till she was belting out the final verse.   
“When we've been here ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise, Than when we've first begun.”   
She felt quite happy now and wondered what she should sing next. 

She was scrolling internally through databanks of popsongs when an eerie voice sang out of the darkness.. 

“Yesterday... all my troubles seemed so far away..now it looks as though they’re here to stay...”   
The voice trailed off as the hair stood up on her neck. 

Someone in her room!! Someone in her room!! 

She hadn’t even heard them arrive! 

How long had they been here? 

Where were they? WHO were they? Oh god!! 

“Hello??!” she called fearfully. 

“You have a lovely voice..Hermione..” the voice replied and now it was recognizable. 

“Lucius..” she whispered.. her heart pounding. 

“Who else, mudblood? Who could possibly desire to see you bleed more than myself right now?” 

She felt the tide of panic beginning to rise again within her. 

“I have to say, although your singing is quite fetching..I prefer the song you sang for me the last time we met. Won’t you give me a repeat performance?”   
He sounded closer. 

“Please Lucius!..I’m sorry” she whimpered. He laughed low.. 

“Oh.. there you go.. yes.. your voice is much more attractive when you beg. You aren’t sorry yet Hermione.. but I promise you.. when we are finished you will be. After what you’ve done, you little whore...I will break you. You will yearn for death!” 

There was no light. She felt like she couldn’t move in this darkness. Couldn't hear him again now.. she whimpered softly again.   
The Dark Lord must have sent Lucius. Rodolphus wouldn't have let him in otherwise, would he?   
That meant..whatever he wanted to do..the Dark Lord had given him permission to do.

She felt like her insides had been spooned out and filled with ice.   
Her wrists suddenly jerked out in front of her, held by nothing at all, and she was dragged, yelping, up onto her feet and toward the centre of the room, her heels digging in as she stamped and struggled against the force pulling her. 

She heard a weighty clinking sound. Manacles.. There were manacles. Oh god! 

In the smothering darkness, her arms were being pulled up above her head by the force and she felt them brush against cold metal. The torch lit now but it did not burn brightly, instead it burned low with a dark red flame, casting the room into an awful blood tinted light.   
Lucius stood not a metre in front of her, rage and lust contorting his smooth aristocratic features.   
His hair was once again long and fell loose like silk over his shoulders to mid chest. 

He pocketed his wand and stepped against her, taking her raised wrists impatiently one after the other and enclosing them in the manacles with leather gloved hands. Then he stepped back and drew his wand, flicking it and she was raised several inches off the ground, almost even with his face. 

She paddled with her feet helplessly, unable to reach the ground with even her outstretched toe. Her wrists hurt – she had never realised her body weighed this much. 

Lucius frowned and vanished her robe. 

“No!!” she cried out. That was the worst thing, she realised. Learning he was here was very bad and being strung up again was much much worse but without her robe she would be naked in here when he had finished whatever he would do to her. She would be like morel.. like .. no not like Ginny. Ginny was a false lying bitch. She had never really been a prisoner in here.   
Without her robe she had nothing. 

“PLEASE!!!” she begged him. “Please.. give it back!!” 

Lucius seemed amused and stepped close. “What would you do for it?” he asked nastily, inspecting her along the length of his nose. 

“What do you want?” she asked desperately. 

He looked at her and a horrible gleeful arrogant expression alighted on his face. “we will see what you might offer to do for me ...after we have played for a while. You were so eager to sing, Hermione. Sing now. Sing that song you were singing before. Something about grace, I believe.” 

Hermione blanched. He was going to hurt her now. He was going to do it no matter what she did. She couldn’t stop him. 

“Sing.. and I might be merciful and spare you..the full extent of my anger.” 

he raised his wand. “SING!” 

Hermione swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat and started to sing softly.. Her voice was shaky as she watched him, her eyes wide. The weight on her chest from hanging made it hard to breathe. 

“..Amazing grace.... how..sweet... the sound..” 

He smiled cruelly “Thats right.. good girl.. keep going. “ He flicked his wand at her lightly and a deep cut slashed over her hip, immediately weeping trails of blood down her thigh. She gasped and stopped singing..   
He raised his eyebrows imperiously at her and gestured with his wand. 

She continued hurriedly. “..that...that..saved a wretch..like me” 

He smiled again and flicked his wand at her again. A thin line burned across her stomach.   
She winced and jerked in midair, swinging slightly from the chains now.   
“I once..was lost.. but now.....am found..” 

 

Lucius led her through all five verses, waving his wand like a conductors baton and flicking curses at her with increasing frequency. She struggled to finish the final verse: it was hard to get enough breath to sound the words and the blood was dripping uninterrupted down her body from dozens of cuts that did not heal automatically as the enchanted knife wounds had.   
Lucius’ face was placid and full of a quiet enjoyment as if he were listening to his favourite symphony. 

She finished the song and stilled, looking at him fearfully.   
“Very good, Hermione! “ Lucius rewarded her with a pat on the head. “And now.. lets test your vocal range!”   
He performed a complicated gesture with his wand and muttered. 

She screamed full throat as barbed wire wound itself loosely around her body, scratching thin bloody trails and tearing wider the cuts it transversed. When it had reached just above her breasts it suddenly tightened sharply, the sharp knots piercing her skin. She screamed harder than ever, but petered out almost immediately as the still tightening wire compressed her chest.   
Gasping she blinked at Lucius, silently shaping the word “please” over and over again with her lips, her eyes begging him pitifully. He looked at her with mild irritation and flicked with his wand at the loops. 

It loosened around her chest just sufficiently for her to snatch shallow breaths. Each breath tore at the prongs embedded in her flesh.   
He walked around her hanging form admiring his handiwork. 

Her head dropped to her chest as she tried fruitlessly to catch her breath. She could see a growing puddle of blood below her. It trailed away down the floor, she presumed toward the waste hole. 

Lucius had returned to stand in front of her. She dragged her heavy head up, leaning it against her left arm and tried to look at him with an appropriate measure of attentive respect.   
“Better” he spat. “I think your voice is nicely warmed up. Now little bird, you are going to sing. Tell me what you did to give me this wretched scar! What curse did you use? I want to know how it must be healed!” 

She felt her blood turn to ice. What would he do when he found out that she was the only person who could take it off him and the Dark Lord had bound her magic from doing so? Perhaps she could lie? He might go away if he thought it needed a potion. But he wouldnt be gone long. Severus would correct him and then he’d be back and more angry than ever.   
She swallowed unhappily. 

“Not quite ready to tell me? Let me see if I can encourage you any further”   
Lucius’ face, washed in the blood red light and drawn in lines of hate was a horror to behold. He pressed his wand to the wire surrounding her and whispered a spell, then withdrew and folded his arms, watching her with an air of anticipation. 

She felt the barbed wire beginning to heat. 

‘oh god.. no..’   
she looked at him desperately. The wire was uncomfortably hot already, under her breasts and on her ribs it was already beginning to burn her. 

“I’ll tell you. Stop! Please!! Please Lucius!.. “ she cried desperately. 

He sneered at her, his wand standing upright in his right hand, tapping against his left arm impatiently.   
“So tell me, mudblood” he spat, not releasing the curse. 

The wire around her was burning everywhere it touched now and the pain was unbearable. She screamed.. writhing helplessly in her efforts to get away from the lines of fire encircling her entire body 

“I’d advise you to hurry, Hermione, you’re only hurting yourself more by delaying” she was dimly aware of Lucius smirking. 

She screamed uncontrollably.. unable to articulate a single word. It went on and on and she could smell something that reminded her of home. It was ...it was Sunday roast. Her flesh was cooking.   
The burning receded suddenly, leaving only a low heat in the wires and a dreadful painful stinging from her burnt flesh.   
It was horribly incredibly sore.. but in contrast to that filament wire of fire it was bliss. She sobbed, relieved. 

“It was a curse I developed.” She lied fluidly, feeling a bit light headed now.. she wondered if it was the endorphins from the pain.. Her head dropped backward and she caught it and dragged it back up to lean on her shoulder against her arm. 

“I used lumos.. “ she whispered. “But i fixed it later with my spell so it wouldn’t heal. Because you hurt me.”   
Everything hurt right now. Almost every part of her body below her neck was screaming in pain but strangely, she thought she might be able to go to sleep like this. Her head against her arm was so relaxing.   
She was floating on a prickly hot carpet of pain and it was so much that it was almost nothing. 

“ENNERVATE!!” Lucius roared at her.   
He stepped close and pinched her jaw between his fingers hard. “you will NOT escape that easily Mudblood. Tell me how to undo the spell!” 

She smiled crazily. “You can’t.” She said simply. Through her dazed unreality, she could suddenly see the end of her suffering.. the escape. She struggled and erected her head again on her neck, struggling to appear focused and not the weak melting pool of exposed screaming nerves she felt herself now.   
“Only the caster can release it. I am the only one who can heal you, Lucius. But the Dark Lord bound my magic and I can’t help you unless he frees me.” 

Lucius face twisted in inhuman rage. “You.. you.. I am going to tear you into little squirming strips, you whore! I’m going to have your eyes for this!” He raised his wand and placed it next to her eye. 

“No.” She said calmly, not begging, just observing. “You aren’t. “ She jerked her face away from his wand and fixed him with a hard stare “unless you want to wear the brand for the rest of your life. I gave to you it to remind you of how you hurt me. You have hurt me again. You are still hurting me.” 

“When the Dark Lord releases me, IF he ever does.. I will remember how you have treated me.”   
She looked away, feeling hot lines of blood gliding swiftly down her ruined body still. The soft plink plink plink of the droplets landing was the only sound for a long caught-breath moment. 

Lucius stared at her, fury warring with disbelief and finally succumbing to reluctant realization. 

“Release me” she breathed. He struggled with himself. She could see that he was so enraged that he wanted to tear her throat out with his bare hands.   
After a minute of fisting and unfisting his hands at his sides he waved his wand and the barbed wire surrounding her evaporated into a black vapour that rose and vanished. 

Her naked body was wound now in a thick livid red line which in some places actually gave way to blackened cooked and charred flesh. Cuts and holes bled profusely and the fresh hot blood irritated the now exposed deeply cut tracks of the seared brands.   
She winced, clenching her eyes closed. 

When she opened them, Lucius stood, his wand no longer in his hands, just looking at her. He seemed transfixed, feasting his eyes on the destruction he had wreaked on her body. 

“..heal..me..” she choked out. 

Lucius hesitated. He had raised his gloved hand and it hovered uncertainly just above her breast.. his silvery eyes were pink in the light and he wore a tempted haunted expression.   
“..I want you, Hermione” he said in a guttural voice.. “I want you.. like this.”   
“I want to taste your torn filthy flesh.. your despoiled purity..” he hissed the words hungrily, his leather gloved fingertips ghosted over her breast, tracing the lines cut into her, smearing her blood slightly. “Won’t you..let me..please you..while you bleed for me?” 

His eyes were manic. 

Had he lost his reason? Oh god.. he wasn’t going to stop! 

Lucius had stepped close and now he dropped his head and without hesitation sucked her blood soaked nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue.   
Her nerves shrieked agony in response to his hot wet tongue slipping over a deep cut at the edge of her nipple but she did not even flinch. She just watched him, helplessly stunned and numbed at this bizarre development.   
It felt like the world had turned upside down.   
Lucius Malfoy was licking her muddy blood eagerly with what appeared to be the greatest imaginable enjoyment. 

His hands were fumbling somewhere out of her line of vision and then he raised his now gloveless fingers and stroked down her skin..lightly.. carefully.. spreading her blood over what undamaged skin remained.   
He stopped licking and sucking at her breast and suddenly dropped to his knees, his fine robes soaking up her pooled blood on the floor. He looked up at her with a crazed longing in his eyes. 

She was just so confused at how suddenly the ground beneath her feet had seemingly shifted that she couldn’t even react. She stared down at him dumbly.   
His face was level with her hips and now he was sliding his hands up her thighs, parting them and in only a second he had tossed her legs over his shoulders and buried his face in her pussy. 

“What .. the.. hell!!” she reacted now, crying out and struggling, trying to get him off her. 

He clung tightly, his tongue flickered rapidly over her clit and he sucked and nibbled at her relentlessly.   
After a few minutes of fighting without effect she felt her body starting to respond to him.   
‘NO!’ she didn't want this!! She didn't want him.

“Stop!!” she demanded weakly. 

He ignored her and redoubled his efforts, one of his fingers gently probing at her vagina, feeling her unbroken hymen. When he felt it he went wild, his tongue lashing her and he started moaning.. the hum of it seemed to make his movements and his mouth even more effective and she found herself rocking her hips against his face, whimpering softly. 

Her blood had run down and stained his pale blonde hair and covered his face. He was quite soaked in it.   
She felt his finger slide slowly into her tight body and groaned, bucking her hips wildly now.   
“Oh God...” she whimpered..   
He sucked at her clit and she moaned louder, racing toward her release. 

Barely, in the periphery of her awareness she recognised that Lucius held his wand in his hand.   
She felt his mouth draw back for only a second and heard him whisper lovingly “crucio” and terrible pain ripped at her nerves suddenly, tearing scream after scream from her.   
But then he put his mouth back onto her clit and it seemed like the pain only heightened the feeling in that tiny little bud and she was clamping down hard on his finger, screaming in unbearable pleasure as she came against his mouth.   
The crucio stopped immediately and she coasted the slow ebb of her bliss back down to earth.

Lucius was gasping against her. He fell back into the bloody mess and fumbled at his robes, shoving his hand beneath them and clearly bringing himself off, coming almost immediately.   
He let himself slide down to his back in the gore and panted, recovering. 

After a couple of minutes of hanging, burns stinging across her whole body now that the afterglow had faded and dripping blood still while Lucius lay, covered in the stuff and appeared to doze, his eyes closed and a happy little smile on his horrible arrogant..talented..lips, Hermione had had enough 

“Lucius?” she hissed pointedly. 

He seemed to sigh wistfully and after a few seconds, opened his eyes and sat up, looking up at her from far below. 

“I suppose you’ll be even more ..upset.. after that.” He spoke mildly. “But I considered that - if you were going to ‘remember how I treated you’ as you so ominously threatened, Hermione, It was unlikely that I could anger you any more than I already had” He paused. 

“Besides..It would be inexcusable to give you all that wonderful pain only to leave us both without completion twice.” 

He climbed to his feet nimbly. “Oh don’t grizzle! I will heal you now” 

He scourgified the blood from her body, then muttered a spell she didn’t recognise and began sweeping his wand over her body. Where it passed, it left smooth unblemished skin in its wake. 

“These wounds are superficial” he remarked to her as if in passing. “Perhaps.. in time.. you will learn to enjoy the darker pleasures of the flesh and I..”   
“-or another of course” he added hastily, darting his eyes up to her face guardedly,   
“will have the pleasure of teaching you the limits of the human body.” 

“I can show you how deep you may slice to cause pain but not irreparable damage.. teach you what kinds of torture may be employed to evoke maximum suffering and minimal loss of value” 

She blinked at him, confused. 

“The knife you took from me..” at this a faint frown passed across his features like a cloud over the sun on a windy day “is not an effective tool to learn upon.. the cuts you gave me might have killed me, had you been using a regular blade, Hermione.” 

She bit off on the rather obvious nasty comment that she immediately wanted to make in response to that and remained silent, letting him continue to heal her. It was astounding how quickly he was able to erase the wounds that had been so painful only moments ago.   
He was moving around her body to her back now. 

“It was terribly naughty of you to scar me permanently like that.” 

She couldn’t see his face but it sounded like he was frowning again. 

“I would never have permanently disfigured you, despite your misgivings. The Dark Lord would have forced me to eat my own testicles raw, had I slipped and damaged you.” He paused significantly. “I realise.. you had no way of knowing that at the time and..it was perhaps natural to react wrathfully.”   
He finished with her back half and moved around her to kneel before her once more, passing his wand down her legs carefully, erasing the last remaining wounds. 

She hung limply. The pain was gone but she felt dreadfully weak now. How much blood had she lost, anyway?! 

Lucius was finished and stood. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she caught his eye..hesitating. 

“Do ..do you really think I’m filth?” she asked quietly, slightly embarrassed.   
“Well I mean.. you just..” She swallowed uneasily, unsure how to process what he had just done to her.   
“Are you really disgusted by me? If you are...then why..did...”

He appeared surprised. He stepped close to her, slinging his gore soaked arms loosely over her naked and now unblemished hips. Leaning in, he laid his bloodstained face against her clean one, his lips at her ear.   
“Of course, mudblood” he whispered and sucked her earlobe into his mouth, nipping it.   
One of his hands stroked up her body to caress her breast, squeezing it gently.   
“absolutely revolting!” he murmured against her skin, rubbing his cheek gently back along hers to brush his lips against her cheek. “I’ll probably have to scourgify my tongue”   
the tongue in question darted out and flicked against the corner of her lips teasingly. 

He sighed and drew back.   
Her wide startled eyes apparently made him smile. He noticed in surprise the blood smears he had left on her body and face and glanced down at himself. 

“Oh now this will not do at all” 

He scourgified himself from head to toe and turned, asking “Did I miss a spot anywhere?”   
she hung from her long-since-numb wrists, feeling somehow ridiculous and shook her head.   
He smiled and seemed content. 

When he pointed his wand at her manacles she dropped abruptly and would have likely fallen to the ground immediately if he hadn’t caught her around the waist and steadied her a moment. 

She was dazed.. trembling. It seemed almost as if they had been acting out a little skit and now they had finished the skit and were politely preparing to go their separate ways.   
She felt a kind of constant low burning fear, she realised, that the mask would peel off again.   
She wanted to cling to the idea of the genteel, playful Lucius who was just torturing her as a form of twisted foreplay.   
She was scared that any second she could face the cruel monster again.   
She really did fear Lucius more than the Dark Lord. 

“P-please can I have my robe back Lucius?” she asked.. wishing she didnt sound as pitiful as she heard herself sounding. 

“Oh certainly, Hermione.” He replied, his voice light and melodic. “And since you have pleased me quite considerably today, I won’t even require you to lick the soles of my boots for it.” He added, generously. 

He removed a delicate silk scarf from his pocket and transfigured it into a soft black lambswool robe.   
He held it up for her to slip it over her naked body and then assisted her to fasten it. It was far softer and more fitted than the rough woollen robe the Dark Lord had placed on her body.   
He scrutinized her for a moment and then gestured with his wand, lengthening the robe at arms and hem till it ended at her fingertips and brushed the ground, where it immediately began to soak up the blood that puddled all around their feet. 

“That should keep you a bit warmer” he observed. 

“...thank you” she whispered, against her will. 

“It is..my.. pleasure, Hermione” Lucius responded with a slightly cruel smile.   
“I shall see you later, my dear. Perhaps tomorrow I will visit you and cheer you up and you can sing for me again” 

She flinched and stepped back slightly. 

“Oh there there.” He affected a sad pout. “Don’t be like that. You have a wonderful singing voice. I wonder, do you know Mendelssohns ‘Choir of Elves’?”   
She blinked at him uneasily. 

“No?” he raised his aquiline brows in apparent disbelief at the tragic inadequacy of her musical repertoire. “Oh now that is just ..unforgiveable. Perhaps I shall play it for you and we shall see if you can’t learn it.” 

He patted her on her head in an affectionate condescending manner and turned on the spot, disapparating. 

Hermione shook violently and stepped numbly out of the puddle of blood, trying to wipe her bare feet against the dry stone floor before she stumbled toward the corner.   
She could feel the ends of the robe slathering her ankles in cold tacky blood. Putting her back to the corner she slid slowly to the floor. 

The entire room smelled like a slaughterhouse: burnt skin and offal. She put her arms around her knees and lowered her head. She felt like she just didn't have it in her to cry anymore.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning!
> 
> Reviews increase update rate and will receive a response.

Shortly thereafter a crack informed her that she had another guest. She lifted her head tiredly. 

It was Severus. 

She dropped her head again, irritated.   
“Go away” she said, her voice muffled against her knees. 

“Hermione.. what happened here?” he asked urgently, as if it wasn’t patently obvious by the blood and the smell that she had just been tortured by someone. 

“GO AWAY SEVERUS” she screamed at him, her muscles tensing painfully. She just wanted to..hit him with something.. Severus.. he did this to her. Made her this weak helpless thing. He was never there when she needed him.   
He kept tricking her into believing in him, over and over again. It was perverse. 

She heard him walking over to her carefully.. as if he were approaching a small wounded animal. 

He had almost reached her and was just bending, reaching out when there was another crack. 

She looked up, surprised, expecting to see the Dark Lord. Severus straightened quickly and turned too.   
It was Rodolphus.   
She felt a sudden overload of different emotions crash over her.   
Relief that it wasn’t anyone come to hurt her more, deep almost aching need for his comforting arms around her, fear that Severus would see her need and tell the Dark Lord and he would end up hurt again. 

They would take Rodolphus away if they knew he was nice to her. 

Rodolphus seemed to tense immediately upon entering the room, sniffing, his eyes flicking to the small black puddle remaining on the floor in the dark red tinted room and back to her, narrowing.   
He seemed to recognise the source of her fear and trained his face into an appropriately hungry leer. 

“Ah Severus. I didn’t realise you wanted to use the mudblood next. I felt Lucius leave and wanted to be sure he had..cleaned up.. after himself. “   
Severus flinched visibly, his eye darting to her, concern on his face. “I will take care of it. Leave us.” 

Rodolphus didn’t move and she could see his indecision, the muscles of his shoulders tensing.   
She willed him to understand her and told him to leave. Whatever Severus did, she would survive.   
She couldn’t handle it if they took Rodolphus away. 

After a significant pause he nodded, as if he were responding to Severus and disapparated again. 

Severus turned back to face her, he looked suddenly older than he had even a day earlier. The red light made his features even more harsh and cruel, despite his concerned expression.   
He reached for her and she stiffened, flinching away from his hand. His face seemed to tighten in hurt and he pulled his hand back. 

After a few seconds in which he appeared to be thinking, he lowered himself to the floor to lean against the wall a short distance away. He said nothing. He simply sat, his knees bent in front of him and his hands resting on the floor at his sides. He leaned his head back against the wall and stared into nothing. 

They sat there.. together..alone.. for a long time. Eventually she couldn’t take it any longer.   
She asked quietly “What do you want?” 

He was silent for minutes, he seemed to be thinking hard about the question. 

“I would like to go back to the morning we all lay in bed and cast a cooling charm so that you would remain.” He said softly. His face was tight and somehow desperate.   
She felt a tear slide down her cheek, her lips twisting into an unhappy little bow. 

They sat in silence for another long while. 

“How angry is he?” she asked, her voice no more than a whisper.   
Severus lifted his head and looked at her incredulously as if to say “what do you think?!” he dropped his head back hard against the wall with a dull knock. His voice, when he spoke was hollow   
“There isn’t a word strong enough to describe his mood at present. Incandescent rage does not begin to cover it.” 

“oh.” She said in a small voice. the Dark Lord would not be forgiving her soon after all, it seemed. 

“He forbade me to see you” Severus said quietly. 

She turned to look at him, shocked. “And you disobeyed? What will he do to you?” she was oddly touched and morbidly fascinated. 

“I don’t know” he responded with some measure of dread. “It doesn’t matter. I needed to see you. I..I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. It took me a while to work up the...” His voice trailed off.   
She looked up at him, her heart hurting again. She just kept wanting to believe in him. No matter how often he turned around and did something awful to make her want to regret it. 

“I did not want to do it.. I told him that it was unnecessary.” 

She knew he was talking about putting the binding charm on her.   
“but he was so bloody terrified you’d take away his pretty thrice-damned face. He said we would test you to see if you could use your ability on command.   
When he told me how, I actually laughed. I did not at first think he was serious. It seemed so very much like the way muggles tested witches in the middle ages. If you are innocent you drown.. or burn.. and if you are guilty and save yourself from the pain, we find something worse to do to you.   
...barbaric.” 

“It seemed wrong to punish you to the limits of your mind’s ability to function, in reaction to your having done something unbelievably generous and pure for him.” 

Hermione frowned at his sincere regretful expression. Minor bullshit alarms were ringing.   
“That's funny. he told me you enjoyed my witch trial quite a lot, Severus.” 

His eyes slid to her slowly, two parts guilt and one part calculation. He looked away again. 

“...Yes.” he said finally, not denying it. 

“Gosh.. you must be kicking yourself for missing the action here earlier then.” She said nastily. “Lucius was even crueller..if that can be believed. Still..no harm done. If you check in with him, you can almost certainly arrive on time for Tomorrow’s scheduled performance. “   
She scowled at the wall on the opposite side of the room. Severus said nothing.   
She almost felt bad for throwing his lust back at him in this manner.   
Almost. 

She knew he must be dying to know what Lucius had done. “Would you like to see my memory of it, Severus?” she dangled. He responded immediately, his voice a mere growl “Yes.”   
She hesitated, undecided how to feel. He..enjoyed..her suffering. He had made no secret of it. Was it any different to Lucius?   
She thought for a moment. 

“If I show you, I will want something from you” 

He frowned. “You are increasingly Slytherin, Hermione. The Dark Lord is right. We have had an effect on you.” 

She shrugged. 

“I want you to bring me some candles and matches” she said. “And a book. A magical text of your choice that could still be of use to a squib.”   
He looked at her, probably considering how much risk giving her those things could be for him if the Dark Lord.....when the Dark Lord learned she had them. 

“If I give you what you ask, I want to hold you while I view your memory. I want you to straddle me while I look into your eyes”   
She thought about it and nodded her agreement. 

He stretched his legs out on the floor and she crawled over on her hands and knees and climbed onto his lap, straddling his thighs and made herself comfortable. She looked up, preparing herself.   
Abruptly he raised his thighs, spilling her down to straddle his pelvis.   
She shifted uneasily and tried to pull herself back a little but found that she could not. She simply slid down again.

He smirked, sinister in the red light. “I wouldn’t move around too much, Hermione, I’m tempted enough as it is” 

She felt more than a little concerned about showing him the memory now. He was liable to get excited and he had already almost forced her once before. She was in the Dark Lord’s good graces back then. Was there anything stopping him now? 

Severus pulled his wand and stroked the side of her face with the tip teasingly. The gesture felt..threatening and her fear spiked in response.   
“Are you afraid of me, Hermione?” he asked in a chilling voice.   
Her eyes widened and she tried to tamp down her panic before it could rise. 

“No..”she said lying through her teeth. 

He looked truly malevolent in this light as he smiled at her cruelly.   
“I’m certain you’ve heard the muggle saying “A lie is best hidden couched in the truth”... He paused, seeming to revel in her discomfort. He brushed away her hair from the side of her face with his fingertips gently.   
“You may not have realised, but the reverse is equally valid..” 

She looked into his face, confused and increasingly frightened. 

“You dont..always..sleep unclothed, Hermione. Sometimes you wear socks to bed. Orange woolly ones.”   
She stiffened, raw horror rushing through her veins.   
“You sleep with your wand under your pillow – so do I incidentally. You sometimes fall asleep with a book on your chest and apparently do not notice if it is in your bookcase when you wake.”   
“You do not always brush your teeth before bed. Tsk, what would poor dead mummy and daddy think?! ...No sometimes you eat an apple instead and leave the core on your bedside table.” 

She started to panic, trying to get up, but his arms gripped her like steel. “Stay!” he commanded mildly, as if talking to a dog. “We are not finished here, Hermione. We made a deal, you will recall. If you are going to be a Slytherin, you must realise it is intolerably bad form to try to back out of an agreement once made!”   
She had started to shake again and tried to remain still. 

“Good girl. Now. I am going to watch your little interlude with Lucius and depending upon how ..interesting.. I find it, we may see what else you might do for me.. in exchange for payment of one form or another.   
Incidentally Hermione...You do know that there’s a word for that kind of girl, don’t you?”   
He narrowed his eyes at her, smirking nastily. 

“Legilimens!”

 

Watching the memory of Lucius’ torture with Severus was even worse than she might have expected. 

He lingered on some parts. It was as if he enhanced them somehow. They were barely like a memory at all - It was like experiencing them all over again, the pain and terror, in heightened form. 

He seemed to lose interest somewhat when she threatened Lucius and the blonde vanished the barbed wire, but then when Lucius buried his face between her legs and forced her to come under crucio, he actually flicked back and watched the section over again, with extreme detail. 

Distantly she could feel that he was hard and pressing against her, but she was so far away from that.   
She couldn’t get out of the memory until he released her and he didn’t seem inclined to do so.

She was hanging from her wrists and Lucius was sucking her nipple and taking his gloves off so he could feel her wounds against his fingers. Each burnt bloody ridge stung sharply as his fingertips probed it gently. 

Far far away her robe was being unfastened and opened and she was pushed back to lean against Severus legs. 

Lucius was kneeling before her, his hands running up the ruined skin of her thighs, suddenly lifting them and tossing them over his shoulders. 

Dimly she could feel her hand placed against skin, curled and then held. 

Lucius was licking her, his tongue moving flicker fast over her pussy, so horribly unbearably pleasurable. He was suckling her clit, pulling on it with his lips. Somewhere else, like it was happening to another person, cool fingers were sliding through her folds, teasing her gently. Her hand felt tight, cramped, as if it were clamped between two surfaces, gripping. 

She tried to focus on what was going on in that faint faint place, it felt like it was important for some reason but she couldn’t focus with Lucius face buried between her thighs. He was moaning into her pussy making it tingle amazingly. Ow.. except it somehow also suddenly felt like he was biting or pinching her or something..   
but he wasn’t.. he was sucking her so gently, dancing his tongue over her clit fast.. there was no reason to feel that sharp pain. His finger was just venturing inside her and it felt SO good. Why did her hand ache?   
She tried to look up at her manacled wrist but Lucius was going wild on her pussy now and she was bucking against him moaning and he was pulling back and did he just say crucio??!   
And then she was screaming in pain and it was indescribable! Terrible! Make it stop! But then Lucius had her clit between his teeth and he sucked it and nipped it and it was fucking AMAZING.. GOD YES!! 

Hermione bucked wildly, lost in her climax, shrieking in pleasure while Lucius tongue.. Lucius fingers? Where were the manacles?   
She shuddered, groaning in pleasure as she came down from the high, suddenly registering Severus hand teasing at her clit, while he watched her with interest. 

She jerked upright in shock, whimpering.   
He removed the hand on her pussy and picked up his wand, scourgifying the cum from his fist where he held her hand clamped over his cock within his own larger one. 

He looked darkly amused at her scandalised face. “Mmmm.. delightful, Hermione. You were breathtaking.. as always”   
He trailed his finger down her pussy, coating it in her juices and then brought it to his mouth, sucking it clean. 

She felt.. broken inside. She didnt know what to think. She was going to go mad in this place.. with these people.   
She was going to lose her mind entirely until she was just a body to be beaten and used. 

‘Severus... stop hurting me..’ she begged inside. She was numb. Number still than she had been when Lucius had left. 

“May I get up please” she asked in a small voice. It felt like asking Lucius for a robe. 

“You may not.” Severus said quietly. 

Her lip trembled. She needed him to leave. Please please make him leave! 

Severus arms were reaching behind her, curling around her and pulling her naked body forward to lean against his stiff buttoned chest. She let him move her around like a doll. It didn’t matter. None of this mattered.   
He held her and stroked her back and murmured soothing little sounds but it didn’t touch her. 

After the longest time he asked her if she was alright. She nodded emptily, hoping he’d believe her so he would go away. He looked unsure.   
She tried to smile and show him he could leave. It seemed to startle him and he looked seriously worried.

After sitting like that for a long time he held her to him and got up, laying her down on the ground and covering her with her robe as if he were tucking her into bed. 

She watched him with vacant eyes. He looked down at her as if he was terribly afraid.   
He stroked her hair and seemed to debate, seemed in some state of turmoil before he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her cheekbone.   
She didnt bother to react. Go away.. go away now.. 

He seemed to hover over her, looking for all things as if he were on the brink of panic before he stood and turned, disapparating. 

When he was gone she lay on the floor, the cold from the stones seeping up into her, staring at the dim red torch thinking nothing. 

She wondered whether Rodolphus might kill her if she asked. 

After a time she slept. 

 

 

She tensed, her mind panicking. Someone was touching her. Arms around her. She struggled, whimpering, trying to crawl away. 

The arms released her immediately and she scrabbled blindly away into the darkness, naked, breathing fast until she hit the wall hard and collapsed down, curling into a ball with her back against the wall..   
Several candles flickered to life on the floor. 

She looked blindly ahead of her. Rodolphus sat on the other side of the room, his back resting against the wall, one leg stretched out before him on the floor and one knee raised. 

He ran his hand through his hair tensely. He seemed upset. 

He didn't say anything, didn't try to come near her. He just sat and watched her, troubled. 

Eventually she closed her eyes and some time after that she went to sleep again. 

 

 

It was dark and quiet. Sometimes she was awake. She couldn’t tell if her eyes were closed. Her thoughts drifted. 

Perhaps sometimes she dreamed about Harry and Ron and sitting on the grass by the lake reading her transfiguration text while they argued about the Chudley Cannons prospects for the next season with the new seeker Milus Gambol. 

Then again she might have just imagined it vividly while she lay staring into nothing. 

She was lying in her bed in her parents’ house and crookshanks was curled up next to her purring. Yes. That was where she was. Any minute now her mother would come in and wake her up for breakfast. She could sleep five minutes more till then. 

 

 

 

Lucius was there. He was shaking her arm roughly. She blinked at him slowly. He did not look happy. 

He demanded she do...something or other..   
She watched him blandly.   
He threatened her for a while. She simply watched him solemnly.

There was nothing she could do to stop him from doing anything he wanted. Therefore there was no reason to react at all. 

She whimpered and writhed as he cruciated her for a few seconds and after he stopped she panted, recovering, and blinking up at him slowly. 

He paced. 

He crouched down next to her and put his hand on her forehead. His hand felt warm. He removed it and looked at her confused. 

He grabbed her by her neck and dragged her to her feet, holding her in place till it seemed she had found her feet.   
When he released her she stood and stared at him emptily. 

He yelled at her and backhanded her face. Her face stayed turned where his hand had cast it. She stared now at the flagstones in the corner. It was no different than staring at him.   
He roughly pulled her jaw back, peering into her eyes, concerned. She stared in his general direction. 

He summoned manacles and hoisted her up off her feet. Her head dropped down to lay against her chest.   
Lucius pushed it back up and slapped her again, saying something angrily.   
She did not flinch and remained silent, passively looking ahead. He conjured a whip and beat her for a while. 

Aside from softly whimpering occasionally, she did not respond. 

When he vanished the manacles, she fell to the ground to lie on her side bonelessly. 

He nudged her with the toe of his boot and yelled at her again for a while, growing increasingly urgent. 

Finally, he dropped to his knees and shook her, looking ill. 

After he stood and paced back and forth again for a while, looking at her every now and then, he disapparated and left her where she lay. 

 

 

 

 

Someone was speaking to her. 

Severus. Knelt beside her. 

 

Pushed her gently to her back and tilted her head, pouring a potion down her throat.   
She swallowed mechanically. 

 

He was asking her something. She looked past him at the wall.   
He leaned down. Speaking at her more urgently now.. 

 

‘Go away Severus.’ 

 

He pulled her up and dragged her against him, clutching her against his chest and saying something. Clinging to her desperately. Kissing her hair. His face was wet. 

 

‘Go away Severus.’ 

 

He transfigured a mattress from his handkerchief and lay her down upon it gently, then tore the pocket out of his coat and transfigured it into a thick warm blanket, spreading it over her form. 

After a few seconds of looking down at her with a distraught expression he knelt beside her,stroking her face over and over. Begging her... something... didn’t matter. She was sleepy. 

 

Severus was sitting on the floor beside the mattress with his head in his hands, shaking and cursing.   
She closed her eyes.

 

 

 

Dark. Quiet. Good. She slept.   
Sometimes she woke. It was dark. 

 

Sometimes the torches would be lit and someone was there. She usually went to sleep before they left.   
When she awoke again the room would be dark. 

 

There was no passage of time. 

The faces didnt matter. Usually it was just Severus shouting or begging. 

 

One time he had slapped her and then he had burst into tears and clutched her to him so tightly she couldn’t breathe. 

 

Twice Rodolphus had come and just sat by her, watching her. He didn't try to touch her. He looked angry. 

 

Lucius hadn’t come back at all. 

 

Once or twice other faces were there. Then she would be dragged up and hung. 

They all seemed happy at first but then they would get angry. So angry. Angrier and angrier when she just hung limply. She would wake up back in ‘bed’ in the dark.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews increase update frequency and will receive a response

She woke. 

The torch was lit. 

Severus was sitting in the farthest corner of the room. He was drinking from a bottle.   
He sat slumped against the wall, his head turned toward her. His face had the beginnings of a full beard. 

He looked like he hadn’t been sleeping. He should sleep. Sleep was the best. 

He saw her eyes open and dropped the bottle, crawling over to her frantically, slipping and struggling in his drunken state. 

She watched the bottle sliding and clirring on the stone floor, amber liquid spilling out of it all over the floor. 

Severus leaned over her.   
He was ‘so sorry Hermione’. Begging her to forgive him.   
Come back. he’d never never do it again. 

She let her eyes wander back to the bottle. It was almost empty now. The liquid flowing in a little river toward the waste hole. She wondered vaguely when she last ate. When she last used the bathroom. When she last walked around. 

Severus was stroking her hair frantically. Pleading.   
She slid her eyes up to his face and he seemed to fall apart, sobbing and clutching at her, yelping things at her through his tears.   
She blinked slowly.   
After a few minutes he became very sad again and lay down on his side on the floor looking at her and crying softly. 

Her eyes strafed up away from him again. 

The Dark Lord was standing in the centre of the room looking down at them both. 

His face was so beautiful. She was happy he didn't have to hurt himself anymore.   
She had been so scared when he wouldn’t wake up.

He furrowed his perfect brow, looking back and forth between Severus and her. 

She stared at him emptily for a while and he seemed to become increasingly unsettled. 

Severus was still crying. He reached out his hand and stroked her cheek several times. 

she thought placidly ‘Go away Severus’.   
The Dark Lord flinched. He walked forward and knelt by her, reaching out and slipping his arms underneath her, cradling her to him.   
Severus seemed to go mad, panicking, clinging to his arm begging him not to take her away. Lord Voldemort ignored him completely and stood, shrugging him off and turning, disapparating. 

 

Sunlight streamed down on her. She closed her eyes against the brightness.

When she opened them again she saw she was being carried over a grassy field. When did she last see the sun.. or see grass..like this? 

The Dark Lord was holding her gently. No! His eyes, he’ll hurt his eyes. She thought panicked. 

“Do not worry, Hermione. I am fine” Lord Voldemort said softly. 

He stopped in the middle of the field and knelt with her, laying her down in the tall grass.   
She could hear crickets somewhere. The sky was bright blue and white clouds sailed overhead.   
Somewhere there was a bird. It was like her dreams. 

Any second now Harry and Ron would fly overhead on their brooms. 

“No, Hermione.” Voldemort said sadly. “That time is past. You must come back to me now. I regret punishing you. I was very upset. I should have come sooner but I did not listen to Severus when he said something was wrong.   
That he was frightened,   
that he thought he had.. broken you.” 

...He is frequently quite overdramatic and ...” he fell silent, his red eyes looked her over worriedly. 

“Hermione.. Please come back. Your mind is so quiet..” 

He appeared to flinch, his eyes darting up suddenly “ I..I need to go and see to Severus for a few minutes. You are quite safe here. If you stay here, I will come back.. and.. and.. I’ll do whatever you like. Tell a joke, sing a song, do a dance. Anything.   
Just.. stay here and watch the clouds and don’t move. Alright? Hermione?” 

The Dark Lord didn’t sound like himself at all.   
He disapparated. 

She lay quite still watching the clouds sail overhead. The tall grass framed her view and glinted in green and gold.   
Any second now she was sure Harry and Ron would turn up. It didn’t matter if the Dark Lord said they wouldn’t. 

 

There was a crack and Lord Voldemort appeared again. He looked terribly sad.   
She wished she could give him whatever he wanted to be happy now but she had no magic. She couldn’t help him now. 

His eyes shot to her face and he suddenly appeared to be struggling with different worrying ideas.   
His gaze dropped uneasily to the necklace sitting on her breastbone in the neckline of her robe. Reaching out a hand, he touched it, stroked it. His face was full of dread. 

“I could give you your magic back, Hermione. Is that what you need? Will you come back if I do? Or will you kill me? “   
He shuddered, looked like a man contemplating the final walk up to the gallows.   
“Everything is.. not as I wished it to be.” He paused, unhappily introspective.   
“ You were supposed to join me.. We were supposed to be happy together.. three together.” 

“Perhaps you were right. Perhaps I poison everything. I could have simply told you the truth in the beginning..   
...but I ...feared you, I suppose. And I feared you would not want me, despite what your magic desired.” 

“You are too good. You think of others more than your own happiness. You might have killed me to protect... everyone.. ...everyone that is left.” 

“I was concerned regarding Severus. He loved you. He might love you more than he does myself.   
You loved him too. And where would I be?” 

The perfect snow white face tightened as if in pain.

“He poisoned himself Hermione! Isn’t that extraordinary?! I-I never expected...   
I had to return because I felt his mark weakening. ...He is barely alive.” 

“I did not listen to him when he begged me to help. I was angry with you. But you are right. I poison everything.   
I am always alone.”   
He lapsed into silence, slouched beside her in black and white and red, a creature of a different colour spectrum to the bright summery world around him. 

Hermione blinked up at him. ‘don’t worry’ she thought. ‘I won’t leave you alone’. 

He looked at her desperately. “Then come back! Come back Hermione! Speak! Please.. I .. “   
she could see him fighting with himself against the words he wanted to say. 

‘Why does Severus keep hurting me?’ she wondered at him silently.   
His eyes flashed and his brow tightened in anxiety. “Because I broke him..Hermione. long ago.”   
“I have known him too long. He was already fractured and I destroyed him, just as he destroyed you.   
What is left is ..damaged.   
He does not know who to be for you. He needs you painfully. He has needed you for so long.” 

“He enjoys pain..he has been conditioned to enjoy pain.. he enjoys your pain..but he also believes that if he hurts you, I will allow him to be around you.”   
She nodded internally. ‘and Lucius?’ The Dark Lord scowled. 

“Lucius is simply what is technically known as a bastard. You might say a twisted bastard.. but almost everyone around me is twisted or warped in some way, I have found.” 

“Lucius.. you would not believe it.. but even Lucius cares for you in his own way. He has an..unusual.. manner of showing affection, you will have noticed by now. He equates fear with desire. Thus when he fears you.. he most urgently desires you.   
In his sublime arrogance, he assumes the same is true for everyone else.” 

“He has had considerable influence on Severus as they were growing up. They have frequently shared things in the past. Severus is one of the only people that Lucius will share anything with.   
Believing you to belong to Severus, he tried to claim you too – to share that pleasure with his.. I dont know what Severus is to him. ...Certainly ‘friend’ does not cover it adequately. I have not obliged Severus to remain ‘faithful’ as you would understand it. I simply require that his primary loyalty.. his greatest affection.. be always for me.”

“i want to go back now” Hermione said. Her voice felt strange and sounded foreign to her ears. 

The Dark Lord gasped in shock and literally fell on her in overwhelmed relief, clutching her to him and kissing her forehead, cheeks, nose, showering her in little kisses, “Hermione..” he moaned. “I was so worried. When I saw you in that room and you were so pale and silent..your mind.. you were almost no longer there.   
I am sorry... for placing you there.” 

“I’m sorry for.. for..” he swallowed.   
“..-killing your parents.. and your friends and taking away the sun and and.. and your cat! Would you like a cat?   
Or a lion??   
or a Gryffin? I’ll find you one.” 

“I want to see Severus” she said. 

The Dark Lord became very still. He looked worried. “I.. don’t believe that’s a good idea..at present.. Hermione.   
He is very weak. He.. he-” the Dark Lord’s voice broke slightly   
“he will..almost certainly.. be better in a few days.. perhaps a few weeks at most. I’m sure he will recover” 

He didn’t look sure at all. 

“Take me to Severus” Hermione commanded placidly again. 

Voldemort appeared to struggle internally. His gorgeous face was pinched and anxious. The expression was as natural on him as a tutu on an alligator.   
Finally he nodded silently and stood, offering a hand down to Hermione. She took it hesitantly and let him help her to her feet. The movement felt unfamiliar and clumsy.   
The Dark Lord pressed her gently to his chest and wrapped his arms around her tightly before he disapparated. 

 

They reappeared in the Dark Lords bedchamber. It was brighter than she had seen it before. The shadows had been chased away and candles and torches all threw golden light around the room. 

A very pale, unshaven, miserable and ill Severus lay in the Dark Lords bed, his eyes closed, his face slack. At the side of the bed, a woman in pale green robes was carrying out tests on him with her wand and noting her observations with a quick quotes quill and parchment. 

“Healer Dawes” Voldemort acknowledged politely. The woman nodded, distracted. “What have you found?” 

The woman frowned. “It is as you feared. He has taken some form of snake venom. It is difficult to ascertain which since all the vials were broken. If I cannot determine what venom he has swallowed, I cannot produce an antivenom for it.” 

The woman did not need to spell out what this would mean. 

The Dark Lord became agitated. “There must be a way to find out! Is there no test you can perform? How do the muggles manage? You will find a way! If Severus dies, you and your entire extended family will be following him through death’s door soon after in order to apologise in person for your failure.” 

Hermione smiled. He did have a way with people. 

She walked, with stiff weakened limbs, to the bed and sat on the edge next to Severus. He looked so very unhappy.   
She felt sorry that she had not responded to him for the last.. however long it had been.. when he had been pleading and trying anything to get her attention.   
She had just not been able to see him properly..   
she couldn’t really understand what he was saying. It was just all far away and somehow not important. 

But now she wanted him back. 

“Severus” she whispered. 

Remarkably, his eyes rolled under the thin skin and he opened his eyelids a crack, displaying terribly bloodshot eyeballs. He almost looked like the Dark Lord. 

“-nee” he croaked. 

She smiled at him. A small smile but a real one. Her voice was whispery soft but she felt clearer with each minute somehow.   
“I’m back Severus. The Dark Lord fixed me... Why did you go and do something stupid like this?! What did you take?” 

He tried to speak. Large tears fell out of his eyes. He could only rasp. 

“Think it, Severus!! Think it clearly so that he can hear you” 

Severus blinked and more tears rolled down. 

“No!.” Voldemort hissed. “Why would you do that? How could you.. Why, Severus?!”   
Hermione looked up at him confused. 

“He doesn’t know what he took. He grabbed the first vial without looking and then tossed the rack onto the floor.” 

Hermione spun and looked at Severus, shocked and sad beyond expression. She felt Voldemort step up behind her. He was fumbling at her necklace and finally he ripped the chain and tossed it to the bed.   
“Fix him! FIX HIM, HERMIONE!!” he demanded desperately. 

She turned and looked at him in wonder. “I..I’m not sure how to. It’s not like you. He isn’t just magically weak.. he’s poisoned!” 

Voldemort pulled out his wand and for a moment she thought that he was going to curse her. Then he pointed it at healer Dawes and muttered “You are of no use here.”   
He hesitated and looked back at Hermione for a second, a flash of irritation crossing his face.   
“Stupefy!”   
The woman collapsed like a felled tree and he banished her wordlessly.

Hermione wondered if he hadn’t been intending to avada her before he thought better of it. 

The Dark Lord hesitated again indecisively and then dropped to his knees before her.   
“Please.”   
Please Hermione! I...need him. Fix him! I couldn’t stand it if he died. He is...he is dear to me.”   
He seemed to have extreme difficulty saying this and stilled, looking ashamed. Frustrated anger danced with helpless worried agitation on his delicate features. His eyes implored her. 

Severus watched him through the barest milimeter cracked eyes and she could see him trying to raise a sarcastic questioning brow. 

She smiled. 

Turning, she focused on Severus body.. trying to see what she should do. After a few minutes she grimaced, confused. Nothing was happening.   
“I think my mind is in the way” she muttered. “I don’t know how to do it.. where to even begin.” 

She had an idea and climbed up onto the bed, crawling gingerly over Severus legs, and moved to lie next to him and put her arm over him.   
“Could you vanish his clothing? She asked.   
She thought.. if she could just...make it more like it had been when she healed the Dark Lord, it might be better. 

The Dark Lord responded immediately, vanishing his clothing, her clothing and all the blankets. She frowned at him slightly irked.   
He pointed his wand down at himself and vanished his own clothing, walking quickly around the bed and climbing in behind her. Hermione looked back over her shoulder at him surprised. 

“That is.. a little distracting, you know” 

He smiled uneasily, the smile trembled and flickered in a rictus. “I thought It would help you think less.”  
“Hold him..” he commanded.   
She curled closer, carefully lifting Severus arm and crawling beneath. He groaned weakly in pain when she touched him. She saw the barest hint of his eyeball trying to focus on her. His body was very cool.

She wrapped herself around him, slinging her leg over his and placing her hand on his heart. She felt the Dark Lord slide up against her. He raised his leg to follow the line of hers and rested it against Severus leg.   
It was.. almost.. a complete reversal of the morning they had woken in bed together. 

She was returning her attention to trying to find her magic, that place she had flexed a few times before to make it flow. 

Just at that second the world became slightly fuzzy and golden.. Lord Voldemort...   
– Tom. He was Tom, her mind supplied inanely. He is Tom. Wonderful beautiful powerful Tom.   
...– was unfolding his magic. It was.. so different when they were all touching each other like this. Even Severus responded. His eyes opened a touch wider.   
She felt around in herself and found that place she had been looking for.. it was.. it was like it wasn’t IN her at all.   
It was.. kind of in everything and she just sort of caught it and bent it and then it flowed through her. 

She pushed, hard.. and she thought about how much she wanted Severus to be like he was.. not sick.. or hurt or even scraggly.   
He should be like he was when she saw him the night of the ball when she first woke up.   
He was so calm and healthy and dignified and wonderful. Her heart had ached for him. 

She saw nothing, her mind seemed full of soft golden buttery warmth. Everything was ok.   
She thought about strong beautiful professor Snape..Severus. 

She felt Tom at her ear all of a sudden. It penetrated the gold haze. He whispered gently. Wouldn’t it be good if he were a little younger too.. You made me young.. he’ll feel so old with two teenagers.”   
It did sound like a good idea now that she heard it. She wanted to giggle inanely.   
She felt the golden fizzy feeling increase further, it was almost like a state of euphoria. 

She looked down at Severus. She was surprised that he looked well already. Better than well, his face looked exactly like he had the night of the ball.   
There were no scars on his body now.   
That was an accident. It wasn’t really right, the scars were him.. but she couldn’t really remember exactly where they had been to put them back.   
A pale hand moved in her peripheral vision and came to rest gently on Severus abdomen.

Severus turned his head further toward her, gasping deeply and the pleasure on his face was raw and open. There was something bizarrely helpless and kitten-like to his movements. She considered.. 

‘Tom is right. He might feel old..’   
She wanted to do something but didn’t know how. She had only known him to look like this. It wasn’t like the scars where she just hadn’t really seen them in her memory’s impression of him – it was different to just wish him young. She didn’t have any idea what that looked like.   
She had seen Severus healthy and she had seen Tom with hair and a nose.. but she had no concept of what a young Severus Snape would look like. 

“I.. I don’t know how to do it.” She slurred hazily “You know how he looked, Tom. You do it.”   
She half turned to look at him. He seemed confused and faintly irritated. 

“What do you mean?! .. and Tom?!”

He seemed about to say more on the topic of appropriate modes of addressing his Lordship – the flight of death himself. 

“Yes, yes,” she said. “Tom– If I pass you the magic, maybe you can focus it? Or no. Use legilimency. You know what he looked like. You can show me.”   
She was startled to note that each of these ideas caused the snake eyed man to startle and then glow more and more with avarice and anticipation. The issue of Tom was long forgotten in light of the possibility of him somehow being able to steer her powers himself. 

She suddenly had a feeling like she had done something silly again, putting this temptation in front of him. It probably would have been better..safer.. to just berate Severus to create some kind of youthening potion.   
Professor Dumbledore was right after all - the easy way is not always the best way she mused. 

And then there was no point in chiding herself anymore because the Dark Lord had already climbed into her mind entirely and it felt like he was wearing her like a glove.   
She observed herself move her leg, nestling it higher around Severus own. She watched her fingers flex. 

In her ear a seductive voice whispered. “It feels good to be inside you, Hermione.. although.. I can imagine ways in which this could be even better”   
she felt his smirk on her own lips suddenly. Severus blinked up at her in confusion.   
Her eyes turned down toward him and she watched her hand rising from his heart and slipping deep into his hair, clenching hard in a practised manner. The man flinched and shuddered, suddenly understanding.   
He moaned throatily, urgently “My Lord.. more!! Oh.. Merlin! Like this... So...”   
He appeared too aroused by the strange situation and the residual wash of the Dark Lord’s magic to articulate in coherent sentences. 

Her hand withdrew from his hair and returned to his chest. She found herself saying in a tone of voice quite unlike herself “Mmmm perhaps another time, Severus. We have more pressing matters to attend to at present”   
Severus moaned needily but remained still. 

Nothing happened for a couple of seconds and she had a strange feeling that the Dark Lord was fumbling around in her.. not in her mind.. deeper.. as if he were brushing through her very essence..   
and then briefly it seemed like there was that sensation of flow..but it was stilted, slow, a trickle stuttering and then gone again.   
He had found it, whatever it was, already. 

‘Tom, stop! She thought desperately. Just show me what I need to see and I’ll do it!’ 

He whispered in her ear again. “That isn’t how legilimency works. I can’t show you things inside your mind, for that you have to come inside my mind, and you don’t yet know how to do that. It’s better that I just try to do it myself”   
She felt a great gush of icy fear wash over her. The Dark Lord fumbled around inside her some more. He seemed to find it more quickly this time..   
There was a trickle of cold. She heard a triumphant breath catch at her ear. 

Then there was a massive roar of cold. 

Severus cried out in pain and the Dark Lord moaned in her ear.   
She couldn’t move. It felt like standing underneath a massive waterfall, except that it was more like standing around the waterfall while it raged through her body and down her spine. 

The Dark Lord was groaning in pleasure “oh.. Salazar... Hermione... so.. much.. there is so ..much..” 

‘STOP!!!’ she screamed in her head.. ‘you’re hurting him!!’   
She felt like her blood was freezing in her veins and Severus was stretched and strained in pain.   
She was trying to take back her body but it wasn’t responding. She was a silent passenger in her own mind.   
It was like the feeling of Severus using legilimency to ...to.. it was like that feeling.   
She could feel herself losing grip on everything again. 

‘Please.. please stop..’ she cried desperately, feeling herself retreat by inches. 

The Dark Lord was panting at her ear and her own hand was stretched, trembling in exertion.   
She felt the magic he was channelling shifting, twisting, until it surrounded all of them.   
He was doing something.   
Whatever it was -It wasn’t what he said he was going to do. 

Why did she trust him again?! Why did she keep falling for these two?! Aargh. She was so damn stupid!! 

The man behind her seemed to come to himself slightly.   
He licked her earlobe lightly and whispered “Don’t worry. I’ll fix Severus now” 

She watched as the stiff pained man she was curled up against began to change. When it stopped she was looking at a boy in his mid twenties. He would still be the oldest after all she mused. 

“This was the age I thought he looked the most lovely” the Dark Lord said softly against her ear. 

She wasn’t sure. She thought the professor looked pretty lovely as the man he had been. This was almost a boy. He was slender and pale. His hair was longer and straighter.   
Severus opened his eyes and it was clear it was the same person. However where he had been broad and powerful and harsh and cruel looking, now there was something still tender about him. Like a young sapling that had not yet weathered the elements.   
He was dark and otherworldly, but smooth and sweet, rather than rich and bitter. She wasn’t sure she preferred it. 

Severus was looking at her and proved how little things changed when he after a few seconds raised a hand to his face and along the length of his hair and said in an irate.. but much younger and less deep and powerful voice   
“WHAT did you do, Miss Gr... Hermione.?!”   
He narrowed his eyes at her. 

She smirked. “I healed you. The rest is.. not my fault. Not even my idea actually. You have your strange serpent god here to thank for that.”   
The Dark Lord uncurled from her and lay back on the bed. “You’re welcome, Severus” Voldemort said snidely, with a smirk on his perfect cupids bow lips. 

“My Lord.. why would you.. ..Hecates saggy tits I loathe the way my voice sounded at this age.   
Fix what you’ve done, damn it all to hell!” 

Hermione raised an eyebrow. Well that she should be able to do, she guessed.   
She concentrated and pushed gently on ..on..everything.. and thought about how wonderfully sexy the professor sounded. 

“Is that better?” she asked, curious herself.   
The Dark Lord sat up and looked over her at Severus, lying there soft and strange and young. 

“I’m not sure.. ah. Yes. It seems so. Well done. Two hundred points to Gryffindor, Miss Granger.”   
Hermione smirked against this strange softer Severus’ chest.   
He was even more bizarre with a young frame together with a voice that spoke of several hundred too many cigars and firewhiskeys. 

“Oh.. That really is an improvement!” The Dark Lord spoke. “I had thought you were utterly perfect at that moment in time, but it seems that some things really do improve with age.”   
Severus took this backhanded insult with aplomb. 

Hermione spoke into Severus skin. “You have what you wanted now. We’re all back in bed.. Maybe next time we could find a less dangerous way of initiating intimacy than torture, imprisonment and suicide.“   
Severus seemed to suddenly realise where they were himself now. His breath caught.   
He lifted a hand carefully, turning his head to look down at her on his shoulder, and brought it toward her, perhaps to stroke her cheek..but stopped, a few inches away... his hand shook. 

“I’m...I’m so, so sorry Hermione. I-..I didn’t think..it would.. you would.. ...after our bath I thought..   
I’ll never, never do it again. I’m sorry”   
his voice was threatening to become a pleading wail.   
“Please forgive me!! Please.. please don’t leave me again.. I’ll do anything.. just tell me and I’ll do it..   
I- ..I was wrong. I don’t like to see you hurt. It’s more than I can stand!” 

She watched him silently with soft eyes. “Sev. I love you” She whispered as if he were an idiot. 

His eyes widened to the size of saucers and he froze, his fingers hovering in the air, trembling violently.   
“I won’t leave you.” 

She felt the Dark Lord... she felt Tom stiffen slightly behind her. 

It seemed like she could almost taste his sudden blind fear filling the air. They would have each other now. Mutual love. They would both leave him now, no matter what he did to force compliance. Hermione could use her ability.   
He had saved them both only to lose them. If he had picked only one he wouldn’t be alone.

She took her hand off Severus chest gently, looking up at his eyes, willing him not to take it as a rejection.   
Rolling in bed she turned to curl herself around Tom’s body. He was lying very still, a perfectly blank look on his face.   
She put her face on his bleached perfect chest, kissing his skin and whispered against him, her eyes looking up into his carefully empty ones,   
“I love you too Tom. ...It’s ok.. you don’t ever need to say it back. I know you care...in your way. I won’t leave you either.” 

His face melted somewhat into restrained caught-breath relief. He seemed to want to say something but kept stopping himself, unsure. 

She felt Severus turn and wrap his smooth body against hers. He reached out over her and slid his slender newly youthful hand down Tom’s white musculature. Hermione nestled back against him slightly and he turned his head down to look at her in wonder. 

“I want you to bind with me” the Dark Lord suddenly blurted. 

Severus stiffened behind her, his arms gripping her just a little more tightly. The Dark Lord’s slitted eyes darted at them and away again.   
He seemed to expect this to cause a fight. He looked like he was preparing himself to argue her coolly and masterfully into submission.   
Hermione wondered cynically about his reasons for wanting this now. 

“Are you still worried I’m going to harm you?” she asked. 

He hesitated. 

Time stretched out for a minute while they all lay silently, lost in their own thoughts. 

“Ok.” Hermione finally said. “I’ll bind with you. ..With both of you, if you want. It makes no difference. I want to stay here. with you. both. 

Severus clutched at her urgently. “I won’t let.. anyone.. hurt you, Hermione.”   
Lord Voldemort turned his head slowly to look over at them both. “I do not intend to hurt her, Severus” he said softly. Severus looked at him, his eyes hooded, and said nothing. 

“I don't want you to hurt anyone else either” she said turning to look at the white face watching her carefully.   
“Or at least.. “ she smirked wryly, being realistic, “I don’t want you to hurt people that I care for, simply out of jealousy. You don’t need to worry anymore if I do this. I will be ...yours. I- ...I can’t let you..” 

The beautiful face twisted into an ugly sneer and the Dark Lord leapt out of bed abruptly to stand, glaring down at her. “Let me?” he scoffed. His face a venomous mask.   
“You see.. we return inevitably to the core of our dilemma, Hermione.. You would seek to control me, now that you have grasped your capabilities.” 

“This face-“ he pointed at himself angrily “has led you to imagine that I am your peer.   
I am not! I have seen and done and learned more than you can even begin to imagine in your innocence.   
I am not your ‘schoolchum’ or your ‘boyfriend’, nor will I ever be.” 

“You called me Tom!   
You would seek to command.. ME. . Lord Voldemort! You DARE to dictate to me, what I will and will not do.?!   
I have fought and won control over the entire British Wizarding world!! – I have brought it to its very knees before me - and you would now rule ME?!.   
You live, girl, because I have allowed it! Because I chose to SAVE you and hide you from discovery, even to yourself.”   
The wizarding world would have destroyed you if they knew. Immediately! They would have done it while you were weak. You would have been even more feared than I!”   
“I allowed you to become strong. I did not kill you when you threatened me.. when you wished my death even as I held you, comforting you!   
I did not so much as punish you greatly! What you experienced with Lucius was Death Eater foreplay.   
When I realised you were harmed in the cell nonetheless, I sought to restore you!   
And you would repay me by seeking to enslave me?!” 

“You will never command me, girl. I will die first. I will destroy.. everything.. before I relinquish it to your control.   
It is mine.” 

She dropped her eyes, shocked and suddenly strangely guilty. The thought of ruling had occurred to her.   
It was still sitting there in the back of her mind. She could twist the magic and have the world on a string. It would be easy if she just let go completely. She could rule everything.   
It was what he wanted after all.   
He would have her do it at his command as soon as he could get her entirely under his control. She should act now. 

But.. but then she would lose them.   
She would lose him. He would never stop fighting..   
Maybe she could force him to but then he wouldn’t be him at all anymore. He would be broken. 

She didn’t think he would come back like she had, like Severus had.   
She didn’t want that, she found.   
It was selfish perhaps – she really should think of the wizarding world, but without Tom it was like there was no warmth anywhere. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by the unexpected click at her throat and then Severus arms clamped painfully around her, kissing her neck and her ear and whispering apologies.   
She felt numb and dully angry with him but it was almost.. expected.. she realised. 

“Severus you complete arse” she ground out. “You fucking did it again!!” 

He curled against her desperately. 

“AGAIN!!” she yelled. 

The Dark Lord was smirking at her as if to say ‘don’t look at me, I didn’t do anything this time.’ He looked at his servant approvingly.   
Severus whispered at her urgently “I’m sorry! I’m sorry Hermione, I had to. You would..ruin everything.   
This time it will be different. I won’t allow anyone to hurt you. I’ll stay with you until it’s safe to take it off again.   
I won’t fail you this time.   
Please.. understand – you need to see how much better it would be if you stayed here.. like this...with us. ..with me..   
I’ll find a way to make you happy.”   
He was nuzzling her neck with his large nose and she wanted to be angry and hurt and scared but somehow.. she just didn’t have the energy right now. 

The Dark Lord, watching them, seemed to soften and re-approached the bed, climbing on it and crawling gracefully to her, shifting to straddle her thighs and lean down over her.   
Severus clutched her desperately, indecisively unwilling to make room but obviously distressed at the prospect of upsetting the Dark Lord.   
Voldemort didn’t bother to speak, he simply plunged his hand into Severus hair and dragged him forcibly back as if he were nothing. Then he crouched lower and brought his face down, kissing her pouting resistant lips gently.   
“You are safe” he murmured between soft kisses. “I will protect you from harm until you are bound to me” 

She felt another small flare of irritation. This was not the way it was supposed to be.   
It was bad enough that he demanded she take the mark.. but a binding purely out of fear and mistrust..a binding blackmailed with the loss of her magic - that was so wrong.   
Binding meant marriage and marriage was special.   
She had expected something more than this when she eventually married. She didn’t know what exactly.   
Flowers.   
Bended knee proposals, romance, love damnit! 

Even Severus wouldn’t just require a binding of her without ever bothering to ask, she thought. 

The Dark Lord brushed his cool pale face against hers and murmured in the ear closest to Severus seductively   
“You know you are important to me, Hermione. ..You said so. ...You said you didn’t expect flowery declarations from me. – that I didn’t need to say it.. Come.. You know you want this. Is it simply an issue of pride?”   
He licked at her ear teasingly. 

She turned her head toward Severus. He was watching her silently, his eyes haunted and full of need. 

“What about Severus.. ”   
she forced herself not to call him Tom. He was not Tom. But she could not call him lord right now.   
“Will you bind yourself with Severus? May he bind himself with me also?” 

Voldemort hesitated.   
“Severus does not require that from me, I trust him implicitly ...and I will not allow him to have such a connection with you. You are mine as he is mine. ...Perhaps I may allow you both to enjoy one another but you will never forget that you belong to me. Your first loyalty should always be to me.” 

He turned to Severus, who had crumpled somehow. His new face was so different. He looked...vulnerable.   
It was wrong on him. He should never look less than the unassailable fortress of a man she had worshipped. 

The Dark Lord looked at him intently for long seconds, their eyes focused on one another. 

After a while Severus squeezed his eyes shut as if in anguish and nodded unhappily.   
The Dark Lord’s face darkened slightly and he rose up to rest on his splayed knees over her. 

“Perhaps.. perhaps you may be right, my dear. I will think on it. ...It would complicate matters to bind you both.”   
Severus eyes flew open, shocked and hopeful. Hermione reached out and stroked his chest gently, her hand gliding up to his hair and tugging him toward them both coaxingly. 

Severus looked up warily at the Dark Lord, who gave him a wan smile. “Yes.. join us, my pet. You desire it so desperately. Come.. please the one you want.“ 

Severus hesitated again before rising up and kissing the snowflake white boy passionately, his hands sliding over his chest, grazing his nipples, scratching lightly down his sides. 

Hermione watched, entranced. 

They had been beautiful together before.. But now.. now - both so very lovely of face and with lithe supple bodies they were blinding.   
She let her hand run down Severus lower back, over his arse and thigh feeling his warm lean muscle.   
He shivered and moaned softly into the Dark Lord’s mouth.   
Her eyes wandered over their bodies together.. pale and paler. They were both already hard. She could just..   
her hand hesitated in midair.. she licked her lips indecisively. 

Voldemort’s hand reached out and captured her own, dragging it firmly to his cock and wrapping her fingers around the shaft.   
She looked up at him, startled, catching the faint smirk as he devoured the other boy half wrapped around him.   
She stroked him up and down tentatively, watching them..   
He pulled back from the kiss for only a second and muttered something and she felt her hand become slick with some kind of oil.   
Pleased, she took her hand off his hard length and rubbed it against her other hand, spreading the substance around. 

Voldemort cracked an eye and peered down at her, probably irritated that his hand job had ceased so prematurely, but she was already putting her hand back, and now she could take Severus cock in her other hand.   
He jerked at the unexpected sensation and then groaned deep in his throat. 

She rubbed them slowly, lingeringly, enjoying the effect she could see it having on their kisses.   
The Dark Lord was sucking and biting Severus throat and shoulders now, whose head was thrown eagerly to the side.   
She could feel Severus heartbeat against her fingertips on his cock. 

He opened his eyes and looked at her then, his eyes soft and half lidded from the sensations he was experiencing.   
He bucked his hips into her hand, fucking it playfully and she smiled in wonder.   
She stared up into his eyes wanting him, wanting both of them.   
They were gorgeous to watch but she wanted to taste... to feel. 

“Kisss her, Severuss.. I know you want to..” The Dark Lord hissed against his throat, nipping him. 

She quirked slightly at the sound. She had thought that his slight snakelike slurr when excited was a product of his other body but it seemed it might just be a parseltongue thing. She kind of liked it.. she liked it when he made those sounds although she wondered what he was saying every time.. it did things to her somehow.. sent sparks skittering up her spine. 

As if in response to her thought he did hiss something quite long in parseltongue now.. the layered hissing contained strange harmonics.   
She shuddered excitedly and saw Severus react similarly “God that’s sexy.. what did you say?” she said throatily. 

“I told Severuss to hurry up and kisss you ssso that I can fuck him..” 

She smirked excitedly as Severus emitted a guttural sound of need and fell upon her, his smooth hot lips bruising.   
He kissed her hungrily, desperately, as if he might never get the chance again. She responded eagerly, running her slick hands over his shoulders and back, oiling him and pulling him down closer.   
The Dark Lord shifted back to make room for Severus to swing his leg over her, to straddle her thighs.   
He pressed himself low against her, his chest touching her nipples every so often.   
She felt his hard cock resting heavily against her thigh. That tiny faint glow of fear ignited again..   
Severus trying to fuck her in the bath.   
It would only take a movement and the right angle on his part right now, she was soaking wet, probably leaving a puddle underneath herself on the bed. 

She couldn’t see the Dark Lord now. When she did crack her eyes every so often her entire world was filled with Severus lean pale surly young face and the dark long black hair   
Obscurely she suddenly wondered what would happen when Lucius saw his new appearance. There was a faint snort out of her view but from somewhere around her knees. 

“Probably sssomething much like what we are doing to him, my dear, although I exssspect there would be more blood and possssibly a dead muggle toy or two.” 

Severus made a slightly worried sound that faintly resembled “Huh??” but did not stop kissing her for a moment.. his hand had moved up and was stroking her as if she were a skittish animal of some kind.. His fingertips repeatedly moving over her breast, her side.. down further..she felt him petting her mons.   
It was a strange way to be touched.. it felt like he was trying to calm her.. there was something slightly tremulous..or anxious.. to the touch..   
She felt his fingers slide ever so gently slowly down, stroking her slit...and slipping easily in.   
She bucked her hips up at him suggestively, wanting more. She was sopping. 

He growled aggressively into her mouth, probing deeper through her slippery folds and running his fingertip over her tight little hole.   
She gasped slightly and he pulled his fingers back, withdrawing from the kiss and plunging them into his mouth, sucking on them as if they contained a drug he was in withdrawl from.   
When he opened his eyes again they were dark with lust and she felt him draw back off her slightly and then move forward again, angling his cock down into her lips.   
He was pulled sharply backward and then he yelped, his face creasing slightly with surprise and pain. 

“No..Severusss. we have dissscussed thisss That is mine. You may be allowed to have her after the binding. We sshall sssee. For now, you will lick her only.” 

She looked up at the Dark Lord, kneeling very close behind Severus, he had a lazy amused expression on his face and he was rocking his hips gently forward against Severus ass slowly.   
Severus face was somewhere between agonized and ecstatic. He was gasping in little gulps and the muscles in his shoulders were tense. 

Something clicked into focus and she realised that Voldemort was actually balls deep inside his arse. 

“It wasssnt a ssssuggesstion. Offer your pusssy to him, Hermione.. he hungersss for you...and I wish to watch him pleasse you..” His red eyes flamed brightly for a second in desire. 

She reached back for the headboard and pulled herself up the bed below the kneeling Severus, till she rested half reclined on the pillows against it. Both men watched her and she felt their eyes sliding over her body. 

Severus balanced himself, making room as she slowly parted her legs for him. He feasted his eyes on her spread pink lips, the neatly trimmed brown curls on her mons glistening with her juices, then he gripped her below each knee and forced her wider still. She heard a murmur of approval from Voldemort. 

Without warning Severus plunged, burying his face deep in her wet pussy and licking as if he were starving and she were his favourite flavour of ice cream.   
She bucked up against his face – hard! It was too much.. it didn’t sate the excited little arousal, it merely ignited it further like an itch that increases when scratched.   
Urgent lust twitched her hips under his mouth. She moaned, but it had a note of desperate need to it.   
She felt him painting her with long hard laves of his flattened tongue, sucking up as much of her slickness as he could.   
He was making little excited moans against her. 

She gyrated her hips in response to his movements and he pressed into her with his face hard then..   
After a moment he pulled back again recovering and she realised Voldemort had begun to fuck him properly now, thrusting roughly into him. He was moaning and panting as he rocked back against him 

“Pay attention to what you are doing, Sseveruss.. If you come before sshe doess, I will punish you ssseverely.”   
The Dark Lord’s voice sounded strained and distracted. “The sssooner sshe comesss.. the ssooner I will have her ssssuck your cock”   
Severus made an inarticulate noise somewhere between a pleading whine and a groan of need and resumed bathing her with his tongue, quickly moving to pay attention to her clit.   
It felt amazing.. she couldn’t stop herself from jerking and moving under his lips, she could hear herself making the most desperate needy sounds. But..something was missing.

She sighed in relief when she felt a single long digit invade her body tentatively. Now it was...more... she panted and tried to give herself over to the sensation.. reminded herself that it was professor Snape’s mouth that was currently on her.   
He who was fingering her, wanting her..just as she’d dreamed of and fantasized about for years.   
But it didnt change the effect. 

She was writhing in pleasure but there was also a growing amount of frustration in her movement, desperation because although it felt sooooo good.. God it felt good... she just couldn’t feel that building pressure signalling her oncoming climax. Instead it was as if this itch just grew.. 

She whimpered and pressed herself hard against his face that was forced against her rhythmically now with Voldemort’s thrusts.   
She turned her gaze up to the Dark Lord who had been watching her with glittering eyes while he pumped into the man beneath him roughly and she suddenly realised what it was... the problem... that itch.. she loved Severus and she wanted him.. she had wanted him for so long now.   
But now she wanted the Dark Lord more.. perhaps.. loved him more too? Could that be? She whined in unwilling realization. 

The look on his face changed suddenly to one of triumph greater than any conqueror. He slammed into Severus hard, violent in his joy. She heard a yelp from severus between her thighs.   
She looked up at the pale beautiful boy and admitted to herself that she wished he were thrusting into her instead of Severus.   
She wished she could have his face licking her, his fingers touching her. She groaned in frustrated need. 

And then he hissed.. the sound was dark and seductive.. it wrapped around her mind like oiled velvet.   
She felt a change.. A destination to her pleasure. 

He did it again.. not the same sound but it pushed her hard and she found herself almost at the edge of her tipping point.. 

‘Just a little more.. oh God.. please.. do that again’ she found herself thinking. ‘Please, please, please, please my Lord.’   
Her mouth only moaned inarticulately. 

“Am I truly your lord?” Voldemort murmured, almost too softly to hear. 

She tried to think but her mind was just full of need, blinding, desperate, urgent. Need she dimly registered only he could satisfy, despite the arousing teasing sensations of Severus tongue at her core. She wondered vaguely whether she could come at his word even without such stimulation.   
It was a kind of devotion..a worship.. She worshiped this man more than she had ever worshipped anything else, certainly more than the muggle god of her parents.   
Perhaps it was right to call him ‘Lord’ then. She could never deny him anything, would never want to..   
She faintly noticed a golden sheen to everything. 

“Yes! Yes you are my Lord! Yes.. please! Anything.. for you!” she cried out through the pleasure and he hissed loudly, overcome himself, his head thrown back in the waves of his own climax, his hand coming down on the base of Severus spine, seeming to affect him like a switch, the loud moans against her pussy and the way he undulated suddenly indicating that he too had found his satisfaction.   
She felt herself tip and plunge and plunge into a feeling unlike anything before. It verged on pain it was so strong.   
She felt distant from herself, dimly aware of her hands clenched in Severus hair, clamping his face to her as she bucked and rubbed against him. Her scream was eardrum shattering. 

As the strength flowed out of her limbs in the wake of the pleasure she panted, falling back limply from the taut curl her body had squeezed itself into.   
She felt Severus climbing up her body weakly, kissing her here and there till he could cast himself down beside her, his arm thrown over her, one leg curled around hers. 

He watched her silently, recovering his own breath. His fingertips stroked at the skin of her ribs gently every so often.   
The light scratch of a scourgify swept over them both and they flinched in their vulnerable state.   
Severus closed his eyes and pressed his face against her arm with an expression of reluctance, even dread.   
His arm around her tensed marginally.

“Severus. Stay with her. I must make arrangements. Hermione will take the mark tonight. It will be ..in essence..much as I originally intended. You will prepare her for the role I wish her to play.” 

Severus winced slightly. He half turned, his eyes lowered “..Master.. pl-“   
She looked up at Voldemort, standing, already fully robed, at the foot of the bed, his face was closed, resolute.   
He interrupted brusquely 

“No Severus. It must be this way. There can be no hesitation. I will not stand for insurrection within my ranks. Hermione’s heritage is too well known - She must stand the trials and prove herself worthy in their eyes or there will be ..doubt.” 

He walked around the bed and came to her, lowering himself to his haunches and facing her at eye level. 

“If I am ..truly.. your Lord, as you claim, you will be strong”. He murmured, his eyes steely.   
He swept her damp hair away from her face with cool slender fingertips. Leaning forward he brushed a kiss over her cheekbone. 

She was not comforted by the gravitas of both men.   
She had thought taking the mark meant she would kneel and the Dark Lord would press his wand to her arm and perhaps it might hurt a bit but then it would all be over.   
That seemed insufficient to warrant this degree of solemnity. 

She stared back into the red jewels silently. After a time he appeared to sigh and stood, turning away slightly.   
“Watch her. Do not leave her side, Severus. Not even for a second. Perhaps she can help you in the lab, as I had originally hoped. I’m sure your little lab rats are chomping at the bit by now, so to speak.”   
“No mistakes Severus.” 

He swiped his wand impatiently across his face, his features dissolving into the snakelike face of Lord Voldemort, then glanced back down at her briefly, his face familiar and unfamiliar at once, and turned on the spot, disapparating. 

The moment he was gone, Severus buried his face against her arm and pulled at her. Bemused she turned on her side, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close.   
As if pricked into life he dragged her hard against his body, clinging to her.   
He breathed deeply a few times into her shoulder before pulling back and looking into her face 

“You will be fine” he said reassuringly. She wasn’t sure whether he was talking to her or himself. She nodded blankly. 

“The..trials... are similar to what you experienced with Lucius. You will withstand them.”   
His youthful face skewed with something like fear and aversion.   
“I.. can’t stop it. You must find it in yourself to endure whatever happens. I.. said I would protect you from anyone.. but.. but.. I..” 

She kissed him gently. “It’s ok” she whispered. “It will be ok. Its just pain. And embarrassment too I suppose.   
It will be horrible I expect but... ...it wasn’t Lucius’ cruelty that broke me.” 

He jerked, shocked and appeared to shatter. His eyes were dark holes. 

“Hermione..” he choked out.. “Please.. I’m..” she shook her head. 

“It’s alright Severus. I understand I think. He.. he explained some things to me. “ 

Her young former professor looked at her afraid and disbelieving. “I’m sorry” he breathed. “It wasn’t true.   
It.. I thought you wanted that from me. I never..”   
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What wasn’t true? Severus. What are you talking about?!” He ducked his head, avoiding her gaze. A pale sullen boy with wide tear filled eyes. She tried to remind herself that this was professor Snape. It was so hard to think of them as the same person. 

“I ...lied.. I never did those things to you. It was a lie. A story..   
You ..you liked it..last time.. you desired me. I wanted you to look at me like that again. And I wanted to fix what Lucius had done.” 

“If I could make it like the stories in the bath.. just something happening to you, exciting you. I thought..   
I.. I thought you would convert the pain into pleasure. It seemed like a good idea.   
I didn’t realise until it was over that it hadn’t worked that way and then you were so..broken...   
and I couldn’t undo it.. you went further and further away.” 

“I didn’t want to leave you. I thought if I held you.. you’d come back and it would be alright.   
But you.. you didn’t want me there. You didn’t respond. It was making everything worse. So I left you there. I covered you up. I thought if you slept.. if I left you alone for a while.. you’d be fine. But you weren’t. You didnt come back. and nothing I did..” His words were interrupted as his face crumpled and she watched him gulping breaths as tears poured down his cheeks.   
He sobbed messily, pulling her close and burying his face in her curls. “Her mio..nee.” he wailed through the wet sniffs and gulps. 

She stroked his smooth back gently over and over and tried to process this.. It hadn’t happened? But he knew things about her room, about how she slept. Was he lying now? What the hell?! 

After minutes of distraught weeping and crushing her to him like a teddy bear he seemed to calm down somewhat.   
She brushed her hands over his hair, stroking him soothingly. 

“What really happened, Severus?” she murmured into his ear. 

He wiped his face against her neck wetly, pulling in a ragged breath. After a minute or so of trying to control his breathing sufficiently to speak with composure again he said lowly, against her skin. “I.. would watch you. Watch over you mainly. Those reckless dunderheaded wastrels you called friends were constantly dragging you into danger. I knew there was nothing I could do to keep you from trailing after them everywhere.” 

“I..I..would merely look upon you in the halls.. or in the classroom sometimes when I felt I would not be noticed. I..”   
He turned his face away from her neck. “I..wanted you. I’m sorry. I tried to ignore it. But you were.. you are..SO beautiful..so brilliant..and ..and good. You are too good. Too good for me. I knew my feelings were wrong.” He gulped. He pulled away from her slowly to lay on his back. She let him go and lay on her side watching him patiently.   
He wrapped his arms over his eyes as if he couldn’t face looking at her. 

After a minute during which his young thin lipped mouth twisted and trembled he continued. “I would take girls at the revels and imagine they were you. I..hated that you made me weak. Weakness is the only truly unforgiveable trait here. One day you had been..” he paused and pursed his lips, remembering ruefully   
“It was the day that you threw Longbottom out of the way after Draco had dropped billywig stings into his calming draught.”   
“Well.. I call it a calming draught. He had used powdered asphodel rather than ash. A rather messy and painful poison when combined with the other ingredients of the calming draught at brewing stage two. Billywig stings of course react violently with asphodel, as you obviously well-realized to have reacted so quickly.”   
“I was so ..angry.. with you as I levitated you to the infirmary. To risk yourself... for longbottom.   
Was there ever a more useless boy?!” 

“You were unresponsive. In shock. Burnt. Your face and ..and .. It doesn’t matter. It was superficial. I knew you would recover in a couple of hours when you had re-grown the skin. I had poured oil of Agamenthra over you only moments after it happened so you were spared the bleeding soporating sores you would otherwise have suffered.   
But I was so ..angry that you would throw yourself away like that. So thoughtlessly, automatically.   
Unlike Longbottom - you knew what the brew would do to you, knew it would permanently scar you, and you did it anyway! Why?   
To spare that worthless, stuttering, stain of a child undue discomfort?   
It would have taught him to pay closer attention to directions. He would have had a good long time to ponder exactly where his error lay as I certainly wouldn’t have thrown away such an expensive ingredient as that ungent upon his hide.   
It was the last of my oil too! I had to wait for an entire month for new supplies to come in.”

She couldn’t see his eyes but the lower half of his face suggested that he was scowling fiercely as he slipped back into his ire of that day. 

“So I decided to take out my aggravation upon your likeness. I had never.. I had never dared to do so previously.   
I tore a few hairs from your head as you lay sleeping in the infirmary and later that night.. when the revel was in full swing and I had selected a suitably innocent muggle girl from the evening’s offerings..”   
He turned his head away from her, tightening his arms over his face slightly   
“I imperio’d her and made her drink the polyjuice. I released the curse and.. and it was you..cowering before me. Terrified. Lovely.   
But it wasn’t you.. I didn’t have to worry what you might think of me later or whether you would remember,   
whether you would ..forgive me. I could do.. anything i desired to you.” 

“The girl was panicking - begging..pleading with me not to hurt her. She didnt understand what was happening – the polyjuice, the Death Eaters. Her voice was wrong and it spoiled the effect so i silencio’d her.” He stilled. 

She swallowed, trying not to show her disgust. He was just like Lucius. He hurt muggles..for fun. Without remorse.. just because he felt like it. He really was.. a Death Eater. Like Voldemort had told her. She hadn’t really believed it.   
She wanted to believe he was a double agent and had had to do some things from time to time to keep up appearances and fool Voldemort but clearly that wasn’t the case.   
He did it because he enjoyed it. He had always been a Death Eater and he had been instrumental in killing Harry. Somehow the thought of Harry’s death didn’t quite upset her as much anymore as she thought it should.   
She should be sickened. She should have at least tried to fight.. or to free the order members who still lived..   
or at least to run away. 

She could have done so after Voldemort took off her necklace but she was so preoccupied with this perverse little tryst with these..evil..bloody men.. 

Her thoughts were interrupted because the ‘evil man’ or boy.. lying naked beside her abruptly turned and wrapped his arms around her again, pulling her against him like a limp doll. He held her as if he were afraid she might fade away any second. 

She hung indecisively on the brink of fighting and pushing him away but he started speaking again. 

His voice was muffled against her hair and her shoulder. “After I had... after... afterward – I apparated to Hogwarts. It was early in the morning. I was half drunk.. drunk enough for it to seem a good idea, but not drunk enough to prevent myself carrying it out.   
I thought.. I thought I’d go up to your room and do what I told you in the bath I’d done.   
I didn’t want a copy of you.. I wanted you.” 

Hermione stiffened somewhat and her upper lip curled slightly in disgust but Severus, unable to see, continued on speaking into her neck. 

“It took me a lot of effort to break the detection wards on the common room – although heads of house can enter all of the common rooms, a head of a different house entering sends an alarm to the head of that house. I couldn’t have that. How would I explain it? Albus would never have believed me.   
After I was in, it took me even longer to subdue the ward on the stairs. I suppose the founders expected that young hormonal boys would be more persistent ward crackers than invading heads of houses.” 

She shivered. It was getting cold. Or maybe it was just the topic. She wanted to be dressed. She was uncomfortably aware of Severus smooth chest pressed against her. His silky long hair tickling her collarbone. 

“When I finally stood before your bed.. and saw you..” he gulped. She could feel his throat move.   
“You were lying there.. Michelson's tetradic computations in arithmancy lying open on your chest. You had clearly fallen asleep studying. An apple core lay on the bedside table, brown with oxidation.   
Your leg was hanging out of bed and you wore massive woolly orange socks. You were..stunning..   
You took my breath away.   
I could not move.   
I stood and I watched you sleep, just watched the rise and fall of your chest for over an hour.” 

“Then you turned over and the book started to slide off you. I was afraid it would hit the floor and wake you.. or wake someone else. I summoned it and put it away in the empty slot in the bookcase without thinking. I wanted..so badly.. to touch you. But I didnt dare. Never before had I been more completely aware of my utter unworthiness to breathe the same air as you.   
I suddenly started to grow afraid that someone would wake and find me there and Albus would do something to prevent me seeing you again. I needed to see you. Even if it was only at breakfast watching you laugh with Potter. I left.   
I.. I never went back.” 

Hermione pulled back, rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling, trying to work out how she felt about this new information. Her professor was a sadistic bastard. Unfortunately.   
He was also probably actually in love with her. 

How often had she wished for this?   
To be completely fair she had also fantasized about the sadistic bastard part.. but in less extreme terms.   
Perhaps a little detention fantasy or a bit of intimidation against a wall in dark corridors. Not.. actual torture..or uh.. murder or anything. 

Severus lay on his side, not trying to touch her, his dark eyes were fearful. He whispered, continuing.   
“and then.. at the Victory ball.. you were there. ..Here. And I was afraid the Dark Lord would kill you, simply because of who you are. Even more so if he knew how i felt about you.   
And when I realised he..wanted..you..   
I thought you would be lost to me forever. Worse.. that I would watch you succumb to him. I would lose you.. and..and I would lose him too. I love him, Hermione! I know that you are disgusted at the things I’ve done.. the things he has done..and will continue to do.. There is nothing I would not do to protect him.” 

She turned to look at him. He didn’t look like himself at all. It wasn’t just the face.. although that only emphasised the change. It was the raw vulnerability.   
Professor Snape was never..ever..vulnerable. Never wide open like this slender youth.   
She could not bring herself to say anything that might shatter his fragility at this moment.   
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, stilling him. 

“Everything will be ok” she mumbled against his mouth. 

His hair was so silky and long. She let her fingers play in it. It was as if he were a different person. Not the man she had a certain impression of as her severe professor buttoned to the throat and protected by leather and dragonhide but a boy. Surely it was wrong to think that. This was professor Snape, no matter how he appeared.   
But it was very hard to see him in this face, especially as he was acting now. 

As if he suddenly became aware of himself, the face of the boy lying curled against her became shuttered.   
“Yes.” He agreed neutrally. 

He seemed to sigh slightly. “We should rise. There are several things I must do in the lab before this evening. Come.”   
He turned away and sat up, stretching slender legs over the edge of the bed and standing, unabashed in his nakedness. 

She admired his form. Still broad shouldered but less thickly muscled than he had been in his older body.   
He turned and observed her eyes taking him in. His posture shifted slightly in the awareness but he did not shy away or attempt to draw his shoulders back. 

She got to her hands and knees and crawled to the edge of the bed near him. 

When she was standing next to him, he reached for his wand on the bedside table and drew her close, apparating them into her bedroom.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews increase update frequency and will receive a response

Hermione looked about ‘her’ room. It looked.. normal. Late afternoon was throwing orange light across the flagstones under the window. The fire, seemingly lit in perpetua was crackling to itself. Shelves of, as yet, virtually untouched books lined the wall, weathered leather worn and inviting. 

Severus stood nonchalantly naked, possibly the best thing of all. 

“Shower” she suggested.   
The corner of his mouth turned upward and appeared faintly reminiscent of the smirk she had seen on his face occasionally.   
“Of course. The Dark Lord instructed me to remain with you. I’m sure the requirement that I soap your breasts was implied.” He stalked over to her and hungrily captured her lips, his tongue thrusting unhesitatingly into her mouth, tasting her, flickering against her own.   
She could taste herself very faintly on his kiss and was reminded of how quick and hot that tongue had felt elsewhere on her body. 

He gripped her upper arm firmly and dragged her forcibly into the bathroom as soon as he released her lips.   
They showered.   
Severus did soap her tits, but did not stop there and before they were finished she had dropped eagerly to her knees and sucked him to a shuddering climax, leaving him weakly leaning against the wall of the shower.   
It hadn’t taken long at all. Her touch upon his body seemed to have a dramatic overwhelming effect upon him. 

He had stared down at her, his young face wide-eyed, while her lips moved up and down his shaft,   
his hand stroked her hair again as if he were petting a flighty animal, almost disbelievingly. 

After they got out he cast drying charms upon them both and reclined languidly, still naked, upon her bed, watching while she dressed in plain black robes. She plaited her hair behind her, expecting to be in Severus’ lab soon enough. 

When she was sufficiently content with her appearance he unfolded himself and wrapped his arms around her, then apparated them both to his own rooms. 

 

 

She looked about herself curiously. The professor’s rooms – oh it felt strange to think of this boy that way.   
It was almost like meeting a new person. Though his movements were as silent and graceful as the professor and his dark eyes were as shuttered, his voice the same dark gritty caramel, he was so different this way. 

Impossible though it was it felt like he had gained some kind of innocence back, in her eyes. 

He walked through the elegant if ascetic library-cum-living room into what she supposed would be his bedroom. 

The library/sitting room was decorated in dark blue, cream and coppery tones with dark hardwood bookcases. There was a cream sofa and two chairs curled around a large fireplace.   
It was, she concluded, an extremely Ravenclaw room, but also felt quite peaceful. Restive. Less brash than reds and golds and less cold (or sinister) than greens and silvers.   
Not at all what she would have expected professor Snape to select for his quarters. 

She wandered into the bedroom after him. The surprises continued in here. The bed and curtains as well as a large oriental rug were decorated in cream and gold. It was not at all dark or dismal. The whole room was so incongruent it was stunning.   
Gold!   
The professor was a closet Gryffindor?! There was not a shred of green or silver anywhere in these rooms!   
How peculiar. He had been the most vehemently Slytherin of all, it had always seemed.   
She wondered about his quarters at Hogwarts suddenly. Were they also decorated in this manner? 

She turned to Severus, who was buttoning his, obviously preferred, severe black robes. 

“Why do you dress like that?” she asked on a whim. His black eyes flicked up to her in surprise.   
He didnt say anything but she could just see thoughts warring behind his eyes. He looked away from her.   
A second later he had raised his wand and cast a glamour and the slender young features blurred and were replaced by the hard, deeply lined face of her professor. 

She frowned. He scowled in reaction and raised an eyebrow. “Do you prefer me as a young fool?” he asked softly.   
His voice seemed right coming from this face. She walked carefully to him and raised her face, kissing his mouth gently. He did not respond. 

“I frowned because you apparently didn’t not want to answer my question.” She murmured.   
“This is the face I fell in love with, Severus, although I think you were beautiful when you were younger too.” 

His head dropped slightly and she felt him brush his face against hers. He sighed.   
“I.. I will tell you another time. There are things I must do now and I suspect it will be a rather long conversation.   
Suffice to say – I dress this way at present because it is how others are most familiar with seeing me and I wish to avoid drawing attention to the glamour I have cast.” 

She nodded. “ok.” 

Drawing back, she scrutinized his lined face, raising her hands and running them over his skin.   
But of course he still felt smooth and slender and youthful.   
She couldn’t explain why exactly that disappointed her. 

His mouth quirked at her. “Ah... I see. It appears you actually prefer my scars and this weary lined face, Hermione. Would you like me to continue to call you Miss Granger too?” She blushed and looked away.   
“No! And yes.. I suppose I really do prefer you the way I’ve always known you. Or maybe I like you in a different way like this, with the associations of the past - But I will get used to your younger self. It’s YOU and not your face that attracts me. Perhaps it is just that for so long when you were ‘professor Snape’ I dreamed about touching you and as soon as I could do so everything became complicated and horrible and then you were gone.. sort of.” 

“Well you will learn to adapt” he sighed. “The Dark Lord is..extremely unlikely.. to allow you to reverse the age regression you..he.. carried out. I estimate my current visible age to be quite close to the age I was when he first seduced me into his service.   
I doubt he will deny himself the illusion of destroying the last remaining vestiges of my innocence and decency anew.” 

Hermione thought on this.. The idea wasn’t affecting her as she thought it really should. She should be appalled and feel protective. Instead she found it faintly arousing.   
That was just obscene.. surely.

“It didnt take long at all” Severus said quietly. “he was..is..powerfully magnetic. Persuasive. Captivating.. He was substantially older than he appears at present when Lucius brought me to him.   
I was ...shocked.. when you altered him. I had never seen him so young, other than in your memory – He rarely transfigured or glamoured himself for me, it was unnecessary other than when we were trialing a new potion to preserve his transfigured appearance. When he did, he always selected his adult self.” 

“He had me..utterly devoted within only a couple of weeks.. perhaps I had already fallen within a few days, to tell the truth.. It was impossible to resist when he realised our magic was so compatible and started to actively use it to bend me to his will.” 

“I wanted to ..please him.” 

“It wasn’t enough for me to submit to him.. to beg or to scream. He required me to ..harm others upon command.   
Lucius had not shown me such extreme things at that stage. I was shocked and disgusted. At myself.” 

“When I began to enjoy it - he laughed and took me into his bed.” 

The professors face was frighteningly blank. He seemed to be exercising great control because his voice sounded haunted. She wanted to hold him but supposed that he would not react well to that. Instead she slipped her small warm hand into his and held it.   
He blinked and his hand tightened on hers slightly. 

“Come. There is work to do. I am being foolish.” He pulled his wand and apparated them without warning. 

She stumbled slightly at the unexpected squeeze and he caught her before she could fall against the long bench-table at her side. 

Blinking rapidly she registered the new environment. 

This was clearly Severus’ lab. Blue domed wards covered the five cauldrons on the bench which were all simmering with low flames beneath them.   
Four similar benches were ordered in rows down the length of the room. One of them was empty.

She was astounded. Severus was working on twenty cauldrons at once? Was that even possible? How did he keep them straight in his head? Her respect for her professor grew to even greater heights. 

Not all the cauldrons were lit, she noted. However that didn’t mean anything. Not all potions required heat.   
Each was covered by a protective field. Was he so worried about others ruining his brews here? 

Severus had left her side and was checking certain cauldrons. She saw him summon an ingredient in a black jar and add it to one, stirring then with a rod of some type of wood.   
He withdrew the rod and recast the ward then cast some kind of scourgify on the rod and placed it by the side of the cauldron. 

She inspected the cauldron closest to her. Inside some thick pale blue fluid released opalescent spiralling steam. Amortensia had steam quite similar to that but at no stage in brewing was it ever pale blue.   
She wondered what all these potions were? What did Severus work on?   
A faint memory that seemed like another lifetime surfaced. Voldemort and Severus, Lucius and Rodolphus sitting in Voldemort’s cold little sitting room and the Dark Lord telling Severus to be sure to remove ..some project.. or something. 

She wondered vaguely whether anything else might have been on the empty bench at the back of the room at any point.

“What are these?” she called to Severus, not really expecting an answer. 

The professor looked up distractedly, “The potion you are looking at is a particular adaptation of a befuddlement draught I created. Keep back and do not inhale the steam.” 

She looked at it with greater interest. “What is the adaptation?” she inquired. He didn’t reply, preoccupied with stirring but when he had finished with the cauldron he was working on he looked up. 

“The effect is no longer of a constant level but can be varied by dosage. A charm cast can make it permanent, otherwise it elapses in around 48 hours.” 

She looked at the pretty blue potion as if it had personally offended her. How horrible, she thought.   
She started to tell Severus exactly what she thought of his pretty ‘brain damage’ potion:   
“That is just..” 

he interrupted her “Useful! It is very useful, Hermione. Try to view it from a lower moral pedestal. I did create a potion to counteract the effects of this particular formulation, due to the propensity for heavy handedness among the Death Eaters. The antidote is, however, seldom requested. “ 

He turned and gestured at the empty bench with his wand, levitating a cauldron from beneath it and summoning utensils. 

“Instead of questioning me on each of these, no doubt to your mind rather questionable, brews – why don’t you prove to me that you retain some small measure of knowledge from those tiresome classes we both endured – Show me the advanced healing draught we covered last year. Ingredients are along that wall and are clearly labelled. Do not make me regret my trust!” 

She scowled at his back. He almost certainly didn’t need a healing draught made – there would be stocks of finished potions around here somewhere or other - and if he did she had NO doubt that he had far more effective draughts than that one which he would preferentially use. He was just getting her out of the way so he could work in silence.   
Making this potion wouldn’t add to her knowledge and it wouldn’t be useful either. 

“Fine!” she growled, making it abundantly obvious that it was not fine at all but that she would comply. As she passed him she noted his darkly amused smirk.   
She thought to herself.. this was almost a kind of punishment. She’d questioned his bloody befuddlement draught and now she was having to do busywork.   
Perhaps if she had been less judgemental he might have let her do something real. Or at least watch him. He might have explained what he was doing. 

She felt a bit sorry for herself now. Stupid ethics! Stupid stupid moral compass. It was a potion. It’s not as if he forced it down anyone’s throat. He just MADE it.   
Was it correct to punish gun manufacturers in the muggle world? They didn’t pull the trigger.   
She wasn’t sure whether brewing poison was the same as selling guns. Perhaps if you were selling guns to the mob? To people you knew were going to use them to shoot people – mostly innocent people. It was a silly line of thought.   
She wanted to know what he was working on – now she couldn’t. It was irrelevant whether it was morally right or wrong at this particular moment. There was nothing she could do to prevent the Death Eaters from hurting people.

While she thought, she had wandered over to the shelves of ingredients and was absently pulling out the jars she would need.   
It would be best, she decided, if she just treated everything that happened in this lab as a kind of academic exercise.   
Think about the potions for their own merit, not for the potential effects they could have outside this room.   
She wanted to know what Severus worked on. He was brilliant. What else had he created here?! 

Even the adapted befuddlement draught was pretty clever, she realised. The standard befuddlement draughts rendered people essentially useless. It was absorbable through the skin. A drop or a gallon caused the same effect on people. 

They could barely talk, they didn’t know who they were or what they were doing.   
They would stand around like zombies unless someone moved them. It lasted for about six hours.   
Wouldnt it be more useful if you could just make someone a tiny bit confused and suggestible.   
They’d be a bit passive, but capable of functioning. It was better than the imperius – where you’d have to focus on them constantly and keep them in line of sight to maintain the curse. 

She startled slightly. What the hell was she thinking?! Aargh. Thinking of the imperius as merely another tool. True, she had used it once, perhaps twice, but she felt very bad about it afterward.   
The unforgiveables were just that..Unforgiveable.

While she was thinking she had been going about the preparation steps of the healing draught.   
It wasn’t a complicated potion. She had made it often over the last year for Harry and Ron and herself since the ingredients were not difficult to come by and the preparation time short. She barely noticed herself grinding the beetle shells.   
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt the breath against the back of her neck.

Severus was at the far end of the room in her peripheral vision, attending to preparations for one of the cauldrons on the bench where the befuddlement draught was. 

A hand curled around her waist and came to rest on her abdomen, as goosebumps raced painfully across her skin.   
She made to whirl around but the hand tightened, pressing her against a hard body standing very close behind her. 

“All better, pet?” a familiar voice breathed into her ear. 

Her heart leapt and filled with an unexpectedly overwhelming tender feeling. She smiled. She wanted to speak but his other hand reached forward and placed a finger over her lips.   
His lips brushed against her ear. He spoke so quietly that she could barely hear him. “I am glad. I missed you pet.”   
His hot wet tongue darted out and flicked over the shell of her ear. She heard him sniff her faintly.   
“You smell of Snape. But still sweet..” 

She looked up and suddenly noticed the professor was no longer visible at the end of the room.   
“Step away!” his voice commanded from somewhere behind her, hard and impossibly cold.   
Rodolphus finger slid across her lips, tickling, his other hand stroking her as he withdrew it reluctantly and she felt him move away.   
“Snape.” He acknowledged and she thought she could hear a wry grin on his face. 

Severus snorted angrily. “You don’t learn, do you, Lestrange?” he hissed. 

She quickly tossed the ground beetle shells into her potion and turned to look at them both. It wouldn’t do to waste the half finished brew after all. She would have fifteen minutes before the next ingredient would be needed. 

Severus was standing, bristling with anger, his wand a bare inch from Rodolphus neck. 

“He didn’t hurt me” she threw in unnecessarily. Severus eyes flicked to her furiously and then back to the vampire.   
“That is not the point” he returned. “He has been forbidden to touch you. He knows this.” 

Rodolphus spread his hands to emphasise their emptiness. 

“I was..overcome..by her sweet scent, Snape. Someone should have seen to that by now, surely” he smirked. 

Severus top lip actually curled in a snarl. “That is not your concern, leech! Was your last punishment insufficient?   
Unless you desire a permanent silver collar and chain, You would do best to forget you ever met the girl.” 

Rodolphus eyes narrowed in enjoyment and his smile widened ferally. “Oh I don’t think I’m in danger of doing that.”   
“She is part of me now, or didn’t she tell you? She offered herself to me and I drank of her.”   
His grin split to show his teeth.   
“..deeply” he gravelled and there was an unmistakeably sexual note to it.   
“She is more mine now than anyone else’s. The Dark Lord shouldn’t have thrown her away so hastily.” 

Severus took a step back, his eyes wider than she’d ever seen. He looked aghast. His wand had faltered slightly.   
“When? How?” he spluttered.

She cringed. Somehow it felt like she was invisible here. They were talking to each other, neither of them acknowledging her presence.   
As if she had called him by name, Rodolphus turned to her, his eyes were glittering dark blue, scanning her hungrily. Severus eyes also turned to her in response to Rodolphus movement but he looked wounded. Shocked. Betrayed.   
She felt slightly ashamed and lowered her own gaze to the ground. “I..”   
But Rodolphus interrupted her   
“Soon after the Dark Lord threw her in the cell. A couple of minutes after he announced to all that she was available for..use.” 

“The dungeons are mine, Snape. I visited her before Lucius, before.. you... I would have taken her out of the deep cells..   
I would have protected her from you if she had not pled with me not to. I should not have listened - should have taken and hidden her. You nearly broke her..” the mans lips curled back, exposing his sharp elongated canines. 

Snape raised his wand, clearly intending to cast upon Rodolphus but the vampire was suddenly behind him, his own wand at his neck. “I dont think so, Severus” he hissed “Pass me your wand, handle first. If I stupefy you, who knows what might happen without your watchful eye.” 

Hermione jolted, surprised and even more worried at Rodolphus wand at Severus neck than she had been at the reverse. She wanted them both just to stop. This was insane. What was the big deal? Whatever it was, couldn’t they all talk without threats?   
She cared for both of them. This was just terrible!” 

Severus hesitated, he looked at Hermione, his face a picture of misery. After a few seconds, he passed his wand over his shoulder.   
“The Dark Lord is having her take the mark tonight, Rodolphus” he said hollowly.   
“If you prevent it, he will do more than merely hurt you a little, you know that.” 

Hermione startled again, she had forgotten about that. 

Rodolphus scowled, taking Severus wand and appeared to be thinking hard. His eyes rested on her and there was a weighty possessiveness warring with reluctant acceptance.   
His attention shifted abruptly back to Severus. 

“What are you hiding, Snape? Have you disfigured yourself with an exploding cauldron? I can sense your glamour.” 

Hermione straightened and wanted to start forward to distract them both but Rodolphus had already cast finite incantatum and Severus face shimmered and melted to reveal the features of his youth.   
Now it was Rodolphus turn to step back aghast. 

“You finally succeeded in a youthening potion, then?” 

Hermione tried to think agreeing thoughts. Yes.. it had been a potion. That’s right. But her mind disobediently paged back to earlier in bed, the Dark Lord curled against her back, his mouth to her ear, her hand over Severus heart as his features actually shifted, transforming him permanently into a youthful state.

Rodolphus stared at her incredulously. “You, pet? You did this? How?” 

She gasped and looked at Severus helplessly. He had reacted with unexpected fear, hissing urgently “Stop, Lestrange!” “You don’t want to possess that information. You cannot be obliviated - he will kill you!” He paused.   
“He may do so as it is, for tainting her”   
Severus again looked at her with that sad hurt look. 

She felt defensive. So she had turned to Rodolphus. So?!   
Severus had just betrayed her and she was angry with Voldemort - and he had cast her off anyway.   
Rodolphus had never hurt her and he had needed her. 

Besides which, he was in a vengeful mood when he first came. Chances are that he might have hurt her if she had done whatever Severus probably wanted her to have done. She refused to feel bad. 

“What do you mean.. tainted?” she asked quietly. 

Both men looked at her thoughtfully. Rodolphus had pocketed Severus wand and now he stepped around him and padded over to her, his eyes glinted with dark intent and she lurched back defensively, off balance. 

Severus sighed wearily. “He has done what the Dark Lord wanted to do. He has bound you to him. If he had forcibly taken your blood it would not have been the case. Willingly offering it however, without any use of his charms, creates a bond between a vampire and a human blood slave” 

Rodolphus swung around and snarled at him “or mate”

“..or mate!” Severus corrected hastily, his slender hands raised.   
“He can sense your location.. your physical state. You will not be able to harm him without experiencing some..effects.. yourself.   
...You may be more sensitive to his touch than others.” Severus looked miserable again. 

“You will.. need him. Keeping you apart from him for long periods of time will cause you to sicken”   
He appeared to remember something. “But I am working on several potions which may help! The Dark Lord wishes me to cure vampirism. Curing Rodolphus would release you from the bond. ..He also wants me to distill out the ‘symptoms’ he considers..positive.. from those he considers negative. I’m..confident.. I can fix this..given time!” 

She was still trying to absorb this new information. Severus was right – the Dark Lord would kill him. There was no way he would allow this. She blinked and saw that Rodolphus had rounded on the young Severus and was holding him by the throat.   
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Sev, old pal.” He growled. “She’s mine. You can’t have her. The Dark Lord isn’t going to take her away.” He pulled his wand and pressed it to the young boy’s temple.   
“Obliviate!” he cast without hesitation, followed by “stupefy!”   
He let Severus crumple to the floor uncaringly and turned back to Hermione. She was already rushing forward to help Severus and he stopped her mid dash, his arm wrapping around her, as implacable as an iron bar.   
He swept her around and into his embrace. 

“He’s fine, pet. Calm down. I didn’t hurt him. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt me.” 

Hermione struggled frantically. She needed to check.. he had fallen pretty hard. But Rodolphus was immovable.   
He forced her to look at him, pulling her closer. 

“Did you miss me pet?” he asked, his voice a low growl. 

She stared, feeling uneasy now. “Yes” she whispered. “I thought of you today, after I came back.. when.. “   
she petered out. She had last thought of Rodolphus when she had set the Dark Lord off by suggesting she couldn’t let him hurt the ones she cared for.   
“when He was threatening to harm people I care for.” Rodolphus face broke into a lazy grin again.   
“Mmm.. so you still care for me. “ His hand stroked her back. He leaned in and kissed her roughly then pulled back, making a face. “You taste of him too, pet. ..And not only of his lips.” 

He pulled his wand and scourgified her from head to toe, then leant in and sniffed her neck gingerly, humming in approval. She felt the tip of his hot wet tongue trace a path up her carotid artery and she started to tremble.   
Trying to fight Rodolphus was like trying to push a mountain over. He just seemed impossibly strong.   
She wasn’t sure she wanted to fight him either. It felt..good.. when he was close to her.   
That was probably what Severus had been talking about.

She wondered if anyone else came down here. How long would Severus be out? What if the Dark Lord came to check on them? The next thought was terrible in its inevitability. Rodolphus was going to have to obliviate her after he had done whatever he wanted to do.. otherwise Voldemort would be able to see what happened in her mind.   
It was only due to the fact that he was so distracted by other events that he hadn’t known about Rodolphus before. Rodolphus was going to make her forget all about him. She didn’t want him to, she suddenly realised. 

She lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck. He pulled her even closer, nuzzling against her like some kind of placid tempered dangerous animal.   
“I don’t.. have to.. do it” he murmured against her skin, kissing her throat up to her ear and nipping at it with his teeth.   
“I could take you out of here.. You don’t need magic. I could keep you safe.. Hide you.. “   
She felt him nip at her neck a little harder now and winced, his sharp tooth snagged in her skin, scratching a shallow cut and a warm trickle slid down toward her collar.   
He caught it on his tongue, growling softly and traced it back up to the cut, lapping at it like a cat.   
“Mine” he purred. 

She was torn. Part of her wanted to agree.. wanted to run. She could be happy with Rodolphus. Probably.   
She would be a squib, but that might be ok. She could still work in potions.. or ancient runes or arithmancy. History, astronomy, something else that didn’t require any casting.   
Maybe he could hide them. 

But her realistic side cut in to that thought swiftly. The Dark Lord was at least partially restored and determined to have her. He was probably the most powerful wizard in the world now that Dumbledore was gone, if indeed he hadn’t been the most powerful even before that.   
He would never give up. Eventually he would find them and then he would do something godawful to Rodolphus and she would be powerless to stop it. 

She sighed. 

The flow of blood from the small cut had ceased and Rodolphus drew back to look at her face. He was so different to Severus and the Dark Lord in appearance. They were both so pale and fine featured, They each looked like they’d make excellent vampires. Rodolphus had brown wavy shoulder length hair and dark blue eyes. He was rugged-looking. Like someone who might enjoy hiking or hunting. He was slightly pale.. and perhaps his cheeks were a little drawn at the moment but he looked...healthy. Masculine. Robust.

“No.” She finally said. “I don’t want him to hurt you. You don’t understand. It’s not about domination or war spoils or even sex.   
He will never..ever.. stop trying to find us if you take me from here. He will tear the world apart piece by piece till he has me back and then I’ll have to watch him hurt you.   
I don’t want to forget but its the only way. If what you’ve.. we’ve.. done is really so terrible that he’d kill you for it – just take away the memories. Keep it secret.” 

Rodolphus looked uncertain. She could tell he was thinking about taking her away anyway. Last time he had done as she wished, she had been hurt badly. 

Minutes stretched on and he seemed to sway between different unwelcome ideas. She grew more and more worried. Eventually she leaned in a pressed a tentative kiss to his lips. “Please?” she whispered.   
“Make me forget. I don’t want you to die!” 

He seemed to reach a decision. “No. You won’t forget. It’s too dangerous if I can’t reach you. No one will know what is wrong with you.” 

“I’ll go to him and beg for my life.” 

“Perhaps he will let me live, perhaps not. If I survive, he will have to allow me to see you.” 

She gaped.. no sound emerging from her lips. finally she choked out “but.. but he’ll.. you can’t..” 

He shushed her softly, “Don’t worry, pet. Everything will be fine.” 

A wicked look dawned on his face. “Of course.. just in case he does kill me – I’ll take my fill of you now while I can”   
He drew his wand and she felt the sickening press of apparition again. 

 

 

She opened her eyes and looked around a room that was extremely unusual to say the least.   
There were no doors or windows.   
The room was round, with a domed stone ceiling that had been charmed to display the night sky. Stars twinkled down.   
It was warm.   
There was no furniture. Rather a large pile of dozens of cushions and pillows lay off centre in the room. 

“Welcome to my chambers, pet. Make yourself comfortable” he stepped against her, throwing her off balance and then tossed her into the mounded pillows. She landed softly, although her heart beat faster at the ease with which he had thrown her. 

Before she could really catch her breath he was upon her, straddling her thighs as he leaned over her, a feral smile on his face. He was unfastening her robes and for a moment she felt panic rising up in her – that horrible sense of powerlessness without her magic.   
Nobody knew where she was. Severus if he woke, probably wouldn’t even remember what had happened. This was bad! The Dark Lord told him to stay with her every minute, not to let her out of his sight. Not to fail!   
Severus would be upset when he realised she was gone. He promised to protect her this time.   
The Dark Lord would probably punish him too.   
This was all her fault somehow. She didn’t know what she could have done but surely there had been something she could have done. 

Rodolphus was peeling back her robes and she felt uncomfortable.   
The vampire then knelt up and opened his own robes, taking them off and throwing them aside carelessly.   
The starlit near dark painted his broad muscled chest in blue tones. His leather pants were taut and he looked down at them and then looked back up at her face.   
He chuckled darkly when she swallowed in her nervousness. Rolling back fluidly onto his heels he stood, still straddling her and unbuttoned his fly slowly.   
As he pushed the leathers down to mid thigh and his cock sprang free, she saw it clearly for the first time. He was uncircumsized and straight as a ruler, thick and long. 

His eyes glittered blackly in the faint light, taking in her interest. 

With preternatural balance he finished stripping, to stand nude, and then tossed the leathers and boots on top of his robe and dropped to his knees over her. His cock rested heavily on her lower abdomen and pubic mound and she shivered involuntarily.   
She looked up into his face, tight with hunger and desire and he leaned down, his large hands sweeping over her breasts in the black lace bra. He carefully ripped the straps as if they were tissue paper and then reached beneath her to unhook the bra entirely, tossing it to the side and feasting his eyes on her.   
His gaze wandered down to the black lace panties she wore and he ever so gently tore down the sides, transforming it into a simple black piece of lace and removing it from her. 

His hands glided over her skin and the feeling was wonderful. It went beyond warm or arousing or familiar and ventured into the area of ‘right’ or ‘home’.   
She felt..good. She wanted him to go on touching her forever. 

Rodolphus leaned down and laid himself upon her, covering as much of her body with his skin as he could. It was bliss.   
She sighed in pleasure. It was like.. relief.   
Like the ceasing of a faint pain she hadn’t even registered had existed. 

“You are mine, pet” he growled tenderly. She agreed. 

“Yes. Yours” she whispered.   
Somewhere in the back of her mind a faint protest registered. She wasn’t his. She belonged to Voldemort.   
Even more distantly.. a tiny.. barely existent voice squeaked that she didn’t belong to anyone. She was her own person. 

Rodolphus ground his cock against her and the pressure on her pubic mound was delicious. His arms were wrapping around her, underneath her and then without warning he somehow turned them and she found herself laying atop his chest.   
He peeled the unfastened robe off her shoulders and tossed it aside. 

She looked down at him. So strong and yet always so careful with her. He never hurt her. 

“Perhaps someday” he purred in a low gravelly voice. 

She frowned slightly, confused. “You want to hurt me?” 

“Mmm.. you would be beautiful covered in my marks. Perhaps one day you will want them too”   
He arched up and caught her lips, she followed him back down and kissed him passionately, eagerly.   
It was even better than his skin against hers. It was like breathing in after being underwater for a long time.   
After kissing him frantically for a few minutes, during which time she found she could not prevent herself from grinding her pelvis against him, clinging to him ever more tightly, she drew back slightly, panting. 

“I need.. more.. what have you done? I feel feverish.” 

He sniggered softly. “The blood bond is calling you to satisfy me. You will feel no relief until I am sated.” 

On one level this seemed terrible. She was literally a slave to his lust. Severus was right. There had to be a way to cure this. On another level her body just accepted this new information and determined the best way to relieve its aching need was to please Rodolphus.   
Her hand slid between them down and down till she could grip his cock and slide her hand up and down.   
He growled softly and pulled her head down, thrusting his tongue back into her mouth. She whimpered needily and felt him grin. 

His hands slid down her body till they reached her waist and then, without warning he lifted her, as if she were filled with helium and turned her, till her head was down at hip level and her legs resting either side of his head.   
Immediately, and embarrassingly, she rocked her hips against him. She was mortified at his faint snigger and then he pulled her tighter against his face and started to lick her.   
She heard herself moan loudly but it was beyond her to maintain any sort of control over her body at this point. 

He drew back and it was like a physical pain. She cried out in need.   
He bucked his hips up at her once, suggestively. 

“You know what I want, pet. Please me or I’ll leave you like this.” Unhesitatingly she wrapped her small hands around him, lifting his shaft up and plunging it into her mouth, she was beyond being delicate or teasing, blind need had animated her body now and although her movements were primitive and unrefined she took him as deeply as she could for as long as she could and sucked until her mouth and throat hurt. 

Soon enough he was thrusting lightly up into her mouth and then, oh glory oh wonder, he started to lick her again.   
She moaned against his cock in her throat and he bucked up at her. 

They moved together, both panting and releasing the sounds of their pleasure without inhibition.. their movements increasingly abandoned until finally, nearing the peak of her own wild pleasure, Hermione felt that tightening and flowing sensation against her palms and dimly registered that Rodolphus was coming.   
She swallowed and swallowed to not choke. 

He tasted sweet.. completely unlike the Dark Lord or Severus. It was almost like the taste of honey.   
She pulled back and took it on her tongue, savouring the taste. Just as she did so he did something to her and she felt herself forcibly rocketed into her own climax. It was beyond pleasure. It was almost like what the Dark Lord had done with his parseltongue but it had a different quality.   
That had been like being thrown into an abyss of sensation, blinding her and shutting off her senses to anything but the feeling.   
This was like being steered at high speed through deep currents of bliss, blind but not alone.. as if Rodolphus himself were holding her and flying her farther into the mindless selfless sensation. 

From far away she felt a sharp yet somehow not entirely unexpected pain and realised he had bitten her somewhere quite sensitive. The pain only sharpened the pleasure though and she gave herself over to it utterly. It was a strange sensation.. and Rodolphus was licking at her. Sometimes licking at the inside of her thigh, then moving back to her pussy, alternating and sucking, slurping and growling in audible satisfaction. 

Her climax waned and she felt very tired now. She might just have a little sleep while he finished.   
She laid her head upon his hip, his softening cock resting against her lips. There was a strange but pervasive feeling that everything was right with the world. She felt good. Safe. Warm. Desired. Needed.   
She rested her arms against his thighs and let herself drift off. 

 

 

Hermione woke to the unpleasant sensation of an enervate and grimaced at it. Peering upward, She found a fully dressed Rodolphus was holding some kind of potion out to her insistently. 

“Drink, pet. I took too much” he hushed at her. 

She frowned, trying to remember what had happened and accepted the potion, knocking the bitter iron tasting blood replenishing potion back like a shot of firewhisky.   
Immediately her head began to clear somewhat and she felt a lot better. 

She noticed now that she was clothed and that she was in the potions lab. Severus was still lying on the floor.   
It seemed people didn’t wander into the potions lab often after all. 

“I warded it” Rodolphus said quietly. Someone tried to breach it but the ward held.   
I will revive Snape now and then I will throw myself upon the...mercy.. of the Dark Lord.” 

Hermione swallowed and threw her arms around Rodolphus, trying to pull him to her, but effectively only pulling herself to him. “There must be another way. Maybe if you run?”   
He snorted at her sceptically – “Have you forgotten the need you felt not so long ago. Do you want to be left in that state indefinitely? Fed potions for conditions you do not have until you die?   
If I go to the Dark Lord, at the very least you will be freed by my death.” 

“At best-...” he paused, his eyes dancing over her face appreciatively. “-I will take whatever he chooses to punish me with if he lets us relieve our pain when we are in need.   
I plan to be in need very frequently pet.” He grinned indomitably. 

She tried not to give in to the nauseous kicked-in-the-stomach feeling of worry. The Dark Lord had nearly killed Rodolphus simply because she had found him desirable. This was not a good idea. She couldn’t even imagine what he might do now. Perhaps Severus was right and he would simply kill him. 

Rodolphus stepped away and straightened his robes then cast enervate on Severus. 

Severus did not stir at all. 

Rodolphus stepped forward and kicked him lightly, nudging him with the toe of his boot. “playing possum Severus?” 

The next second a red flash emerged and Rodolphus dropped to the floor heavily.   
The younger Severus unfolded himself cautiously, a black expression on his face and inspected the felled man. 

He cast another brownish flared spell silently that Hermione didnt recognise. She had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was not good. 

Severus summoned Rodolphus wand and pocketed it, then summoned his own wand from Rodolphus’ pocket and held then a wand in each hand.   
He cast a strange variant of incarcerous on the vampire and waited for a few moments, watching the man like a hawk till he jerked faintly.   
Immediately Severus cast another, much brighter red coloured spell and the twitch stopped.   
Only then did he turn to look at Hermione.   
His shuttered gaze and blank expression betrayed nothing. Hermione was unsure how much he remembered.   
She looked down at Rodolphus briefly and then sighed, returning her eyes to Severus. 

“I need to see the Dark Lord. Now.” she said reluctantly. 

Severus blinked at her. “No. First you will tell me what happened here. Do not leave anything out. I will dose you if I believe you are lying. You will not want to participate in an initiation ceremony under a lingering veritaserum influence. Trust me.” 

She bit her lip and nodded. “What do you remember?” 

He shook his head. “Start from the time we apparated into the lab. She thought for a moment and then began.   
“I asked you about the adapted befuddlement draught and you got irritated with me and made me brew a boring useless sixth year healing draught.” 

He smirked at her.   
Yes – clearly it had been meant as a punishment after all. She frowned mildly and continued. 

“Rodolphus surprised me. He suddenly put his arms around me from behind. You ordered him off me at wandpoint and then you both had an argument. During the argument he discovered your glamour and saw your face.   
He is still aware of your change and he knows that I had something to do with it but you warned him off asking further about it and he hasn’t asked me about it since.” 

“Also..” 

she hesitated and tried to think how to phrase it. Severus saw her squirming and his face tightened. 

“Speak” he commanded. 

“also.. um. He mentioned to you that I let him bite me after the Dark Lord threw me in the dungeons. Uh.. before Lucius came. Rodolphus wanted to.. um.. rescue me.. sort of.. hide me somewhere so I’d be safe and I kind of made him put me back in the cell cause I thought the Dark Lord would come for me.   
But he.. didn't.. and” 

Severus raised his hand ‘stop’ and made a twirling motion with one finger. “Go back to the point where you said you let him bite you” 

She looked away uneasily. “Uh.. yes. Right.   
Well – I didn’t know what it meant.   
I only found out just before he obliviated and stupefied you. I’m sorry.   
When he came to me it was dark and he had a knife and he looked...so... terrible..after what the Dark Lord and Lucius did to him and I felt so bad cause it was my fault and then it seemed like he would just attack me anyway so... so...   
I didn’t want him to hurt me and I asked him if he’d make it nice.. and.. and he did.   
\- Did make it nice I mean.   
He was very gentle and when he asked I said yes. ...I didn’t know!! I’m sorry!!” 

Severus crumpled somewhat and ran his hand down his face in the universal gesture of exasperation.   
“And you didn’t think it necessary to mention this?” 

She startled – “It was a long while ago. Before everything..happened and today has been rather busy, don’t you think? Should I have mentioned it to Him when he was in absolute control of my mind, body and magic? Or would it have been better to toss it out there while he was sleeping with you?” 

“I didn't know it was so important. We didn’t sleep together, obviously. I didn’t think it was the end of the world.   
Lucius did more to me than Rodolphus and you were fully aware of that and didn’t seem to care.   
And after he was punished last time.. I didn’t want him to be hurt again!” 

Severus sneered faintly. “Well you are going to be disappointed, Hermione. I can’t begin to imagine what the Dark Lord is going to do about this. Perhaps he will be merciful and simply kill him” 

Hermione leapt toward him. “NO!! Please.. you have to take me to Him. I need to.. I don’t know.. I have to do something. I don’t know what I can do.. there must be something though! Please Severus! Please!! Help me!“ 

His expression was hard and he seemed even more annoyed at her pleas. He tilted his head back and appeared to inspect the ceiling with an extraordinarily irritated expression on his face. When he dropped it again he nodded. 

“Fine. We will speak with the Dark Lord and give him the happy news. I’m sure that he will be overjoyed.   
Your initiation, which is in..one hour, now... will almost certainly be something to be hereafter whispered of in fearful tones as a warning to others.   
What you experienced with Lucius? Nothing! And you will endure it silently!   
You will take the punishment with acceptance and as much dignity as you can manage and when it is over, you will thank the Dark Lord for offering you the chance to serve him.”   
“He will require you to hurt or, even more likely now, kill others as a show of your commitment, and you will do so!   
\- Without complaint or hesitation.”   
“You will do whatever he requires of you tonight. Should he command you to service the combined ranks of the Death Eaters you will do as he says. Do you understand?” 

Hermione found herself shaking again. She hadn’t realised clearly what the initiation would consist of and now it would be worse he seemed to say.   
Maybe she should uh.. wait until tomorrow to tell the Dark Lord. Or ask Severus to obliviate her or something. Or run away. Or.. 

“I can see you are rethinking your decision. Unfortunately it is too late for that. The only thing you can do at this stage is to beg the Dark Lord for mercy.” 

“If I were you, I would worry less about the vampire and more about your own fate. He will be very..disappointed.. in you.   
I believe you think you have seen him disappointed before.   
You have not. You have experienced only his affectionate reproof. A tiny crucio. A banishing to the cells. He has never shown you anger before.   
If you do not go to him now and prostrate yourself before him – if he finds out from the vampire..or if he realises you intentionally deceived him in order to avoid a worse punishment at the initiation – just thinking about it makes my nerves twinge.   
Whatever will be done to you tonight will be pale and gentle in comparison with his fury if he learns of this tomorrow.” 

Severus tossed his left arm and exposed his dark mark then pressed the wand in his non dominant right hand to it briefly. 

“Prepare yourself. He will be here momentarily” he said quietly, glowering at her.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reviews increase update frequency and will receive a response

Sure enough only seconds later the pop of apparition signaled Lord Voldemort’s arrival in the lab. 

He was still wearing his glamour and stood, impossibly tall, thin, hairless, pale, serpentine.   
Regal. Magnificent! Hermione’s mind added beyond her control. 

He smirked briefly, obviously hearing her complimentary assessment of his appearance but then his expression darkened ominously as he took the scene in, one hairless white brow rising questioningly, absorbing the terrified Hermione, furious Severus and the bound and stupefied Rodolphus. 

He turned and regarded Severus. “Problems?” he said threateningly. 

“You might say that, my Lord” Severus smiled humourlessly.   
“Perhaps you might like to read Miss Granger to apprise yourself of the current stand of things. My analysis of the situation may be somewhat biased. I’d advise you to go back as far as the day you tossed her in the lower cells.” 

The Dark Lord frowned at him uncertainly, his eyes flicking quickly to Rodolphus and then he turned to her suspiciously, fixing her with a malevolent red gaze. “Kneel or fall, my dear. Your choice.” 

She gulped and dropped to her knees on the stone floor, finding it suddenly hard to breathe. She wanted to beg the Dark Lord to understand, wanted to plead for mercy but her breath was stolen as he thrust suddenly into her mind, tearing her forcibly back to the cell in the dark the moment after he had left her there. 

He tasted her despair and misery and the grain of hope that he would return. 

When she realised someone was in the room and heard the metal scrape against the wall and was terrified, it almost felt like he was curled around her in her mind, his presence there felt strangely reassuring in her terror. That feeling changed as he felt her reaction to Rodolphus. It almost felt like spikes.. thorns.. in her head. 

He watched the vampire nipping at her threateningly and then her soft pleading for him to kiss her and the ensuing events and it felt to Hermione as if a white hot cloud were lodged in her skull. His anger was painful.   
It flared particularly at Rodolphus suggestion to hide her away but stilled somewhat at her response that she had to go back; her faith that the Dark Lord would come for her eventually. She could feel faint approval somehow.

He scrolled through her experience in the dark quickly until she began singing and she felt his momentary surprise and recognition.   
He watched Lucius torture and she felt overwhelmed by her fear and pain and helplessness but she did not feel any particular reactions from the Dark Lord except at the very end when Lucius licked her and used the cruciatus curse on her. There was a dull throb of ..something..   
When Severus appeared and then Rodolphus, she felt another spike of anger. A steady hum of fury, however it did not abate when Rodolphus apparated out of the room.   
She remembered that the Dark Lord had forbidden Severus to visit her. 

She experienced the whole interaction with Severus again and her reactions threatened to drown her. She felt the Dark Lord curling around her protectively and he flicked ahead suddenly, seemingly unwilling to let her remember the time in which she had been ‘absent’ her senses.   
The movement within her memories felt like an iron pike being driven into her forehead. 

The next coherent impression was of the field of tall grass and the Dark Lord embracing her frantically.   
He sped through those memories too, flicking forward to the moment he apparated out of his bedroom only hours earlier. 

The low burning anger returned when he experienced Severus confession to her and it continued largely unabated through their shower.   
When Severus spoke of his seduction by the Dark Lord, the anger subsided slightly and there was another dull throb of something. 

He skipped forward quickly until he reached the moment where her mind registered Rodolphus standing behind her in the lab. She felt as if her nerve endings were being seared away by the flaming heat of his fury when she re-experienced her warm rush of tender feelings at realising Rodolphus was there.

The rest of the time leading up to the present was spent in a painful paralysing inferno of the Dark Lord’s blind rage. 

He did not stop when he watched himself apparate into the lab but remained in her mind tasting her reaction to him. 

Finally he pulled back out of her mind.   
There was nothing gentle in his departure and it took her seconds to realise she was lying on her side on the floor, unable to move. She wondered if he had damaged something. 

The desperate whimpers forced her to shift her eyes down from where they had rolled up in her head.   
She could see Severus writhing and jerking on the flagstones some feet away. It went on for a very long time. 

When he finally stoped twisting and yelping she was shocked to see Severus actually sobbing, his face turned against the stone floor. 

“Weak!” the Dark Lord spat at him. 

She tried to coax her limbs to move but it was useless. She lay like a puppet with the strings cut. She saw the Dark Lord walk slowly over to her and then he crouched by her body, cocking his head and scrutinizing her.   
He raised his wand and she tried to flinch but could not. Her eyes must have shown her fear as he smirked at her. Instead of cursing her he summoned a bottle from the shelves behind her. 

Gingerly he lowered himself to sit on the stone floor and with more care than she expected waved his wand to levitate her across his lap, to lie bonelessly with her head supported by his arm.   
He tilted her upright and placed the potion to her lips. 

She looked up at his inhuman face and experienced a feeling of..irrational trust. More than that.... acceptance. He could hurt her, and that would be ok too, if he wanted. She would do what he wanted.   
She willingly swallowed the bitter liquid he poured into her mouth.   
His smile was thin. “What should I do with you, Hermione?” he muttered wearily. 

She swallowed. “Whatever you want, my Lord” she whispered weakly. “Punish me however you choose. I’ll do whatever you wish. but I’m begging you not to kill Rodolphus. Please, my lord. Severus will find a cure! He has never hurt me. I couldn’t stand it if I was responsible for his death.” 

The Dark Lord’s expression darkened stormily. “I cannot allow him to have this bond with you” he hissed. “he must die.” 

She forced herself to remain still and not clutch at Voldemort’s robes. He did not like that, she remembered. 

“Please..Master.. Anything.. but let him live. He would guard me with his life and I am weak without my magic. He was coming to confess and take your punishment when Severus stupefied him. “   
The Dark Lord’s eyes had sparked when she called him master. He looked at her consideringly. 

“..If you obey every order I give you tonight, Hermione, to my satisfaction, then I will allow him to continue to exist. “ 

Her heart leapt in her chest. It was a chance – more of a chance than she had expected.   
And Severus had already informed her that she was going to do just that. But she didn’t know whether she actually could. 

“I’ll try my hardest, Master” she whispered. 

The Dark Lord nodded approvingly. “We shall see.” He stroked her hair away from her face and she felt a warm feeling wash over her. She was confused. Why hadn’t the Dark Lord punished her?! Severus had been certain that he would. Instead he had punished Severus. A weak twinge of guilt flooded through her at that. 

“Do not think on it” the Dark Lord advised her. “You are not the same. Severus knows what he was punished for.   
I recognise that your act with Rodolphus was carried out in ignorance..not to say innocence.   
You refused his offer in favour of waiting for me to give you the chance to apologise. You were loyal to me. Even through your blood bound haze this evening you acknowledged that you are mine.   
Rodolphus, on the other hand, knew he was disobeying grievously. He bound you deliberately.” 

Hermione furrowed her brows worriedly. “Please master.. he said that he came to me after you had announced that I was no longer yours. He told me that since I wasn’t yours I could be his. He didn’t know about my ability or that you had bound my magic.   
I think he just wanted me because I’m a virgin and he liked the way I looked.” 

The Dark Lord shot her a calculating look. “I think you underestimate him, my dear. But we will look into this further Tomorrow I suspect. Severus!” he clicked his long thin fingers and after a few seconds she heard Severus drag himself up and crawl over to them before kneeling down, his forehead pressed to the ground. 

“My Lord” he croaked. 

The Dark Lord scowled at him “You are pathetic Severus. Weak.. insipid and your feelings for the girl are entirely inappropriate. Had you not been affected by your own emotional attachment, you would not have failed me this evening and allowed the vampire to depart with her.” 

Severus cowered and clenched his eyes shut in pain at the venom and disapproval in his lover’s voice.   
Watching him like that hurt, Hermione realised. She wanted to comfort him but knew that to do so would only anger the Dark Lord further. He was like a blackbird with a broken wing somehow and she longed to help him. 

“If I told you that only one of them could survive the night, Hermione, which would you choose?” 

Jolted out of her thoughts she darted her eyes to the Dark Lord. But.. he had promised to let Rodolphus live if she did everything he said tonight. Was he taking it back? 

She thought.. but there really was no choice at all. She cared for Rodolphus – liked him. Wanted him even.   
Certainly wanted to protect him.   
But she loved Severus. Given any choice between Severus and another person, she would always pick him. 

Unless of course the other person was the Dark Lord. Then she would have to let Severus go.   
She hoped she’d never be faced with that particular choice. 

Voldemort smiled approvingly. 

“In case you were wondering, Severus, she chose you. Without hesitation. She ..loves.. you..”   
He wrapped his arms around her and drew her up against his chest cuddling her gently. His arms were strong and warm as he whispered in her ear “But you love me most of all, don’t you? More than Severus. More than Harry. More than your parents or your cat or the sun or your studies.”

She felt a slight prick of guilt and pain at his seductive vindictive words. She didn’t like to think of it like that.   
But.. it was perhaps true. She had never loved anyone or anything as much as this unexpected, enigmatic, psychopathic, man. 

No..not even Harry.. and she would have done anything for Harry.   
Now, at the end of everything, she would do anything for Voldemort.. for Tom.. for the Dark Lord. For Him. 

She felt his golden haze in her mind faintly and heard Severus sigh contentedly too. 

The invisible nose on his visually serpentine face nuzzled against her and he spoke in low silibant tones   
“show me your worthy determination tonight, Hermione. Remain strong and silent through the pain.   
Show me your unswerving loyalty – obey my orders unquestioningly.   
Show me your devotion.. and your love.. beg me for my mark when all is done. Offer me your life.” 

The golden magic danced through her mind and she nodded enthusiastically. Yes! Yes she would do that. She wanted to be with him forever. She would do whatever necessary to please him. 

“Severus. Prepare her!” the Dark Lord hissed at the young man prostrate before him. “Bring her to the great hall as soon as you are finished. I feel them gathering already.” 

Severus raised himself up on his knees wearily and leaned forward, scooping her off the Dark Lord’s lap, who then rose.   
He looked down at them both one last time and brushed a lock of Severus dark hair out of his eyes. 

“Ah Severus. I cannot remain angry with you in this form. You are too lovely. Do not disappoint me again or I shall glamour you into the visage of Dumbledore before I punish you”   
he strode to the bound Rodolphus and grabbed a thick handful of his hair, lifting his body up by it, then turned on the spot and disapparated with the man. 

 

 

After the Dark Lord had left and that golden influence had faded from the air Severus and Hermione both heaved a sigh of relief.   
She looked up at him. “You did that on purpose, didnt you? Persuading him to read my memories rather than simply telling him what had happened. You knew that would happen!” 

Severus looked away and lowered her gently to the floor. 

“You asked me to help you. What did you think that would entail?” he enquired neutrally.   
“Can you move?” 

She nodded uncertainly. 

“Good” he said, allowing himself to slide to the floor, twitching. “Go to the shelves and find a small diamond shaped purple potion bottle. They are on the second shelf.” 

Hermione slowly got to her knees and then her feet and walked to the shelves, looking them over until she found the purple bottles. There were dozens of them. Identical little purple phials.   
She wasn’t surprised there were so many if they had something to do with healing after-effects of the cruciatus curse.   
She grabbed two and brought them to Severus. 

He did not reach for them.   
She lowered herself carefully to her knees and uncorked one of the phials and pressed it to his lips. 

He opened eagerly, almost sucking at the glass phial. After he had swallowed the contents he reached for the other one she held. “One dose only” he said, sounding a lot better. “Some renewing draughts – like pepper up – can be increased for greater effect. This particular one will send the recipient into convulsions if more than a single dose is applied. When I have time to experiment I will work on finding a stronger tolerable dose, but I have too many projects at present. It will have to do. Try not to get yourself cruciated.” 

Hermione held her breath and allowed herself to hope 

“Maybe.. I could help you? I’m sorry about earlier with the befuddlement draught. It was a childish reaction. I regretted it as soon as I had said it – i just want to learn from you, Severus. You’re brilliant!   
All I ever wished for in class was a chance to work with you without everyone else there.   
I promise I’ll prove to you that you can trust me with ingredient preparation! Please?!” 

Severus’ mouth curved into a wry smirk. “He already determined when you first arrived that you’d be working with me. Not that your begging isn’t lovely. Help me up” 

She climbed to her feet again slowly, Severus watched her as she did.   
“You’re still not back to strength. What did the Dark Lord give you?” She thought and described the black phial. He nodded. “Take the other purple phial then. Those two are not incompatible.” 

She did so and felt immediately a hundred times better. She pulled Severus up and put her shoulder under his arm.   
When he stood and swayed a little she held him in case he was going to fall. 

After a minute or so he turned to her with a discriminating eye. He swished and flicked his wand and opened her robe. 

She gasped, looking down at herself.   
His expression at her lacy black underwear was something between approval and discontentment. He transfigured them into black leather. 

“It is likely that you will be disrobed at some point and I believe the Dark Lord would prefer you to keep some of your secrets before his servants.” 

He flicked the wand again ending in a complex twisting motion and the robe around her shoulders transfigured itself into a fitted black reinforced satin death eater robe with a voluminous hood and wide sleeves. 

“Lovely” he commented absently and then held out his arm. 

She took a deep breath, just looking at it. 

“I’m.. scared” she admitted. 

He looked at her as if she were mad. “Of course you are. You would be a fool if you were not. Nevertheless, we are going. What you have to do will be simple if you apply the right attitude. Whatever pain is visited upon you, you will endure. You will force yourself to remain silent as long as you possibly can. And you will do whatever He tells you. Immediately. Please him and you may be working with me tomorrow! Fail and he will almost certainly make you watch that bloody degenerate bloodsucker die horribly.” 

“From my perspective, its a win/win situation of course. So do as you like.” 

She frowned at him but took his proffered arm. He flicked his wand and her hood came up over her head, throwing her face into shadow. They disapparated.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews increase the frequency of updates and will receive a response

Hermione blinked and raised her head to look around.. then wished she hadn’t. 

Despite the events of the last days the scene around her could have been taken straight from one of her nightmares.   
When she was in the forest with Harry she had had horrible dreams about being captured by Voldemort and brought to a place like this.   
In her nightmares things had happened to her that she realised very well might happen to her here and now. 

They had appeared inside a vast black stone amphitheatre. 

It was cavernous and lit by firelight, widely spaced braziers and stakes mounted at various heights up the slopes.   
They illuminated row upon row of black hooded and white masked Death Eaters, standing cold and still looking down at her.   
Hundreds of Death Eaters.   
She was standing in the centre of a circle perhaps fifteen metres across at the base of the slopes. 

When she turned to Severus for reassurance he had gone. She was alone. 

She looked around and found on one side a raised angular dais perhaps fifteen feet high. No steps led up to it.   
Upon this platform Lord Voldemort sat in a black throne that seemed to be made of twisted black wood or metal.   
Thick hard ropes of something curled and shone in the firelight. 

He was of course his pale and snakelike self and for a brief moment panic clutched at her stomach.

She knew better.. he’d.. he’d held her in his arms and comforted her only half an hour ago.   
But it was exactly like her dreams. He was cold and superior, his red eyes glowing malevolently.   
His yew wand dangled from his fingertips, not quite pointed at her, but with the clear implication that pointing at her was something that could occur at any second. 

He looked down at her and she felt small and weak and powerless. 

He spoke then and his voice was icy, breathy with satisfaction, it echoed strangely in this place, possessed strange harmonics. 

“Hermione Granger... Harry Potter’s mudblood.   
Many of my Death Eaters might find it strange to see you here.. in this place... dressed in the garb of an initiate.   
You are a prisoner – a slave! Why should Lord Voldemort show you such magnanimity?” 

“Do you believe you are worthy of that robe?” 

“Do you dare to request my mark?!“ He leaned forward in the throne, interestedly. 

She didn’t expect this. She hadn’t thought she’d have to justify herself like this.   
She hadn’t really thought about it in detail beyond the idea of pain and doing horrible things. 

She could hardly say yes.   
How could she justify it? Everyone knew she had fought against him. She hadn’t done anything that she supposed Death Eaters would value particularly, at least not that wouldn’t also make them pissed off at her.   
Imitating Bellatrix would probably not be the best thing to mention. 

She couldn’t say no either – else why was she here?! She floundered for a moment and recovered. 

Scraping together confidence she didn’t have she said in a clear voice that echoed around the chamber like a bell.   
“I am whatever my Lord wants me to be. I am worthy if Lord Voldemort deems me so. Please let me serve you, My Lord! ...My life.. my will.. is yours.” 

Low murmurs went around the chamber from the Death Eaters. 

Voldemort sat back on his throne, smiling a knife blade smile.   
“Is that so, mudblood? We shall see... I do not offer my mark to any and all worthless filth that begs to serve me.”   
“My Death Eaters are strong. They are loyal.. ruthless.. powerful. They are worthy of fighting at my side. They are skilled. They offer value to me like jewels that ornament a crown. What do you offer me, little girl?   
What could you possibly offer me?” 

She lowered her head, her face hidden beneath the hood and bit her lip. What could she offer? 

She tried.. “I’m.. I’m good at research, my Lord. I’m good at potions too. And transfiguration. Charms.   
And..and quite a lot of other areas too I suppose   
..I’m.. they say I’m the best student to come from Hogwarts since a boy in the 1940s called..” 

“Enough!” the Dark Lord hissed angrily.   
His eyes swept up across the ranks of black cloaked figures and the hushing murmurs ceased as if cut off with a guillotine. 

“You are.. quite bright, yes. I’ve heard the rumors. There are a great many ‘bright’ wizards and witches here. Why should I care?” 

Hermione paused and felt a momentary pulse of irritation. What did he want?! She had said all she could. She tried again, a note of desperation in her voice now.   
“I can fight, my Lord. I can fight well! I can use my knowledge in your service. I have survived for over a year in the open, while your servants hunted me.   
I have impersonated Death Eaters. I have stolen from you.   
I have worked high magic many times.. The blackest of magic” 

A wave of whispers and reaction swept through the amassed Death Eaters and was silenced again at a look from Lord Voldemort. 

Hermione continued “ I regret some of my actions. I did not realise how magnificent you are. I should have served you and not.. not.. “   
Voldemort hissed the name venomously. “Harry Potter.” She nodded emphatically, her hood bobbing. 

The Dark Lord leaned back on the throne and stared at her thoughtfully.   
“Very well. You may perhaps be of some use. I believe I am willing to test the limits of your endurance.   
Avery! Mulciber!” He paused and then a dark smirk rose on his white face. “Malfoy..” 

A death eater with long blonde hair trailing over the front of his robes stepped out of the ranks. 

“..the younger” the Dark Lord finished with satisfaction. 

Hermione gasped and looked up at him. 

Lucius hesitated and then reluctantly stepped back into formation. Another figure stepped out several metres away. 

Hermione tried to remain calm. She turned back to the Dark Lord. He had risen to his feet and now he raised his wand and levelled it at her.   
She shivered and repeated to herself ‘held me in his arms, held me in his arms. Probably not going to kill me. Calm down.’ 

The Dark Lord smirked and flicked slightly with the yew stick.   
Her robes melted away, leaving her standing in front of everyone in the leather garments Severus had transfigured for her. 

Again the ranks commented among themselves. The Dark Lord allowed it this time. He did not do anything but she had the vague feeling he approved of her attire. 

He looked past her and she turned her head to see three men in black robes standing facing her, several metres apart from one another. As she watched their masks melted away and they lowered their hoods. 

She recognised Avery. He was a large greyish skinned man in perhaps his early forties with lank light brown hair cut short to fall over his forehead. His face was narrow and his eyes were a pale blue and piercing. He looked like a gambler or a drinker. His body was hidden in the robes but he appeared quite wiry rather than muscular. 

He was contrasted sharply by Mulciber, who was a large broad corn blonde man with mutton chops and a wide, currently leering, face. His eyes were light grey and gave him a washed out appearance. His robes could not hide that he was heavily muscled.   
He exchanged a look with Avery and it was clear that the two were friends and were both overjoyed to have been gifted with this task by the Dark Lord.   
Hermione supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. The Dark Lord had told her that Avery had been the one to retrieve her from the battlefield and he had suggested to him that he might enjoy torturing her later at his convenience.   
It appeared that that time had now come. 

She steeled herself and turned to the third member of the trio. 

It was worse than she imagined. 

Draco was standing, quite visibly chomping at the bit to curse her. He looked a little older. His hair was almost shoulder length and hung like silk. His face was twisted in glee, schadenfreude, loathing.   
His eyes were darker than his father’s she noticed, but perhaps it was just the emotion in them now. 

While she was watching Draco the other two men had moved, she whirled and found them now arranged in an equilateral triangle around her. Some quiet laughter went up among the ranks of the Death Eaters at her visible distress. 

She turned to the Dark Lord, who had seated himself again and was looking quite curious.   
She wondered what he had done with Rodolphus. Was he somewhere here? Was he still tied up somewhere? She closed her eyes and felt again how Rodolphus had held her..so carefully.. kissed her.. touched her. How he had looked at her. Different to everyone else. He had wanted to protect her. But instead she would have to protect him.   
The Dark Lord’s face twitched slightly in displeasure. “No mercy, gentlemen.” He hissed and a murmur of approval rose up in the room. 

He intoned darkly “Begin.”

 

 

She didn’t have time to even turn before the first curse struck her. Her back seemed to ignite in flames. 

She gasped and bit down on the yelp that wanted to slip from her lips.   
They were cursing silently. She wouldn’t even know what to expect. 

Her back hurt.. a lot. She swayed on her feet slightly and tried to push the pain aside. 

Another curse struck her from the side of Mulciber and threw her to the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her.   
She struggled to get air into her lungs and move.   
Something else hit her and it felt like a massive electric shock that didn’t abate but trailed painful jittering lines down her veins to her extremities. 

She grit her teeth against it and rolled to her stomach, rising up onto her knees. 

She was facing Avery and he stepped forward suddenly and kicked her in the face. She hadn’t expected it and sailed backward through the air to land on her back again.   
Dark laughter echoed through the room. Her cheekbone felt like it was already swelling. 

Draco stepped forward and stood over her, pointing his wand down at her chest. He sneered and flicked the wand into a lumos, brightening it till it glittered brightly.   
Kneeling, he pressed the wand to the skin above her leather bra and started to drag it through her flesh. She bit down on her lips to hold in the scream that rose in her throat. It was bad.. Everything else had been a tickle compared to this. 

Draco was speaking to her quietly. Nobody else would hear. 

“You don’t deserve to be here, mudblood. You should be back in the dungeon where filth like you belongs. You’ll pay for what you did to my father. I’m going to make you scream.” 

She writhed on her back against the white hot brand on her sensitive skin but didn’t dare to raise her hands to defend herself. She splayed them on the ground, pressing her fingertips against the stone, arching her head back. Panting and wrenching her face away from the smell of her own skin burning.   
Lucius withstood it, she told herself. I can do it. 

Draco had finished writing what she supposed probably read ‘filth’ across her chest and now he began to trail the wand down her abdomen. It hurt even worse across the sensitive flesh and she jerked away blindly, feeling hot tears sliding down toward her ears now. Her mouth tasted of blood where she had bitten her lips open to keep her silence. 

“Stay still!” Draco growled above her. “You’ll ruin it.” He slapped her hard across the face. She barely noticed. 

A curse from somewhere off to the left struck her and it felt like all her skin was being flayed off in tiny strips.   
Her eyes bulged and she bit down on her tongue hard.   
She raised her head but her skin was fine. Nothing was flayed. There wasn’t even any blood. She did see however what Draco had been burning into her.   
Across her chest read ‘cockhole’ and an arrow pointed up at her face while another one trailed down her abdomen with lots of filigree and decoration, culminating in an arrow pointing down at her pussy. 

She jerked again and very nearly screamed when he started burning more arrows into her inner thighs.   
Wrenching her arms up she wrapped them over her mouth, biting down on the meat of her forearm and clenching her eyes closed. Her thighs flinched and jerked of their own volition. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity no more new burns happened. 

She opened her eyes gingerly and then her arms were ripped away and torn upward, dragging her body after them.   
She dangled by them in midair and felt herself rotated, obviously to show the ‘artwork’ to the assembled ranks.   
There was some murmuring and laughter. She found she didn’t care.   
She should probably feel ashamed or something but she didn’t care in the slightest. These marks would wipe away like nothing if the Dark Lord gave her her power back. 

In fact.. these death eaters would wipe away like nothing.   
She grinned nastily, thinking of destroying them all and louder, shocked, sounds rose up from the crowd. 

She looked down at Draco who was sneering up at her obliviously and hissed “What I’m going to do to you when this is over will make your father cry, ferret!” She turned her face away. 

While Avery was frowning in frustration, Mulciber was actually grinning at her composure. “I like a challenge, mudblood” he laughed. “let’s see how well you take to the lash.”   
He mumbled something and flicked his wand and a long orange white glowing cord spilled from the end of it. He flicked it once or twice and Hermione watched as the cord moved like a strange liquidlike whip.   
She steeled herself again. 

 

 

Hermione panted and blinked away the blurry tears from her eyes again. She was kneeling on the floor, her arms at her sides.   
From time to time she would be knocked down and then she would struggle slowly to get back on her knees.   
It took a long time sometimes as they didn’t stop cursing her. 

It seemed to almost become easier to hold her voice, the more they did to her. In the beginning shock had almost forced her throat to react but now.. the pain was constant, aching, burning, stinging, The additional blows or cuts or other things didn’t increase the total agony by a significant percentage. 

Draco had tried to crucio her once. It had hurt terribly but it was nothing compared to Bellatrix curse and that in turn was a gentle pat on the head compared to the Dark Lord’s wand. 

Draco had been enraged when she didn’t so much as whimper although her body twisted and curled and stretched helplessly. He started casting slicing hex’s without care.   
Once when she had been flung around by a curse, she had caught sight of the Dark Lord through her tears. He had been watching her with clear approval on his face and she felt proud.   
Voldemort.. Tom.. was pleased with her. It was a warm feeling inside, in the place where the pain didn’t reach. 

She was doing this partly to save Rodolphus, certainly. It was why she had to be silent.   
But she realised.. she was also doing it to please Him. 

She discovered that she.. God only knew why.. did actually want him to put the dark mark on her.   
No.. that wasn’t exactly right. She wanted him to put his mark on her but she wanted.. she almost wanted more than that.   
Couldn’t put her finger on what exactly she wanted. 

She crawled to her knees, in her own puddle of blood and sweat and tears and faced the Dark Lord. 

Avery stomped over and slashed his wand at her, opening her cheek and shoulder then hexing bubotuber vines to grow into the wounds, dripping their acid through her opened flesh. 

“Enough” the Dark Lord’s voice rang out. 

The sudden silence was deafening. She realised she had been daydreaming, preoccupied internally, insulated from events. 

Outside the three death eaters had been cursing her thick and fast, desperately trying to force a sound from her.   
The crowd had begun cheering and had been almost in a frenzy, calling out suggestions and criticism, each certain that if the Dark Lord would only allow them at her, they could make the little mudslut screech. 

When the Dark Lord spoke it was as if the silence had a pressure to it. He looked down at her with approval. 

“You have shown your strength, child. Few here have succeeded so completely in withstanding torture. Your Lord will reward you for your endurance.”   
He gestured to the side and two death eaters scurried in to the circle and began healing her quickly. 

She blinked, confused. 

“Avery, Mulciber, Malfoy. You may return to your places. Do not concern yourself that you were unable to break the girl. You are among the most vicious, most highly skilled present. I doubt that any here, with the exception of myself obviously, could have succeeded where you failed.” 

The healers working on her were extraordinary, Hermione realised. They were so quick and used dozens of different countercurses and healing spells without hesitation. She wondered whether St Mungo’s had any healers as advanced as these. It would seem a Voldemort thing to do to poach the best healers from the country and set them in his ranks.   
How many did he have? Did these two join of their own volition?   
They were already walking away and she flexed her arms experimentally. She was clean and healthy. A slight ache remained in her bones but she supposed that there was a limit to what could be done without potions and Malfoy had cruciated her after all, even if he wasn’t very good at it.   
-She could have sworn she heard a snigger coming from the direction of the Dark Lord, but she looked up at him and his face was fixed, composed. 

“I am satisfied that you are not weak, mudblood. But can you serve me?   
Show me your loyalty. Your obedience. Show me what I asked of my servants, Avery, Mulciber and Malfoy.” 

He drew a sigil in the air with his wand and it glowed in flame before dissipating. Three cracks sounded as forms apparated in.   
It was a strange collection but the meaning was immediately obvious to her. 

The first figure was her house elf Dilly. She stood, scuffing her feet in her tea towel and brightened when she saw Hermione as if the sun had been turned on inside her face. “Missy!!” she gushed. She was silencioed immediately. 

The next figure was Rodolphus. He stood, looking exactly as he had when she last saw him, his face dark, he did not look at her at all. 

The last figure, struggling and shouting silently against the unknown death eater who held his bound arms at his back, was a red faced and bruised Ronald Weasley, dressed only in boxer shorts.   
She gaped, taking a half step back when his eyes blinked in shock as he obviously recognised her.   
His movements stilled, his gaze sweeping over her – she became acutely aware that she was standing in the midst of death eaters wearing bloodstreaked leather underwear.   
It was as if the context had slipped her mind until just that moment when Ron looked at her and she was suddenly ‘mione’ again. The girl berating them over breakfast about their upcoming exams. She felt..ashamed and started to shake, wanting to wrap her arms around herself. 

Ron’s eyes were wandering over her skin and emotions flashed over his face like stormclouds.   
Arousal, suspicion, disgust, hope, fear, lust, anger, back to disgust. 

The cold reedy voice when it came startled both of them. “Let it never be said that Lord Voldemort is not generous. I offer you, yet again mudblood, a choice! You have only to select one of these offerings. 

“I have made it easy for you. If you don’t feel quite.. up to.. relieving me of this red headed fool, you may eliminate one of my death eaters, your future brothers, instead. Rodolphus has graciously offered himself up for the purpose. 

“Or if you are so ridiculously squeamish that taking the life of a wizard is entirely beyond you, irrespective how much pain and suffering he may be responsible for, I will allow you to work on the house elf instead. Surely that ought to be within your limited capabilities.” 

A small rumble of uneasy laughter echoed around the crowd. 

Hermione looked up at the Dark Lord and scowled. Damn him!! He bloody knew that she could never hurt a house elf. Dilly had helped her. Had probably been punished terribly for it. Dilly had at least tried to save His life. This was wrong.   
And yet was there any other choice but to kill Dilly, who would probably throw herself into death if she thought Hermione wanted it.   
Killing Ron or... god.. killing Rodolphus, in order to Save Dilly? 

“I’ll make it easier for you to choose, girl.” The Dark Lord smirked down at her. He released the silencio on the three. 

Dilly had already stopped trying to speak when she had been silenced before and she didn’t start now. She just smiled happily at Hermione and gave a little wave. Hermione’s heart ached. 

Ron’s harsh voice dragged her attention to him unwillingly. “What the fuck is going on, Mione?” he said acidly.   
“What are you doing here.. dressed in that getup?.. What is that fucking snake talking about?!   
Are you.. are you joining him?! You can’t be.. you’re a.. you’re..  
Tell me you’re not!! He’s just torturing you.. fucking about with us both for his own enjoyment.” 

The Dark Lord sniggered nastily. “Oh I’m afraid not, blood traitor! Although I admit I am.. enjoying.. this greatly. Hermione Granger has begged me for the dark mark. She wishes to serve me.”

“Isn’t that right, my dear?” Hermione flinched and looked down. 

She thought of Rodolphus suddenly, screaming in pain from within a silver box and it pricked her to comply. She looked up and schooled her face into blankness, hardening herself for what she knew was just about to happen. She managed to get the words out without even gritting her teeth 

“Yes, my Lord. I want to be yours. I have been blind for too long. Please ...honour me with your mark!!” 

Even though she was prepared she still flinched slightly when Ron started screeching at her, cursing her and calling her every name under the sun. She blinked and looked up at Voldemort.   
He was watching her face with obvious pleasure. 

“Well.. I think we’ve heard Mr Weasley’s case for why you should allow him to live, don’t you?” He flicked his wand, silencing Ron again, who continued to rant mutely, his face almost purple in apoplectic rage. 

She turned back to Rodolphus and he raised his dark eyes to look at her. She felt a flittery hand clench on her stomach. Rodolphus knew it too, his gaze travelled over her. 

“Even better than the lace” he murmured softly. She doubted that the room caught it. 

He then turned his head to look slowly at the red haired boy fighting ineffectually at his captor and turned back to her, a small grin on his wicked..handsome.. face.   
“I wish I could join you for it. ..but I suppose it’s only fair I have to watch you play this time.” 

Ron turned to him, his chin dropping and turned back to her, his expression shifting from disgust and rage to fear.   
He stopped struggling and stood looking at her, shaking his head urgently, mouthing “No!” at her.   
She couldn’t quite prevent the tiny smile that snuck onto her face. Rodolphus’ easy grinning wickedness was somehow so different to that of the others. She knew it was almost certainly just the blood bond influencing her. 

Oh god.. the blood bond.. Another reason why she couldn’t possibly pick him – and he knew it! If she hurt him, and killing him would almost certainly constitute hurting him, Severus had said that it would affect her too. 

Rodolphus nodded as if she had spoken aloud. “You remember what i said about choices, don’t you mudblood”   
She sighed and looked at him wearily, acceptance dawning on her face. 

“My Lord, I will take the blood traitor” she said, her voice steeled against the trembling she felt inside. 

“Excellent” the Dark Lord hissed. “I had hoped you would not disappoint me.”   
He waved his hand and the elf popped away again.   
Rodolphus nodded at her again slowly, his eyes heated, dancing over her body once more and then he too disapparated. 

The death eater holding Ron pushed him roughly forward, catching him by his arm before he could fall. He dragged him into the centre of the pit and silently cast a curse on his feet, rendering them immoveable.   
Ron had stopped fighting and was looking around himself desperately. Something clattered and bounced to the ground at Hermione’s feet. 

She looked and saw that it was a silver dagger. A familiar silver dagger. 

“Your toy, my dear. I’m sure you will wish to give us a show before you snuff him out.” 

She bent and picked up the dagger, hefting its weight thoughtfully. It hummed in her hand.. but not as strongly as it had before. She assumed it preferred a powerful wielder and with her magic bound, she was just a mudblood squib. 

Ron’s eyes were like saucers and darted between her face and the knife, seemingly trying to make sense of this new development. He was mouthing something. Well.. he was probably yelling it but silenced it looked the same.   
“hurry! Hurry!” he was mouthing. She frowned. 

She stepped closer and whispered to Ron while she held the knife up, as if explaining it.   
“look.. I’m sorry Ronald. You don’t understand. He doesn’t give choices. You just end up doing what he wants anyway.   
I have..I have to hurt you with this. If I’d picked either of the others he would have made me do this anyway somehow.   
Its always better to just do what he wants without a struggle because its the path of least suffering.   
Not just suffering for me.. suffering for everyone.   
If I do this.. it will still be better than if Malfoy does it.. or Avery.. or even Rodolphus. It will hurt.. but believe me when I say.. it could be so much worse. Malfoy would be worse.“ 

She stepped back and quickly sliced the knife down Ron’s chest. 

The boy flinched away, his mouth drawn wide in a silent scream and he started to lose his balance, pinwheeling his arms as he fell. She grabbed his hand as it whirled and dragged him back upright. He responded by punching out toward her with his fists, trying to grab her. 

“No.. Ronald.” She chided more loudly and slashed at his flailing hands, spattering blood across the floor as he flung them around.   
He pulled them in protectively and looked at them, hurt, but there were of course no marks. Then he looked up at her quizzically. 

Tentatively he extended a hand palm up and she slowly sliced the knife across it, while he winced. He watched as the cut closed itself and looked back up at her startled. 

“You see now how it works?” she murmured. He nodded unhappily. He mouthed something complex at her but she couldn’t make it out. Something about hurrying again. She shook her head uncomprehendingly and he blinked, his eyes filling with tears.   
Stepping close again, putting herself in reach of his arms she raised the knife to his collarbone.   
He took a deep breath and then lowered his hands to his sides resignedly. 

She smiled, relieved, and began to slice into him - drawing red lines over his body. Wandering around him in a circle, painting him in his own blood as it dripped down, creating patterns in it.   
He didn’t fight her now. He jerked away a little from time to time and winced. Tears fell from his eyes silently but he didn’t sob or appear to cry out. He just.. took it.   
She was grateful. 

She reached down and started to cut the boxer shorts off him and at that he raised his hands defensively, catching her eye in fear.   
It seemed he was pleading with her when he shook his head, his eyes wide again. “Please” his mouth formed the word over and over again. “Please mione”   
She swallowed and continued to remove the shorts. After a few seconds he dropped his hands again and lowered his head, looking down at the ground, fat tears rolling down his cheeks. 

She tossed the black fabric off to the side and inspected Ron’s body. They had never gotten beyond a kiss or two in the snow before he had gone off with Lavender who obviously gave him what she wasn’t ready to give.   
She had seen him shirtless before; when they were living in the tent Harry and Ron would often lie about like that.   
But she had never seen him naked. She looked him over with interest. 

He was smaller than Lucius. About an inch probably. Although she supposed Ron was average. It would be unfair to compare anyone to the Dark Lord or Severus or Rodolphus.   
As if her gaze had stroked fingers over him his cock started to harden slightly. She looked up at Ron’s face, startled and amused.   
He was blushing bright red. His hands were clenched in tight fists and he was shaking. 

She raised the knife and waved it a bit, reminding him of what they were doing right now. 

He closed his eyes in shame and wrapped his arms around himself, spreading his blood around in the process.   
His cock was quite hard now and stood out from his body slightly. 

She heard the Dark Lord laughing and whirled to look up at him. “Oh Hermione.. your torture just doesn’t seem to provoke the requisite terror and suffering in men, does it?” he seemed greatly amused, his smile wide and indulgent. “even the blood traitor.. who knows you are going to kill him, wants you to cut him.. just a little more..   
I wonder if he would beg for it, if I released his voice. Shall we see?” 

He pointed his wand at Ron and she could hear him whimpering slightly now. His arms wrapped tightly around himself, head bowed, his cock like an iron rod. 

“Ron?” she said softly. He looked up, still blushing red. “m-mione.. I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I-I don’t know why I’m..I’m ”   
he closed his eyes again and ducked his head, his hands coming up and covering his face. 

Laughter echoed round the chamber as the collected death eaters all obviously found this a fantastic comedy.   
Someone yelled out “cut im some more, mudblood!!” Ron flinched and his cock twitched. 

She blinked, honestly surprised at this development. “Is that what you want, Ron?   
She stepped closer, slicing the knife in a thin line under his nipple. He gasped. She let the blade trail down the side of his ribs, barely breaking the surface of his skin, down onto his hips.   
As she veered away from his groin onto the side of his thigh she thought she heard him groan softly.   
“Tell me...” she pressed. “You can say it.. Tell me what you need..” 

Ron suddenly dropped to crouch on his haunches, wrapping his arms around his knees and pressing his face down, hiding. “Please stop!” He moaned, rocking on the balls of his feet slightly. 

“Oh now, that won’t do” the Dark Lord chided and Hermione watched Ron pulled roughly upward, his arms stretched up above his head. His cock had deflated slightly.   
“Proceed” the cold sillibant voice hissed from behind her.   
Unable to cover his face now, Ron stared at her with wide eyes. “Please Mione.. please don’t.” His eyes took on a crazed gleam “Harry will save us! Harry will come for us!! I know it. He said he would always always come for us. You don’t need to do this. We can hold on! He’ll come!” 

Hermione felt something inside her crack. Perhaps the last of her childhood. “Ron. Harry’s dead. He isn’t ever coming back. I’m sorry.”   
Ron was shaking his head frantically. “He’s not! He’s not! I know he’s alive!” 

Hermione felt a rush of irritation and impatience now. It was better when Ron was silent. It had been almost fun for a minute there. She lashed out and sliced the knife across Ron’s abdomen quite deeply. He yelped loudly and started to cry again. 

“Just stop, Ron. Accept it. And accept this. It’s not going to stop until the Dark Lord has grown tired of you.   
Do you want him to get bored?   
I’m sure you’re not so dense that you don’t know what happens when he has had enough of this little game?” 

Ron shook his head mutely while he cried.   
She tilted her head, looking at him. 

“Will you.. will you do it..shallow.. like before? All over?.. Will you...touch me..?” He pled in a whimper. 

Hermione turned and looked up at the Dark Lord questioningly. He seemed to consider for a long moment, his eyes sweeping over the ranks of the death eaters. “Who is for letting the red headed blood traitor have his wish?” He questioned. A large chorus of aye’s rang out.   
“And who would rather watch the mudblood gut him with a real knife?” he grinned. 

A much louder collection of AYE’s echoed through the chamber. 

The Dark Lord smiled down at them both. “Alas.. Democracy in action, blood traitor!” 

He summoned an object from behind him and tossed it down to clatter on the stones heavily. 

It was another knife, but a very different knife. If the silver dagger was a rapier, this was a meat cleaver.   
It could have come from any butchery across the country, its black handle shaped to fit the hand. The blade was long, thick and glinted sharply at its edge. It was a knife for cutting meat. No finesse required. 

She looked down at it and gulped. 

Instead of putting down her silver dagger she reached over her shoulder and tucked it between her shoulderblades into the back of her bra. She didn’t want to lose it again. A murmur of approval hushed through the room. 

She bent slowly and picked up the knife, looking up at the Dark Lord as she rose. He was smiling maliciously 

“Show me your loyalty, Hermione!” he said quite softly. She felt her heart sink and turned to look at Ron pinioned helplessly, his eyes so wide she could see the whites all around the blue irises.   
He shook his head slowly, almost in disbelief. He didn’t say anything though, just watched her as she came closer.   
When she was a bare arms length away she stopped and raised the knife, trying to stop her hand from shaking. 

“I-I’m sorry Ron..” she whispered. 

The pop of apparition only centimetres away from her on her left side startled her. An unknown masked wizard stood there and she was so surprised she just blinked at him stupidly as he reached out and shoved his fingers down the front of one of the cups of her bra and then removed them again.   
She was about to react, irrationally enough, and hit him for groping her when the pull of a portkey gripped her intestines and jerked her away.

 

 

She reeled, falling to her knees and gagging in nausea.   
Clearly she had travelled a long way then. 

Ugh.. she felt like she had been punched in the stomach. A familiar sound indicated another portkey and a body landed heavily on the floor behind her. She heard spitting and then vomiting as a third crash cast another body down, but this one landed on its feet it seemed. 

She looked around and stared blearily, uncomprehending, at Draco slapping Ron on the back, who was on his knees on the dusty wooden floor retching the contents of his stomach out. 

“Fuck, Malfoy.. did you have to put it in my bloody mouth?! He spat. Draco smirked arrogantly. 

“I couldn’t reach your hand Weasley. There were two orifices available. I thought you’d prefer this one. “ 

Hermione gaped. Draco looked up at her, his eyes narrowed “Merlin’s maggot infested balls, Granger, what the hell happened to you there? What in Hades was that?! You were there.. what.. a month and a half?   
I know my father is a sadistic bastard – he told me all about you.. but fuck! How did you become... this?! You were looking at the snake faced rat like you wanted to carry his bloody lizard eggs.” 

Ron just sat on the floor and looked at her, shaking, his eyes still wide. There was a faint buzzing sound from Draco.   
He stiffened. “Damn. Not far enough. Take these. He reached into his pocket and drew out three coloured marbles.   
He dropped one in front of Ron, who snatched at it as if it were water in the desert. 

Hermione looked up at him as Draco stomped over to her, offering her the blue marble. “Take it! I want to see you go before I use mine. For some reason I don’t trust you to use it. You look like you might just hang about here and wait for them to come find you.” He shook his head wonderingly again. 

Hermione had been thinking of doing just that.   
It was good that Ron had escaped but the best thing she could do for him would be to get very far away from him so that the Dark Lord wouldn’t take him back when he eventually found her.   
She knew though that if she didn’t take the marble, Draco would just stun her and put it in her clothing again and it was better to be awake right now. 

She took the marble from Draco and when he mumbled an activating charm she was tugged away again. 

They portkeyed four more times after that, not even waiting to see if the device Draco had would buzz. 

They only stopped because all three of them were vomiting on the floor after the last jump. Hermione rolled away from her own stomach acid and lay on her back, staring up at a wooden ceiling with thick black stained beams. 

“Where are we?” she muttered, exhausted. 

“That’s need-to-know, Granger. And you don’t.” Draco responded petulantly. He sat up and pulled a device out of his pocket.   
He stared at it suspiciously and then turned to look at her paranoia written on his face. “What’s that necklace you’re wearing? Some kind of tracker? How do they keep finding us?” 

She shrugged. “I don’t think so. It just blocks my magic. He’s probably using Rodolphus somehow.“ 

This information caused the two boys to look at each other in confusion.   
Ron didn’t seem to be able to talk to her at all, he just turned his eyes away uncomfortably. 

“I heard that the dungeon master had done something with you to piss the Dark Lord off. Why would he be able to find you? And why did the Dark Lord go to the trouble to make you a squib – why would he do that and then want to initiate you?   
Or did you really beg for it? What is going on Granger?” 

Hermione looked at them both unhappily. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters, really. But he’s going to keep coming. He isn’t going to stop. Ever. Trust me. He will follow us to the ends of the earth at this point – and you probably really ticked him off by ruining his fun and showing him up in front of his Death Eaters.   
If you both just leave me here.. if you keep running and you hide well.. maybe I can persuade him to ..” 

She sighed. “No probably not I guess. Why couldn’t you have just grabbed Ron and run?! You don’t know what a world of bloody pain you’ve brought upon the both of you by taking me. “ 

Draco gaped. “What the blazes are you talking about?! The only reason Ron let himself get captured in the first place was in the hopes of getting the Dark Lord to bring you out where we could reach you.” 

The device in front of him suddenly buzzed loudly. “Fuck!.. I’m running out of portkeys here. We can only jump three more times and then it’s down to apparition and if you can’t apparate, Granger.. I’m not sure how far we’re going to get.” 

He dragged himself to his feet and stalked over to Hermione, fumbling through his pocket and pulling out a paperclip.   
He pressed it into her hand and muttered the charm. She let herself go limp, uncaring where she might land. 

When Draco and Ron had arrived Draco didn’t waste any time looking at the device he had, instead he pulled out a galleon and pressed his wand to it. 

Hermione perked up and looked at him with interest. “Whose is that?” she asked curiously. 

“the Edgecomb bint” Draco ground out through gritted teeth. 

After a few minutes in which Draco paced anxiously and Ron stared into the distance, avoiding looking at either of them, Draco reacted and looked at the galleon in his hand. “We’re going home” he announced grimly.   
Ron looked around hopefully. 

Hermione wondered where home was. Almost certainly not Malfoy manor or the Burrow. The Burrow had been destroyed over a year ago now. 

Draco dug around in his pockets just as the device in his pocket started to buzz again, and pulled out a cork with three pins stuck in it. He walked over to Hermione and when she reached out for the portkey he jammed it into the fleshy part of her palm.   
She pulled her hand back reflexively and looked up at him in shock. “Wait for it” he grumbled. 

The pin in her palm suddenly grew hot and she felt the clenching pull of the portkey but it was different somehow. It felt like being wrapped in some kind of thick insulating gel. She couldn’t move.   
When she landed, hard, on the grass outside a house, she felt dizzy and the world continued to spin even though she had stopped moving. 

“Ugh..” Draco groaned from somewhere on her left. 

“I really... really.. hate that” she heard Ron say and felt a smile break out on her face. He sounded so.. Ron. 

She opened her eyes again and looked up. The sky was blue and small clouds floated over head. She could smell freshly mown grass. There were birds.. somewhere.. over there.. It was like heaven. 

Her view of the sky was suddenly interrupted by a head with messy black hair and glasses. She blinked. 

“Harry??!” She whispered, stunned. “You’re dead! Am I dead too? Is that why it’s so nice here?”   
A sickening sense of unreality had descended over her. She wondered whether the pin Draco had given her was poisoned. Perhaps she was dying on the bare slats vomiting and talking in her delirium. 

Harry looked serious.   
“Mione.. I’m sorry. I need to talk to Ron and Draco. Don’t worry. You’re safe here. You just have to sleep for a little while.” 

She startled as Harry raised his wand against her and a red flash made everything fade away.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delay - i've been away on holiday

She looked around and it was dark. Dark dark dark everywhere. 

She felt neither hot nor cold but was filled with a terrible aching emptiness and fear. She realised she was naked and tried to cover herself up.   
Without warning, arms reached around her, taking her by the wrists and uncovering her and she whirled her head around trying to see who it was. Rodolphus pressed his body against her back.. wrapping his own arms around her middle and laying his head next to hers. 

“Don’t panic, pet. Its only me.” 

And indeed she was overwhelmingly relieved. She turned in his arms and threw her arms around him, laying her head against his chest. 

“Help! I dont know where I am!” she whimpered.   
He turned his face toward hers, leaning his cheek against her forehead and gravelling softly “Shhh... I know.. They took you. I’ve been chasing you all night. But now I can’t find you. You feel scattered. What happened?” 

She thought about what she last remembered. “Harry’s alive!” she blurted, shocked. “I saw him!”   
Rodolphus shifted against her uneasily. “Do you still care for me, pet?” he asked hollowly. “Do you want to come back to me?”   
She looked up at him. There was nothing else here in the complete dark. No light, but she could still see every feature perfectly. “Yes” she whispered. 

His tensed body softened slightly and he wrapped his arms around her more tightly. “and the Dark Lord..? Snape?” he asked. The thought hit her like a hammer. Oh no! Tom would be so worried! She had to go home! She said she wouldn’t leave him alone.   
“Tom..” Rodolphus snorted amused, his lips twisting into a grin. “Oh he’ll just love it when I get to call him that when I tell him about this.” Hermione scowled, but she found it a little amusing too.   
“Tell him I’m sorry. I couldn’t get away. Draco made me take the portkeys first. I dont know where I am.   
I.. think I’m ok. ....Harry... stupefied me.” 

She didn’t know how she felt about anything right now. How was Harry alive? Did the Dark Lord know? She scoffed.   
Of course he knew. He knew everything. He always knew. So clearly he’d lied to her, blatantly, repeatedly.   
God she was an idiot. 

“Did he really take me at the battle?” she asked Rodolphus. The vampire hesitated. 

After a tense minute he answered. “The Dark Lord has given me permission to tell you the truth, in light of the fact that saint Potter will no doubt try to twist you around to his perspective..” 

“There was no battle for Hogwarts.”   
“The Dark Lord drew the order to Hogsmeade, warded the township in and then took Hogwarts without a fight. Not a single student died inside the grounds.” 

“You were among the order at Hogsmeade. Most of them escaped with portkeys but he had sent a whole cadre after you. That much is true.   
Your portkey failed. Avery took you. The Dark Lord modified your memory slightly, changing the location of the skirmish to Hogwarts grounds.   
He lied about the end of the battle. He never met Potter. The Dark Lord was not even present, he was at Hogwarts in the headmaster’s chambers at the time.   
The teachers that remained at the school and did not go to the fight are teaching still but the school is sealed and no one may enter or leave until the remaining aurors and members of the order are rounded up.” 

Hermione listened. She felt..disappointed. She should be ecstatic.. relieved.. jubilant that Harry was alive.. that Ron ..and who knew how many others were all alive and well.. that the light had apparently not fallen.. There was still hope..  
Instead she felt a strange dull disappointment.   
The Dark Lord had lied to her about..everything.. 

“The ministry fell – The country is under the Dark Lord’s control. He has signed agreements with the governing bodies of the wizarding world across Europe and the Americas. They have recognised him as the legitimate ruler of the United kingdom. “ Rodolphus stopped.   
He nuzzled her.. “I can’t smell you, pet.”   
He snaked out his tongue and traced the corner of her eye up to her eyebrow. “can’t taste you..   
If you can’t get away from them you’re going to get sick.” 

She clutched at him more tightly. “How long?” he was silent.   
“How long, Rodolphus?” she asked more firmly. 

“A few weeks” he muttered grimly. “Perhaps a month at most” 

She began to feel strange. Her fingers felt numb.   
“What’s happening” she whispered. Rodolphus looked at her sadly. 

“They’re waking you. I can’t hold you here. Be strong pet. Like you were in the initiation. Don’t let them turn you around. Remember the ones you love. Remember me too.” She felt him melting away, her hands clutching at nothing. 

 

 

Hermione turned and felt hands shaking her roughly. “wha?” she cracked her eyes and peered up at angry faces. 

Unexpected faces.   
Kingsley Shacklebolt was shaking her, wearing a hard expression. Behind him stood Arthur Weasley, Draco, Harry and Moody.   
Harry looked concerned and a bit disbelieving. Draco, in contrast, looked guarded and afraid, as if she would leap up and strangle him at any second. The others wore hard and resolute expressions.. 

She looked down and realised that the leather underwear she had arrived in were gone and she was wearing a tight white cotton singlet and skintight black stretch boxers. Comfortable enough but thin and revealing.   
She felt even more vulnerable than she had in the leather kit. A voluminous flannel nightdress would have been nicer.   
Or a robe. Or jeans or or.. 

“wh-what’s going on?” she asked quietly. 

“Why don’t you tell us, Miss Granger”, moody tossed at her. “Young Malfoy and Ronald Weasley have told us a lot of disturbing things and we need to know how you came to be in an initiation ceremony before you know who, about to plunge a blade into your best friends gut. Start at the beginning!” 

Hermione gulped and looked from face to face. There didn’t seem to be any possibility of evasion on any of them.   
Harry was looking at her strangely.   
It felt like a physical pain inside her to realise that all those times she’d felt like she was betraying him and told herself it didn’t matter because he was dead, he actually wasn’t and she really was. The weight of it was suffocating.   
She’d kissed.. far more than kissed in fact.. the Dark Lord. She’d saved his life! She’d healed him! He was now far stronger than before and it was her fault.   
She’d.. oh god.. Ginny. She couldn’t tell them. She couldn’t. They’d never understand any of it. Not even Rodolphus.   
She was doomed. She would be thrown in a cell and left to die in a month. 

She shook her head numbly. 

“It wasn’t a request Miss Granger. You are going to tell us everything that happened since the battle of Hogsmeade. These saps think that you’ll just open up and talk and there’ll be a reasonable explanation for everything. I’d rather give you veritaserum now – it will save time when we eventually catch you out in a lie.”   
Hermione’s eyes widened. 

“I can’t!.. I can’t.. Don’t make me!” she pled desperately. Looks were exchanged among the men.   
“I thought Harry was dead! I thought everyone was dead! He told me all about how he killed you Harry.. he showed me bodies.. I thought the world had ended!” 

Moody stepped forward. “Right, I’ve heard enough of this. Hold her down Shacklebolt.” 

Hermione panicked and rolled away from him, leaping up and off the end of the bed, skirting the wall around Arthur, who was standing there shocked and unreactive.   
She got to the door and pulled on it frantically but ineffectually before spinning and putting her back against it, wide eyed. 

“Just let me go! Please! I’ll die here! Or worse.. He’ll use me to find this place.” 

These suggestions seemed to shake everyone in the room except Draco who gestured in a very ‘I told you so’ manner.   
“It’s too late to save her, Potter” he sneered. “You’d be better to put her down. Merlin knows why the Dark Lord wants her back so badly. The whole town is overrun with death eaters already”   
“Malfoy!” Arthur hissed angrily.   
Harry looked around at the others and then back at Hermione. “Oh Mione..” he sighed. “Please.. talk to me.. help me understand what’s happened. I’m sorry! – I couldn’t get to you sooner. But it can’t be that bad.. it can’t be.   
Tell me what he’s done and we’ll find a way to fix it.” 

Draco looked at him like he was insane. “You can’t fix her! Are you mad?! You didn’t see it! I’m serious – she just took every curse we threw at her in silence. Not a whimper. Burning, branding, flaying, whipping, I cruciated her and she didn’t so much as squeak.   
And the things she said to the Dark Lord.. She sliced the weasel up and enjoyed it. Get a pensieve – I’ll show you the damned memory! It’s too late for Granger, Potter. Look at her eyes! She looks like aunt Bellatrix!” 

Hermione wrinkled her forehead at that, hurt. She looked like Bellatrix Lestrange? No she didn’t! That was just cruel.   
She was nothing like Bellatrix.   
Well.. ok. Apart from the obsessive and probably irrational affection for the lying, psychopathic, horribly attractive Dark Lord perhaps.   
But otherwise not!   
She let herself slide down the door till she was braced against it, her knees against her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, looking back at the men in the room despairingly. 

“I’m not like her! You’re more like her than I am Draco. You were the one cursing me. You used the unforgiveable.   
He told me that if I made a sound he’d kill... someone..I didn’t want to die. So I stayed silent.. no matter what.   
And that knife belonged to your father before he gave it to me. He cut me into bloody ribbons with it.   
I’m not going to tell you what he wanted to do with it but the few little paper-cuts I gave Ron were nothing. I didn’t even try to really hurt him.”   
“I had to do it.. he told me to do it..   
if I didnt...  
“Look!.. sometimes resisting is noble and the higher road.. but sometimes you just can’t win. It’s better not to make it any worse than it is! I learned that there.   
Remus told me not to be noble. He said to choose my skin over my pride. He looked like he knew from experience.” 

Harry seemed to jump at the mention of Remus. “You saw him? When? How was he? Where was he?” 

She grimaced. “I saw him a few days after I woke up there. I don’t know where he was. The Dark Lord took me to see him. It was night. The woods somewhere. He is part of Fenrir Greyback’s pack now.. or he was. He looked rough. Afraid. He hugged me. He told me not to try to help him.”   
She winced, remembering Ginny again. 

As if demons of inspiration had tapped him on the shoulder Harry asked now hesitantly “and Ginny? Did you see Ginny? Ron and Draco were looking for her too but they didn’t see her” 

Hermione shook her head frantically. “No! no! I didn’t see her! I don’t know!” She ducked her head into her knees and clutched herself tightly. 

She jumped a foot when she felt a hand on her shoulder and glanced up to find Harry was kneeling beside her. 

“It’s ok! You’re safe, Mione. Nobody is going to hurt you here.”   
In the background she saw Moody and Kingsley exchange a look. Draco saw them too and looked at her uneasily, shifting from foot to foot. 

Harry was stroking her shoulder reassuringly. “I want to talk to her alone” he said quietly. The room erupted into dissention.   
“Potter! you can’t trust her” “I really think, Harry – “ “Under no circumstance” “Are you a fool, boy?!” 

Harry turned a cold eye upon them and they stilled.   
Hermione shivered. He looked..so different.. like that. Not like himself at all. He looked like.. like Tom.. 

“Leave.” Harry said quietly, and a moment later he had slipped his arms under her and behind her and scooped her up effortlessly, lifting her away from the door. 

The others all wore similar expressions of shock and disapproval but.. astoundingly.. they departed without a word of argument. 

She looked at Harry now, really looked. He seemed changed. His hair was slightly longer perhaps. It wasn’t anything obvious.   
His arms around her were strong. He seemed.. sure of himself in a way he hadn’t been when she last saw him. 

He walked to the bed, but instead of letting her down upon it, he turned and sat himself down against the wall, still holding her in his lap. Then he sighed and took his arm from under her knees, wrapping it around her and holding her close.. 

“I was so scared he’d kill you, Mione. Everyone told me you were probably dead. But I couldn’t just give up..couldn’t accept that I’d never know..   
I’m sorry it took so long. If I hadn’t been so unsure I’d have done..more.. somehow. Come up with a better plan.” 

She looked up at him uncertainly. She should feel warm and safe.. comforted.. home.. but instead she felt..scared. A low trembling terror in the pit of her stomach.   
Something was wrong with Harry. He felt.. wrong.. He felt..like Tom but..but somehow even worse – was that even possible? It was certainly a crazy thought! It was just this.. feeling.. this.. alert..panic. 

He hadn’t let her go. His hand was stroking her back now and he looked down at her with a quiet pensive seriousness. 

“Its ok, Harry” she said hollowly. “I’m sorry too. I never should have believed the lies he told me.. showed me.   
I thought at the time that it couldn’t be true. I thought.. I thought I could still feel you somehow.“ She trailed off, uneasily.   
His hand on her back had started to play with her bloody matted hair. She grimaced.   
The blood sticking her curls into hard sticky plasticky strands didnt seem to bother him at all. 

He looked at her expression. “It’s your blood, isn’t it?” 

After some hesitation she nodded. 

“Well then.. What difference does it make? Inside, outside. It’s in the same general location as it was..” He smiled as if this were amusing. She felt her insides turn to ice. 

“Harry..” 

She felt his fingers slipping through her curls to brush the back of her neck in a way she found strangely familiar.   
“Mmm?” he hummed absently. 

“What are you doing?” 

He looked down at her again, his green eyes half hooded 

“I missed you Hermione. I didn’t realise how important you were to me until you were suddenly gone.   
I’ve thought about you so often since then. ..I don’t really care what you did or how you changed there. I’m just..glad you’re back. I’m not going to let him take you again!” 

Harry’s fingers in her hair tightened and he turned her face toward him gently but firmly. His eyes were like emerald stones. Cold and glassy. There was no compassion on his face at all, just possession, desire..power. 

“Tell me you love me, Mione!” he whispered. “Tell me you’ll never leave me again! It’s all you have to do and I’ll protect you! I won’t let them interrogate you.. or hurt you at all.. I’ll keep you safe” 

Hermione’s eyes widened and the panic inside her barely restrained broke out like a wildfire. “Harry??!” she whimpered, frightened. “Please stop it.. you’re scaring me!” 

His expression darkened. “I’m scaring you? You’ve been in Voldemort’s pocket for over a month doing Merlin knows what and you’re scared of me?!” He brushed his hand over her cheek, sweeping aside her hair. Then he looked at it with a mild frown of irritation and flicked his fingers. She felt a cleaning charm streak through it, the strands falling back glossy and healthy.   
Wandless magic.   
Harry couldn’t even cast silently when she had left.. What had happened to him?!   
She was once again acutely aware of her current squib status. Harry was acting very strangely and he was also very powerful. Everyone here seemed to obey him. It was all disturbingly familiar.   
She had to get out of here.   
More immediately – she had to not tick him off if she could possibly manage it. 

“Don’t worry, Mione. I’m not ‘ticked off’ with you. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not Him.” 

Hermione stiffened as if someone had inserted a steel rod in her spine. Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god. How?!..   
She tried not to think but she had never managed to not think around Voldemort so how the hell would she do it now. 

“Why did he bind your magic, Mione?” Harry asked softly. 

Internally she screamed and tried to think of something else. Counting.. adding numbers. She focused on adding numbers trying to ignore the small amused smile Harry wore as he looked down at her placidly. 

“You forgot to carry the one there. “ he interjected eventually.   
She switched to songs, trying to calm herself. 

“What happened to Ginny, Mione” Harry suddenly said. She jolted in his arms, which clamped down on her tightly, preventing her from moving away.   
‘Dead’ her mind screamed. ‘deaddeaddead!’   
She fought against him frantically and he restrained her 

“Shhh shhhh shhh... remember that time we had marshmallows over the fire when we were camping? After Ron left? Just before my birthday you apparated into that town and almost got caught and we ended up with nothing but sweets. And I had never had marshmallows before. You showed me how to put them on a stick and roast them?” Harry’s voice was soothing. She thought of that night. It had been a good night. They had both taken off the stupid locket for a few minutes and hung it on a branch where they could see it. It felt like a weight was lifted off them. Harry had looked at her and his eyes were so bright. 

Hermione was dragged back to the present. Harry’s hands had started stroking her again, calming her. She wasn’t sure it was just his voice and hands. She felt.. unusually.. peaceful and relaxed.   
He’d cast something behind her back. Almost certainly.   
Knowing that didn’t change anything thought. She felt.. almost bonelessly relaxed, sliding down against Harry’s chest.   
He bent his head down and kissed her on the tip of her nose. 

“I’m sorry, Mione. I didn’t want to upset you like that. Let’s go back to why Voldemort bound your magic” 

She wanted to fight but suddenly she just didn’t have the energy for it anymore. She felt warm and relaxed and Harry was holding her so close. She whispered. “You’re not going to stop, are you?!” and she wasn’t sure anymore what she meant. That he wasn’t going to stop asking her questions till he had all the answers he wanted or that he wasn’t going to stop holding her.. keeping her here.. touching her. 

“What do you think?” he murmured back, leaning down and brushing his lips against hers fleetingly.   
Somehow it was even more illicit than..   
the thought loomed up in her mind like a tidal wave of danger. Harry would find out. he would know what she had done!!! Harry brushed his lips against her again and she felt him smile.   
“I know that already Mione... I felt it when he ..touched you” He kissed her lightly..   
“when he kissed you..” He kissed her again, a little harder this time, more insistently.   
“When he tasted you”.. He kissed her hard, nipping her bottom lip at her lack of response and thrusting his tongue in her mouth when she gasped; exploring her thoroughly and stroking his wet hot tongue against her own. 

She felt too many emotions at once. She wanted to struggle but it didn’t seem to be one of her body’s options right now. 

Harry’s hand smoothed up her jaw and buried itself in her hair. He continued to kiss her, slowly.. hungrily. She felt an insistent alarm of terror within her. Harry was lowering them both to the bed, sliding out from under her to lie alongside her.   
She felt warm and limp and helpless. He released her lips only to trail kisses over her jaw and onto her throat. If she closed her eyes she could almost... 

“No! You won’t pretend I’m Him!” Harry drew back and growled at her. “He can’t have you, Mione. You were mine first.” 

Harry’s face looked dark and forbidding. He really.. really.. looked a lot like Tom. Pale.. black hair..   
if his eyes were red they could be brothers. 

“Why did you say you’ll die if you stay here?” Harry asked her unexpectedly. Her eyes widened. Rodolphus! Her mind supplied helpfully. She cursed under her breath. 

“Rodolphus Lestrange?” Harry looked confused. “Bellatrix’s husband? What about him?” 

She tried to think nothing but her memories betrayed her, flicking back to that moment in the dark cell when she had been pressed so close to him and had given him permission to bite her..The feeling of his sharp teeth plunging into her throat as her orgasm washed over her.. the sensation.. the sound of him slurping and lapping at her blood like a cat. 

“Lestrange is a vampire?” Harry asked, astounded. “Voldemort let him bite you??!” 

Her bloody fool mind complied again. Idea after idea trailing on in an irritating stream. 

“No.. he didnt know.. He was angry with you. He wants to kill Rodolphus. Rodolphus was the one you tried to save at the initiation.. Rodolphus is how he’ll find you here.” Harry grinned and almost looked like the boy he had once been.   
“Thats ..useful to know. Thanks.”   
He leaned down again, stretching his arm out on the bed and resting his head on his hand. With his other hand he trailed a finger down her throat slowly.. down further.. over her breast.. He curved back and circled around her nipple over and over until it reacted, standing up.   
“I always wanted to see your breasts, Mione. To touch you.. But..well.. I guess it just seemed like.. you were Ron’s girl and I was supposed to date Ginny. It wouldn’t have been right.   
Now though.. Now Ginny’s gone and Ron’s ..well..you saw him. He’s weak. Its right that you should be with me. It should have been this way from the start.   
Ginny was weak too. Did you know that she cheated on me while we were hunting Voldemort’s horcruxes?   
I knew she was a bit fast when I first considered dating her.. but she was always so..googly-eyed at me that I thought she’d never risk sleeping around. She slept with Dean, Seamus, Blaine, Cade...probably others I don’t know of” 

Harry’s hand palmed her breast and squeezed gently. 

“You wouldn’t do that, would you, Mione? You never gave it to Ron, I know that.   
It seems you didn’t give it to your vampire either ...Did you give it to Voldemort I wonder?” 

Hermione flinched and closed her eyes, thinking about nursery rhymes, repeating twinkle twinkle little star. 

Harry’s hand slid over her body to her other breast and cupped it. He stroked her perked nipple with his thumb and then pinched it ever so gently between thumb and forefinger.   
She swallowed fearfully and tried to remain still. It was almost ...safer.. when he was preoccupied with her body. At least then he wasn’t interrogating her. 

“Oh this isn’t interrogation, Mione. This is... “ he hesitated and smiled a small, unsettling little smile. “This is just me getting to know you again after we’ve both changed so much.”

She felt a cold shiver rise up her spine and tried hard not to move a muscle. Harry’s finger had wandered down off her breast and was meandering down her abdomen, feeling each rib – they were more prominent than they had been when last she’d looked in a mirror.   
He scratched his nails lightly over her abdominal muscles and she flexed them automatically. Harry smiled.   
His fingers wandered lower and she heard herself whimper fearfully. His hand was skating over her mons, down lower.. to her inner thigh. “Hermione..” he said thickly, his voice betraying his lust. “I want you.. “   
His eyes slid up her body back to her face, taking in the fear there. “Tell me you want me too.” he murmured and there was somehow a vague threat there. 

She felt her heart racing. Her lower lip trembled and she bit it, trying to stay calm, trying to force her body not to shake in fear.   
He raised himself slightly, leaning in and tilting his head to place his mouth at her ear. His hot breath tickled and made her shiver. She felt his fingers trailing back up her inner thigh toward her sex. 

“Tell me you want me more than Him” Harry breathed into her ear. 

She felt terror clamp down on her innards again and Harry’s fingers were sliding over her pussy through the thin material of the boxers, teasing at her slit. There was something.. incestuous about it. Harry.. Harry was Harry. 

“You think of me as a brother, Mione?” he whispered at her ear and then licked it. She felt her face heat in something between shame and anger.   
“Stop!” she said with more strength than she felt inside her at this moment. She felt Harry smile against her neck and suck a place just behind her ear that made her feel.. funny.. it was kind of nice.   
His fingers were pressing more insistently at her pussy.   
“Make me..” he sighed into her ear.   
He chuckled “Oh that’s right.. you can’t right now, can you? Why are you a squib right now, Mione? Why did he bind your magic?” 

And like that, the thought rose up automatically. She couldn’t push it back, couldn’t shift her attention elsewhere. Her mind answered the question. ‘Because I’m a conduit and he’s worried I’ll kill him - or worse: ruin his pretty face.’ 

Harry jerked back as if stung and looked at her with wide, serious eyes. “What does that mean? A conduit? What? How will you kill him? What pretty face?” 

The Dark Lord’s rejuvenated face flashed through her mind unbidden.   
Harry blinked, stunned. “He looks like that now? How? You did that? How, Mione? What did you do?!” 

Hermione gave up. There was no point in even trying to keep Harry out. He was almost worse than the Dark Lord. 

“I thought of it, Harry. That’s all. I just thought of it and it happened. How will I kill him? If my magic wasn’t bound I could..theoretically.. kill him a million different ways. I could probably make it so he never existed in the first place, if I tried hard enough.”   
“A conduit means that I channel raw magic through myself. It’s extremely rare.   
Only a few cases in thousands of years rare.   
People who can do it tend to be killed before they can.. well.. destroy reality. I can almost understand why now. Its.. tempting.. to do whatever you want.” 

“Voldemort was the only one who realised what I was and he watched me for more than a year before he finally got his hands on me. He bound me almost as soon as my ability started to manifest.   
I had...   
...it was a strange day.. Severus had legilimated me and he gave me some kind of drug for the pain i gather but it made me a little.. drunk I suppose. And then later Voldemort gave me a snake and I did something to it. He was very excited and wanted me to do it again but instead I made him look like his young self permanently.   
He told me later that after I had done it I said I preferred his other face. He was afraid I would accidentally make him look like.. like “snakeface” again. Then he had someone torture me to see if i could use my ability intentionally and when I did and managed to free myself, he bound my magic in case I decided to use it against him.” 

“And if anyone else finds out I can do this... Moody or Kingsley or probably even Arthur, I don’t know about Draco but probably him too – if they find out, they’ll kill me, Harry. Immediately! Any pureblood would. It’s something they’re terrified of! Someone who can manipulate raw magic is essentially invincible.” 

She smiled sadly.   
“provided of course they can access their magic at all. But they won’t mind that. The slightest chance that anyone could ever free me would be too much risk for them.   
If you want me dead, go ahead – tell them. Watch what happens.” 

Harry frowned at her. “Severus?” he asked obliquely. 

Hermione blinked at him astounded. That was the point he’d focus on? THAT?! 

She growled. “yes. Severus. Professor Snape. The potions master. He was there, you know. “   
She turned her head away in irritation. 

Harry held her chin gently and turned her back. “Ok.. forget Severus.” He stared down at her and his eyes clouded briefly with different emotions. “It doesn’t matter, Hermione. I won’t tell them. They’ll never find out. And you don’t really need your magic. Not really. You can just focus on fields that don’t require it. It won’t ever change how I feel about you. I’ll always protect you. I’ll.. I’ll always love you, Mione.“ 

She felt a host of different emotions sock her with that simple phrase. It was so familiar. Comforting. Harry had told her he loved her dozens of times before.. but he hadn’t meant it..like this.. at least she hadn’t thought so then. She thought he meant it like she meant it - as a friend, as a sibling.. 

“I’m not your brother.. I never was” he said softly.   
“I always loved you like this. But now.. now I want you to love me back” his eyes hardened slightly.   
“You’ll stay here, Mione. I’ll keep him away. I’ll deal with the vampire and then he won’t be able to find you. You’ll be safe. You can work on..potions.. or runes or something. Whatever you like.” 

He leaned over her again but further this time, bracing his fist on the bed at the other side of her head and swung his leg over her thighs, pulling himself up to straddle her. “I know how to make sure nobody hurts you now” 

She froze, staring up at him wide eyed. His hand darted out and captured her left wrist.   
She struggled against him weakly, her mind panicking again, as he forced her arm out into a curve above her head and held it there with one hand while she pulled at it with all her strength.   
His other hand reached into his robe and drew a wand from his pocket. 

He grinned.   
“not everything works wandlessly”

he gestured with the wand and for a second he looked like younger Harry, before his eyes hardened again and he turned his attention to her arm.   
He pressed his wand to the inside of her wrist and she struggled as if he were about to cut her hand off. 

Her mind was shrieking. Oh god! No! NO! This can’t be real. No.. he’s not going to. He can’t. Nobody can except... 

“I can” Harry said softly. “but it only works if you accept it”   
His lips thinned and his expression grew cold.. cruel.. 

She did scream then. She screamed for someone.. anyone to help her. 

“They can’t hear you. Silencing ward, you know?”   
Harry leaned down, his face inches away from her own and growled at her threateningly. “Accept it, Mione. Take my mark. You were going to take His. Take mine instead.   
I love you. I’ll always protect you. I won’t hurt you like he would.   
All you have to do is ask for it.. just five words. – I want your mark Harry. I won’t make you beg for it, like He would have. You don’t even have to ask – just say ‘give me your mark, Harry’. It’s easy.   
You can do it Mione. And then it’s all over. We can go and have lunch and you can take a shower and I’ll show you around the place.“ 

Hermione shook her head frantically.   
“No.. please.. Stop, Harry! Please don’t do this.. you’re not.. You’re not like this..” 

Harry growled and looked up at the ceiling in exasperation. He seemed to think for a while.   
He scowled at the thought, whatever it was. 

“Do you want the vampire to live?   
You would have taken His mark for the vampire, right? If you take mine, I’ll give you my oath that I’ll bring Lestrange here and let him live.   
Otherwise I’ll have to lock you up and lure him here and kill him, in order to keep you alive.” 

Hermione clenched her eyes shut. Harry was.. worse.. than Voldemort. Worse still because he was Harry.. he had always been her prototype for goodness, bravery, honor. This was horrible. 

“Take it or leave it, Mione. It’s my best offer.” 

For some reason her mind flashed back to the day she came back from wherever her mind had been in the cells. Lying in the tall grass, little clouds floating overhead and Tom frantically embracing her, offering her lions and griffins if she just didn’t leave him again.   
Learning that Severus had poisoned himself and was dying while they sat there. The expression on Tom’s face.. so.. forlorn.. despairing. 

“What was that?” Harry asked, bemused. “Was that really Him?” He looked like he was trying to make sense of financial news written in sanscrit.   
“He.. He seemed.. sad..” Harry said uncertainly. “What happened?” 

Hermione looked up at him.   
She felt sad right now..looking at this Harry. Maybe that was why the memory had jumped into her head. 

“He thought he was going to lose everyone he loved” she said very softly. 

Harry glared at her, his eyes glinting. “Voldemort doesn’t love, Hermione. He doesn’t care for anyone but himself.” Hermione blinked at him and shifted her eyes away, turning her head to stare at the featureless wall in this empty little box of a room.   
It was like her cell, she realised, this room. It occurred to her that she could just go away again. Retreat back inside and forget all about how terrifying Harry had become and how Tom had lied to her about everything and everyone else just wanted to torture her or drug her for information. 

A ringing slap brought her back to the moment. 

“Hermione! Pay attention!” Harry growled at her. Harry had slapped her! She looked up at him looming over her, feeling shocked and wanting to burst into tears.   
He leaned down over her and his expression was cold and threatening and absolutely without mercy. 

“You are mine now.   
I don’t want you thinking about him anymore and you are not going to have any kind of mental breakdown either.   
You ARE going to take my mark one way or another.   
I’m offering you your bloody vampire. That offer is only good for the next five minutes.   
Don’t imagine that anyone is going to come and take you away from here either. They won’t ever find the way in and I’m not going to let you go.” 

“If you refuse my generous offer now, I will leave this room and when I come back it will be with Lestrange and you will watch me torture him until you beg for my mark.   
Do. You. Understand?!” He growled out the question from an inch away from her lips. 

She felt suddenly entirely empty. Harry really was Lord Voldemort reincarnated somehow. Only worse.   
Rodolphus would get along fine with him, he’d know exactly what the story was already. Do as I say now, before I make you scream and sob and beg for the opportunity to do it. 

She nodded slowly.   
“Ok Harry. I’m sorry. Please will you give me your mark?” She whispered tonelessly. 

Harry smiled as if the sun had come out from behind a very, very, dark black ominous thundercloud and kissed her lightly on the lips. “of course, mione. All you had to do was ask!” 

She felt a burning stinging pain tear into her wrist like a bracelet and didn’t bother looking. The pain went on for a while and it was terrible but she breathed and looked back at Harry steadily. 

He seemed slightly impressed at her lack of reaction. 

When the pain started to abate he gripped her limp arm and pulled it toward him, inspecting the fruits of his labours.   
She could see a ring of flames circling the back of her wrist. He turned her hand over for her to see the other side. 

A shield was emblazoned on her wrist with a phoenix symbol on it. Flames flickered all around the back of the shield.   
She watched them, transfixed. They actually moved slowly, flickering and shifting like black fire. 

“Isn’t it pretty?” Harry asked, smirking faintly. “It’s a nice effect, I thought.” 

She blinked up at him and tried to force her face into something resembling a smile. 

Harry sighed. “I guess it’s too soon. Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it in time. You’ll learn to love me again like you used to, Mione. I’ll tell everyone you’re ok and that they don’t need to worry about you.   
You are ok, right? You wouldn’t hurt any of them?” 

She shook her head quickly. 

“No of course you wouldn’t. I never thought for a minute you would.” Harry’s smile was dark.   
“They worry too much.” 

He turned her hand again and brought it to his throat, wrapping his fingers around hers and pressing them as if to encourage her to choke him. The thought only crossed her mind for a second and suddenly she was wracked with pain that felt very much like the cruciatus. It faded after only a second.   
Harry continued as if nothing had happened-   
“and naturally you wouldn’t hurt me either, Mione. Silly of them to think that you might” he let her hand drop. 

She stared up at him as if he had transformed into a cobra and bitten her. 

“Interesting that you might think that.” He smiled, surprised and obviously pleased. He shifted his weight slightly and then all of a sudden it was like every part of him rapidly rushed toward the centre and she blinked wide eyed at a large black cobra with piercing green slitted eyes that coiled heavily on her abdomen, swaying hypnotically.   
A pink tongue tasted the air. Harry opened his mouth, revealing long sharp fangs. 

She remained perfectly still as his head weaved its way down toward her face.   
He brushed against her cheek and she heard him hiss above her ear. It was.. strangely familiar.   
Harry’s head reared back and he opened his mouth wider, threateningly. Not supposed to think of him Hermione remembered. She shuddered. 

“Sorry.” 

The snake Harry nodded at her and arced down again slowly, till it could flicker its pink tongue over her lips.   
On a whim she poked her tongue out and the small sharp little tongue darted out, flickering against it. It felt cold and somewhat like wet leather. She retracted her tongue again.   
The cobra butted her nose in what would probably be a playful manner if it were a kitten and not an incredibly poisonous reptile psychopath who might at any second decide to hurt her. 

The snake drew back and if snakes could laugh, she imagined that that was what this expression conveyed. 

After a few seconds Harry slid down off her onto the floor and undulated rapidly to the door where he unfolded back into human form rapidly.   
He paused, his hand on the door handle, looking back at her. 

“I’ll have someone bring you up some food in a minute and I’ll see to your room. It shouldn’t take long. Talk to you later, ok?” And just like that Harry was back to young, well-meaning, considerate Harry.   
He opened the door and swaggered out, closing it quietly behind him. 

She lay there for ten seconds or so and then got up and tried the door handle. A painful electric shock when she touched it convinced her that she would not be leaving that way anytime soon.


	24. Chapter 24

‘Rodolphus!’ she thought, urgently. I have to sleep and hopefully I can find him again. 

She threw herself back onto the bed and scratched at her wrist absently.   
The mark felt annoying. Like a constant low level thrum under her skin. She would have to commiserate with Severus and Rodolphus when she saw them. 

She frowned unhappily. 

When she saw them – IF she ever saw them again was closer to the truth.   
Harry meant what he said. He really wouldn’t let her go. Unlike the Dark Lord, he didn’t want her for her ability, he didn’t need her at all, really – which he made obvious by saying she didn’t need her magic with him. 

God.. what happened to him!? Harry was a monster! How did he get this powerful?!   
And the way he acted.. it was really like he had taken some kind of night classes with Lord Voldemort on how to be a ruthless despot. 

She had to sleep! She needed to find Rodolphus and tell him what had happened. The Dark Lord needed to know that Harry was really strong now.   
She closed her eyes and tried to relax. It didn’t do much good. The room was brightly lit, though there appeared to be no light source.   
She turned on her stomach and wrapped her head in her hands, trying to force herself to sleep. 

Tossing and turning frustratedly she jerked as if burned when she heard the door opening, and turned, wide eyed, fearing Harry had come back. 

It was Draco. 

He held a tray balanced on one hand.   
She watched him blankly, that momentary flare of terror slowly seeping away again. 

“Yeah yeah.. reduced to a house elf, I know” Draco joked uneasily closing the door after him. Hermione stared at him.   
He walked gingerly over to the bed and placed the tray on the bed and then hovered uncertainly. She could see mixed emotions flickering over his face. Fear but also ..concern.. and guilt? 

“Are you..ok, Granger?” he asked finally. 

She looked down at her wrist and turned it over to display the mark.   
Draco grabbed her hand and ripped it closer, looking at the black tattoo in disbelief. His brow furrowed in confusion and then cleared in dismayed realisation.

“Potter did this?” he choked. 

“Yeah” Hermione said tonelessly. “He... insisted.”   
Draco looked at her as if he wanted to deny the existence of the black mark on her wrist. 

“He.. wouldn’t do that.. he couldn’t do it anyway.” he muttered, floundering somewhat. 

She looked up at him with a bitter expression on her face.   
“Well I have no magic right now and I’m sure you’re not suggesting the Dark Lord popped out from under the bed and marked me with a flaming phoenix just for shits and giggles!   
Don’t you see how similarly they behave? Don’t you even look at him..them.. either of them?” 

Draco stepped away from her. “Shut up! Shut UP granger! Look.. he doesn’t crucio me when he is in a mood because his morning paper has a stupid crease or the house elf brought his tea at the wrong damn temperature.   
Harry just lets me in peace. I don’t have to torture or rape anyone. I don’t have to see my father.. or any of the things he does. Harry is fine!   
You’re making it up or you’re confused or both. You’ve been traumatised from being in that place, being around Him. Harry is good. He’ll protect you. He’ll protect us all.” 

Draco whirled around and made for the door. 

“Draco!!” Hermione called out urgently. “Please.. wait.. please?!” 

Draco stopped with his hand on the door handle, obviously very reluctantly. 

“I’m sorry! Please.. don’t leave me! Just..just for a while – stay with me? Just while I eat? Please, Draco!!” 

The blonde ducked his shoulders and hesitated for a long moment before finally turning back to her, unwillingness written all over his face. 

“Fine” he ground out “Hurry up and eat, I have things to do.”   
Hermione looked at him sadly. Draco might be the closest thing she had to a sane confidant here now that Harry was a psychopath and Ron was terrified of her and everyone else didn’t trust her as far as they could throw her.   
She moved back on the bed, dragging the tray after her in order to make room for Draco to sit down. 

He hovered uncertainly for a minute before perching on the very end of the bed, as if he might need to leap up at a moment’s notice. 

“I’m not going to do anything, you know” she informed him.   
He looked at her like as if she were an idiot. “You think I’m going to believe anything you say mudblood?! 

She startled at that word coming out of his mouth here and lowered her eyes almost automatically.   
Glancing at the food he had brought she realised she wasn’t going to touch any of it..   
Soup. Well she wasn’t eating that – too easy to poison.   
A piece of bread. She lifted the tray and sniffed at it. Veritaserum had no scent but this bread smelled faintly of caramel. A potion against sleep maybe?   
An apple. Impossible to check. There was no knife to cut it open and look for browning.   
A bottle of water lay sealed at the side of the tray. She wished she were less paranoid and could prevent herself thinking of how easy it was to repair a seal using magic. She was thirsty. 

Draco watched her and looked almost amused. 

“I guess I just have no appetite.” Hermione said tiredly. “In fact I couldn’t manage a single bite of any of this.” She leaned back against the wall unhappily. “I’m not thirsty either” she muttered. Draco reached for the tray. 

“Stay with me a little while anyway, Draco? I.. I’m just a bit.. a bit.. uncomfortable.. being by myself in here at the moment.” She looked at him pleadingly, willing him to understand. 

Draco sneered. “Well this is an interesting day. The mudblood Granger begging me to protect her from saint Potter.   
I wish there were someone I could tell about this.”   
She cast her eyes down again. 

“Granger..” Draco seemed hesitant. “Look.. you’ll be alright. At least it’s better than the Dark Lord.” 

She blinked slowly, thinking on this. After a moment she nodded hollowly, but her mouth apparently didn’t want to comply. 

“..Actually.. he wasn’t that bad to me.” 

Draco looked at her sceptically. “Stockholm, Granger?” 

Hermione shook her head. “I didn’t say he was a nice person.. but he didn’t ..force himself on me.” 

The silence was heavy and Draco looked away uncomfortably.   
Hermione continued after a while   
“He cruciated me once, for about two seconds. It sounds ridiculous but..I think... I think he was jealous. Afterward he made me apologise for.. for the thing that had apparently made him jealous. Then he put me in his bed and made me sleep and called Severus to heal me.” 

Draco gaped at her. 

“Can I see your mark?” she asked quietly. “compare it to mine?” The blond boy’s countenance darkened dramatically. 

“What good will that do?!” 

She shrugged. “None. I was just curious. Nevermind.”   
She turned her eyes away and looked at the other wall. 

“You’re.. you’re just adjusting, Granger. That’s all. You’ve forgotten what Potter’s like and after everything in the Dark Lord’s compound you’ve got your head all turned around and you’re not thinking straight.”   
Hermione just looked at him. 

“You’ll be..fine” Draco finished unconvincingly. 

Hermione responded mildly.. “I know exactly what Harry was like, Draco. He was the sweetest, most wonderful boy I ever met. I’m sure you’re right. I’ll learn to adapt to the Dark Lord Potter in time. Learn how he likes the swish and flick when he’s forcing me to go down on him. Learn what positions he prefers when he’s raping me.   
Perhaps I can manage to persuade myself in time that I love him for it.   
Incidentally..Did you know that this mark cruciates me if i think of harming him?   
Harry could give Voldemort pointers.” 

She banged her head against the wall behind her lightly, closing her eyes. Draco said nothing. 

After a while Hermione opened her eyes. Draco was hovering on the edge of the bed visibly conflicted. She sighed. 

“its ok. You don’t have to stay. Thanks for bringing me this meal. Please apologise to whoever made it for my lack of appetite. I’m sorry I upset you. I.. needed to say it to someone. Forget it, please. There’s nothing you can do anyway.   
I really recommend you don’t try.   
I don’t think this Harry is the type to tolerate dissent in the ranks.” 

Draco stood stiffly and picked up the tray, then turned and marched to the door without looking back and let himself out. 

Hermione lay back on the bed, swallowing against her dry throat. 

She closed her eyes and tried to sleep again. Lying very still and thinking of nothing was almost impossible after the events of the last days. Nevertheless, after a long time she felt herself dozing off. 

 

 

She stood in the dark again and looked around urgently. 

“Rodolphus!! Where are you!” 

The man melted into being next to her. “Here pet. Calm down! What’s wrong?”   
She flung herself at him, gripping him with arms and legs and clinging desperately, sobbing. 

“Its.. its Harry.. he’s changed. He’s –“ 

The texture of the space changed suddenly. Hermione felt it shift.. The shape of the man she was curled around had altered. She lifted her head and looked up into Harry’s emerald eyes.   
She froze, too terrified to speak or try to get away. 

“Mione.. I cant leave you alone for half an hour without you running off to another man. What am I going to do with you?!” 

Hermione uncurled her legs from around Harry’s hips and tried to push away from him but he held her in the circle of his arms   
“Stop it” he said and shook her. She stilled immediately. 

“What did you do? Where is he?” she asked, afraid of the answer.   
Harry smiled wanly.   
“He’s still here. He’s in a different space to us, wondering what happened to you. I’m going to go and talk to him now.   
I have to arrange for him to come to my base somehow, don’t I.” 

Harry released her now and she leapt back from him, backing away further, trying to get to a distance she could feel safe at.   
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned and Harry stood there. 

“You should know better, Mione. We’re in your mind. There is no real space here.   
Wait right there, I’ll come and get you when I’m done talking to him.” Harry shimmered out of focus and was gone. 

She stood alone in the absolute black, trying to wake herself up and failing. After an interminably long time Harry returned and he looked angry.   
“Looks like he doesn’t care about you after all. He refused to come here. He threatened to let you die if I didn’t return you to the Dark Lord.”   
Hermione brightened. 

Harry rolled his eyes at her. “Really? Really, Mione? You’re seriously expecting me to just let you return to the man who has wanted to kill me since before I was born and who happens to be the only person in the world for whom you constitute a magical Doomsday weapon? You’re trying to make me angry with you..here??!..” he sounded incredulous. 

A moment later he had grabbed her hand and then she felt herself falling, the ground dropping out from under her and she looked up and Harry was silhouetted against a blue sky, sitting on a broom and leaning down, gripping her hand tightly as she swung freely.   
She screamed and looked down. The ground was impossibly far away. She hung over Hogwarts quiddich pitch. It was a tiny oval below her, the stands empty and field deserted.   
She reached up with her other hand and gripped onto Harry’s hand with it too. 

“Please!! Please Harry.. I’m sorry. Please don't! Don't let me fall!!!” 

she felt her palms sweating in panic and she was starting to lose grip on Harry’s hand. She clutched tighter, desperately trying to hold on. 

Harry was leaning down over the shaft of the broom, holding on with one hand and placidly watching her struggle and flail in the air as she fought to keep grip on his other hand.   
“I’m SLIPPING!!” she screamed at him. “HELP!! Save me Harry! I’m so sorry!! I won’t do it again! PLEASE!!”   
He smiled and her fingers slipped off his hand. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she fell away from him..   
he hovered there, watching her fall. 

She felt his hand on her shoulder and turned to find herself standing in the absolute black space with him, panting and hoarse, her face streaked with tears.   
Her heart was threatening to explode out of her chest. She collapsed to her knees before him sobbing and he stood looking down on her with visible satisfaction. “You see what a bad idea it is to piss me off here?” he snorted.   
“Like to try for boiling in oil? Eaten from the inside out by rats? Dudley had a book on medieval execution methods when I was little.   
Let’s see.. what else was there.. - The brazen bull – that’s essentially roasting in an oven. Hanging, drawing and quartering was popular. I was a bit bothered by sawing.” 

Hermione fell forward retching.   
This couldn’t be real. Harry wouldn’t say these things. What had happened to him in the course of the last month?!. 

“On the other hand..” Harry was saying, in an amused tone of voice “we could use this..space.. other ways.   
She blinked and found herself lying down on top of Harry who was reclining against silk pillows. They were lying in an ornate wooden gondola on a river. The water around them was glassy and serene. Everything was tinted in orange hues and deep purples. The banks were edged in reeds and it felt private and peaceful. In the distance the sun was setting. 

She looked back at Harry. He smiled up at her, wrapping his arms around her lower back loosely.   
“Is this better? “ he asked quietly. She nodded mutely and lowered her head to his chest.   
It was better. It was much, much, better when Harry wasn’t angry with her. She felt his hand stroking her hair gently.

“Thinking about you with other men makes me angry” he said absently. 

She nodded against his chest. She didn’t want to say anything and accidentally bring unendurable suffering upon herself.   
Harry snorted, amused. She felt his chest puff with it for a second. 

“I don’t want you to be a puppet” he clarified. “I just want you to love me and be devoted only to me. If I know that I don’t have to worry about you trying to run off and help Voldemort destroy the world then I won’t need to watch you or punish you.”   
He cupped her head in his hand, stroking it with his fingertips. 

She put her arms around him and tried to relax. Tried to let go of the terrified tension in her spine. 

“Thats better, Mione” Harry sighed. 

Hermione tried to empty her thoughts.. but she couldn’t even begin to understand how that was achieved. She found herself musing on selfishness. The Dark Lord had hurt everyone.. EVERYONE.. except her – at least not personally. Arguably he’d hurt her quite a lot through others.   
Harry apparently only hurt her and protected everyone else. It was indisputably the height of selfishness to damn the entire world just because she felt safer around the psychopath who didn’t hurt her personally. 

“I told you to stop thinking about him” Harry said peevishly. “and stop thinking of me as a psychopath. I haven’t hurt you. One slap in the face to wake you up from a threatened nervous breakdown is not abuse.   
I didn't cruciate you either – the defence is inbuilt in the mark so in a sense, you cruciated yourself.” 

He paused for a long minute or two. She said nothing. 

He spoke again, his voice annoyed “So I touched you a little. It’s not like you tried very hard to stop me. I didn’t rape you or anything.” He shifted irritably on the pillows. 

She kept her head lowered and tried not to think anything that might cause him to punish her. She let her mind wander back to twinkle, twinkle, little star.   
She noticed after a while that the scene had darkened and some stars were appearing.   
Harry still seemed to be pensive. He spoke suddenly and sounded hard and cold again.   
“I shouldn’t have to rape you. You’re mine. You should want me to touch you.. I can make you feel so good.. you have no idea. Once you’ve felt it, you’ll stop thinking about him. The vampire too. You’ll only want me!   
Come on.. let’s get out of here. I’ll take you to where you’ll be living from now on.” 

She felt a strange sense of disorientation as her awareness shifted from lying on her front on top of Harry, to lying on her back on the bed with Harry’s hand on her forehead.   
He was sitting on the side of the bed next to her.   
“Don’t go to sleep without me again” he said shortly. 

She shook her head “No. I won’t. Sorry, Harry.” 

He smiled approvingly.   
She thought of twinkle twinkle little star before the thought of how much he looked like the Dark Lord when he smiled like that could slide across her mind. 

“That nursery rhyme is annoying” he complained. “ and it kind of makes me feel a bit of a pedo. if you really have to avoid thinking something you know is going to annoy me cant you pick a pop song or something?” 

“I’ll try, Harry” she said earnestly.   
He smiled that bright young-Harry smile and stood up, offering his hand to her to help her up off the bed. She took it and let him help her.   
He didn’t let go of her hand again as he walked her to the door. 

Just as his hand touched the handle, he paused   
“...Don’t do anything daft out there, Mione, ok? The entire estate is warded from the in and outside. There’s no way out unless I key the ward to you” He smiled again suddenly. “Not that you can apparate anyway I suppose.   
.. but try not to make the others even more worried about you being here. Don’t tell them anything at all is best.” 

Hermione nodded solemnly. 

Harry pressed the handle down and opened the door.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comments increase update frequency :-)

The hallway outside reminded her, if anything, of the dungeons at the Dark Lord’s compound.   
Except that where they were black , this one was white. 

Doors stretched down the long hall on both sides. The floor, walls and ceiling were all uniform white.   
They reached the end of the corridor and turned the corner, ascending up a flight of stairs to a door. 

Harry placed his hand on the door and it flashed gold for a second. “Great minds think alike” thought Hermione. 

The door opened into another corridor. This one had lots of muggle paintings on the walls.. Landscapes mainly.   
Harry led her through endless broad carpeted corridors and finally to a wide flight of stairs down into an expansive lobby. It reminded her a little of Malfoy manor.   
They descended the stairs and for the first time Hermione saw a window. Two massive windows flanked the large impressive double doors. She could see out to a green expanse of rolling hills and a bright blue sky.   
In the distance a black green forest prickled across one of the hills. It was a very restive view.   
The sun was going down.   
And of course, there was absolutely no cover anywhere around for at least fifty miles she estimated. 

There was no way that this manor corresponded with the little house she had portkeyed to with Draco and Ron. 

Harry was already leading her past the windows and to the right, through another set of double doors into what seemed to be a drawing room or sitting room of some kind.   
Mr Weasley sat at a couch halfway down the room and read the paper. He looked up at them both and startled. 

“Harry! I thought we all agreed...” 

Harry waved him down dismissively. “I didn’t agree. Hermione’s fine. She wouldn’t hurt a fly” 

Hermione aimed a queasy smile at the Weasley patriarch.   
There was the sound of a chair scraping against the polished wood floor and Hermione turned to see Ron getting up from a table by the window on the other side of the room where he had obviously been having dinner.   
She wondered why he was eating alone. 

Ron walked over to them, his face stormy. “Wouldn’t hurt a fly, Harry?” 

Hermione wanted to back away from him but Harry’s hand tightened around her own painfully. She looked down submissively and tried to will herself to turn invisible. 

“Ron.. “ Harry began 

Ron interrupted him. “No, Harry. I don’t want to hear it. She’s a psycho. Keeping her here is like keeping a blast ended screwt as a pet. Eventually it’s going to turn on you when your guard is down.”   
Hermione quirked at the thought of her being the psychopath in the room. God.. Harry had them all completely fooled.   
In response to her thought Harry crushed the bones of her hand again. She forced herself not to show any discomfort. 

“Ron! She was held by Voldemort for over a month. He said he would kill her and Ginny if she didn’t go through with the initiation exactly as he wanted. She tried to do what she had to do to save both their lives.” 

Hermione blinked and was not at all surprised at how easily the lie rolled off Harry’s tongue.   
Ron was gasping and spluttering about Ginny now and Mr Weasley had rushed over and was questioning them furiously. Hermione gulped and continued looking at the floor.   
A flash of Ginny flicked through her mind and she tried to think of a pop song she could think of before it could clear.   
The image flashed again. Straddling a bound Ginny lying on her stomach and flicking her sleeves up to find a dark mark. Harry flinched by her side and she finally came up with a song. 

‘My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender..Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way...The history book on the shelf ...Is always repeating itself...Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war...Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more...Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to...Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you....Waterloo - finally facing my waterloo’   
She couldn’t remember the second verse so she just repeated the parts she knew over and over while Harry talked to Ron and Mr Weasley. 

Eventually it seemed to be over. Harry squeezed her hand gently and led her through the room to a door at the end and into the kitchen. It was miraculously empty. She gave thanks to any deities responsible for empty rooms.   
But before she could breathe the sigh of relief laying on her chest, Harry had dragged her to the side and pressed her up against the pantry door.   
“What was that?! Was Ginny a Death Eater?! Why was she tied up?” he demanded.   
Hermione looked at him fearfully. She swallowed. “Yes. She was. She was tied up so that I could check her for the dark mark without her hexing me. I had no magic, you know?” 

She continued singing waterloo in her head while she talked to him.   
Harry looked at her suspiciously. “Its a good choice of song. I like the words. A lot better than nursery rhymes.”   
She nodded gratefully.

He fixed her with a slow stare. “This matter isn’t over. We’ll talk more about Ginny another time, Hermione” She nodded again unhappily.   
“Now.. Draco said you wouldn’t eat. He seemed to think you were worried about being drugged. “   
Harry waved his hand around the kitchen behind him. “Well everything can’t be poisoned, so make your own dinner with whatever you want if it makes you feel better.”   
She looked at him uncertainly and he gestured again in a go ahead manner. 

She raced to the tap and turned it on and let it run, then stood staring at it trying to persuade herself it was fine to drink from it. There was no way that the tap-water could be tainted. She watched the water flow for minutes, thirstily.   
Harry had wandered over and stood beside her watching incredulously. 

“You’re being ridiculous, Mione.   
You do know that, right?   
If I wanted to dose you with something I could imperio you to take it willingly or I could simply hold you down and force you to swallow it.” 

Hermione licked her lips. She knew she was being silly. She knew it. But she couldn’t quite suppress the anxiety since moody had wanted to force veritaserum on her.   
Harry put his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him “I won’t let him. I don’t need that. You’ll tell me everything eventually. I can wait for you to be ready.”   
At that she cracked and leaned down, putting her mouth under the tap and drinking from the stream of water urgently. She sucked and swallowed for minutes.   
Harry stood and watched her. 

“God.. that shouldn’t be so sexy, should it.. You’re just drinking.” 

He stepped back from her slightly and turned away, walking to the fridge “d’you fancy pasta? Roast beef sandwiches? There’s some leftover chicken we could heat up in the microwave. We could have it with popcorn?”   
Hermione stopped drinking, surprised. 

“You have a microwave?” 

Harry gestured over his shoulder and she noticed the small white plastic and glass box on the shelf.   
“You know how to operate a microwave?” she questioned further.   
Harry looked at her like she was daft. 

“Of course I bloody do. Who do you think cooked the meals in the Dursley house.   
I’ll give you a clue - It wasn’t my aunt.” 

She felt a spike of guilt. She had known that.. but she had never really internalised it. She tended to lump Harry with all the other pureblood wizards who couldn’t find their arse with a map and compass, figuratively speaking, when faced with muggle appliances.   
She felt like only muggle-borns were..not of the wizarding world.. somehow. 

“Don’t worry about it” Harry muttered from inside the fridge. She felt even worse.   
She walked over to stand behind him and look into the fridge. There were lots of things in there besides leftovers.   
She wondered if Harry had bad memories of cooking and preferred not to.   
He turned around and looked at her, stepping against her and slinging his arms around her loosely. 

“Nah.. just lazy” he smirked and leaned into her.   
She hesitated and then put her arms around his neck loosely.. just to see how it felt.   
It was ok.   
When he wasn’t being terrifying..when he was being Harry she thought she could quite happily be close to him.   
His eyes glinted at her and he leaned even closer, tilting his head and brushing his lips against hers, tentatively.. coaxingly. When he pulled back to look at her, she did it to him..leaned in, brushed her lips feather light across his. He responded by flicking her top lip with the tip of his tongue.   
She flinched back slightly and then moved in again, pressing her lips more firmly against his.   
And then he was kissing her. 

She opened to his probing tongue and he snogged her to within an inch of her life. She felt her body actually beginning to respond to it. 

The moment was broken by a cough. 

Hermione immediately tried to pull away, but Harry held her tightly, one hand around her waist and the other on the back of her head and kissed her for another half minute or so while she cringed internally.   
When he let her go, he had that dark, cruel, satisfied look in his eyes. His eyes flicked to whoever was in the room and then back to her.   
“You need to learn to follow my lead, Mione. You stop when I do, not before.”   
He turned and stepped away toward whoever had walked into the room, although by Harry’s actions she could almost guarantee it was Draco. 

She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to think nothing, staring blankly into the fridge. After a while, she pulled out eggs, bacon, cheese, mushrooms and onions and closed the fridge, moving to the bench and laying out the ingredients; opening cupboards looking for the rest of what she would need.. 

She refused to turn around as she heard Draco speaking low to Harry. She couldn’t quite make out what they were talking about and realised they had cast a muffliato. 

By the time she was done making two omelettes and had turned around, the two were seated at the table still talking animatedly about something she couldn’t hear. She passed them each a plate and a fork and they both tucked in, barely sparing a nod in her direction as she turned away and returned to the bench.   
Somehow she couldn’t be bothered preparing everything for another omelette so she just cracked a couple of eggs and scrambled them, returning to the table with her plate. 

Harry glanced at her meal, noting how simple it was compared to what she had made for him and that dark approving smile appeared on his face again.   
She looked back down to her plate and tried to think of Waterloo. 

She heard Draco drop his fork on his plate and looked up. He looked a bit sick. He was pushing the plate away.   
She glanced at Harry quickly but he didn’t seem to be bothered.   
She hadn’t accidentally made something inedible then and the food probably wasn’t poisoned with anything if Harry was still eating it.   
She looked back at Draco and found his eyes upon her. He spoke and now she could hear him, he must have cancelled the muffliato. 

“I take it back, Granger. You aren’t like aunt Bella at all. You remind me of my mother right now.” ]

He pushed his chair away from the table forcefully and stood, turning and stalking out of the room without saying anything further.   
She looked to Harry, wondering whether he would be angry at her. He was looking at the door through which Draco had just exited. He looked thoughtful.   
He blinked and returned his attention to his omelette. “This is good, Mione! Thanks. You didn’t have to give yours to Malfoy. Git didn’t even finish it.”   
Harry shook his head in mild irritation. “Spoiled brat” he muttered. 

 

After they had finished the meal and Harry had cleaned up with magic, he led her from the room once more. They wandered through the enormous manor corridors till they came to a door in a row of doors and Harry stopped. 

“Uh.. I don’t want you to get mad, but you’re going to stay with me in my rooms. It’s safer that way. Nobody else can pass my wards so they won’t come in unexpectedly bothering you when I’m not here.   
Besides, my chambers connect to my private library. You’d be happier if you could access it whenever you want, right? Rather than having to wait for me to turn up and take you there?” 

Hermione nodded. It wasn’t as if disagreeing would lead to a private room, she realised soberly.   
It was like Rodolphus taught her.. You can take the high road or the low road but they both lead to the same destination in the end. Might as well accept it and save yourself some pain. 

Harry’s face tightened slightly at her thinking of Rodolphus again but he didn’t say anything. 

She followed him into his chambers, entering into a room decorated in greens and golds. A sitting room with a large window looking out over a lake and black leather chairs and couches.. almost exactly like those she had sat on in the Dark Lord’s sitting room. She felt a tiny shudder. 

“Uh.. are these new?” she asked. 

Harry looked at her sharply. “Yeah.. yeah they are actually. I felt like redecorating recently.” 

Hermione swallowed.   
“Oh. They’re very nice.” She said. 

He walked over to her and took her hand. His fingers were cool. She lifted their clasped hands up absently and looked at his fingers, reassuring herself that they didn’t look anything like the Dark Lords.   
Harry frowned at her perplexed. “You ok, Mione? I know you keep comparing me to him.. but that’s the first time you’ve actually seriously thought I might be him..What’s wrong?” 

She shook her head. “Is your library decorated in blue tones? She asked hollowly. 

Harry walked over to the door in the left wall and opened it, pulling her through.   
The library was a long room with walls covered in shelves and rows of ancient tomes, mainly in black or brown leather. There was a single chair sitting at the end of the room near the fireplace. It was a wingback. It was dark blue leather.   
As was the theme in this room.   
A cool blue and silver motif.   
A large oriental rug in the middle of the floor depicted silver undulating forms that strongly evoked the impression of serpents. 

Hermione blinked. It was too much. Too similar. Something had happened to Harry and it had to do with the Dark Lord somehow.   
They were like identical twins separated at birth who both go out and buy the same clothes. 

Harry was looking at her suspiciously.   
“You’re telling me he has similar furniture or something? That’s what you’re upset about? Perhaps he just has taste?!” 

Hermione swallowed again and looked at Harry weakly. “He.. he has the exact same furniture.. in exactly the same place. Your chambers are identical - only his sitting room is blue and silver and his library is green and gold.   
And he doesn’t have a window in his sitting room – but then his eyes are sensitive to light. I assume if I had fixed them.. he might have put in a window. It might have shown a lake. The one in my room looks out over a lake.   
He made the room for me. He picked the view.” 

She looked at Harry, who was frowning. “So what are you saying, Hermione. Spell it out for me – you really think I’m becoming Voldemort, don’t you?” 

She looked away, wrapping her arms around herself. 

Harry put a finger under her chin and turned her face back. “Answer me” he demanded. Hermione blanched. 

“I don’t know, Harry. All I know is that you’ve apparently changed a lot in the last month and a half and now you talk like him, you control your magic like him, you decorate like him, you dictate to me like he did..   
Since it seems like nobody else has noticed anything out of the ordinary at all, it’s hard to try to think of what could change you so much.” 

Harry looked sceptical. “I haven’t changed my personality, I’ve always been this way, maybe you didn’t notice.   
And it’s just been easier to understand my magic lately. I had some breakthroughs. It’s no big deal – everyone experiences something like that when they reach their age of majority.” 

Hermione lowered her eyes warily. “Ok Harry. I’m sorry I suggested it. You’re right. It’s just a coincidence.” 

Harry appeared a bit disarrayed but he took her hand again and led her back into the sitting room and across to the door in the opposite wall. He opened it and showed her into his bedroom, closing the door behind them. 

“Its getting late. Maybe we should get some rest and talk about it in the morning” Harry suggested nonchalantly. 

Hermione asked in the most neutral tone she could manage “are we going to share the bed, Harry” 

He grinned at her cheekily and the effect was almost that of old Harry if not for the sharp glint in his eyes.   
“well there’s only one bed here, isn’t there? “   
As if he realised that he hadn’t quite ‘sold’ harmless best mate Harry that time he continued.   
“We shared a tent for months, Mione. I’m sure we can manage to share a bed. It’s a very large bed.” 

Hermione nodded slowly, resigned.   
Harry smirked..   
smirked!!   
She had never seen that expression on his face before. 

He had toed off his boots and was already unfastening his robe. He took it off and levitated it to a chair across the room while he gestured with his other hand and simultaneously turned down the bed. 

He stood now in nothing but black cotton/lycra boxer shorts. His thighs and calves were very defined.   
He caught her checking him out and padded over to her where she stood, delaying the inevitable at the foot of the bed. 

Stepping very close to her, he ran his fingertips down her sides over the skimpy white singlet, then slipped them underneath it and ran them back up over the skin of her ribs.   
“You don’t like to sleep in nightclothes, do you?..” he asked, but it wasn’t really a question. 

“I remember you had a difficult time sleeping in them in the tent. You always complained that they wrapped around you and woke you up.”   
Hermione started to tremble. 

“I-I’d like to sleep in them tonight though...please?” she said hopefully, a pathetic pleading lilt to her voice. 

“Oh I don’t want you to be uncomfortable Mione. You need your sleep” Harry said, smirking again and his hands moved up her body, dragging her singlet up with them.   
She swallowed and raised her arms for him to take the singlet off.   
He did so without hesitation and his eyes glowed as they crawled over her breasts. “God, you’re beautiful” he growled and stepped even closer, wrapping one hand around the small of her back to hold her in place and raising the other to cup her breast, squeezing it gently and stroking the nipple with his thumb. 

She was really shaking now. He wasn’t going to let her get away. He was going to just take her whether she liked it or not! 

Harry’s eyes flicked to her face but he didn’t comment on the thought that he’d obviously perceived, instead he bent and pressed his lips to the nipple he had just been stroking, sucking it into his mouth and swirling his tongue around it.   
She gasped and wanted to pull away.   
Harry released her nipple with an audible pop and it stood up at attention now. 

She felt uncomfortable, as if her body responding like that would encourage him to keep going when he should stop! 

He took both her hands in his and led her forward, around to the side of the bed. He looked at her and looked at the bed and then looked back at her pointedly.   
She didn’t wait for him to become more insistent and climbed up onto the bed, crawling over to the far side and slipping beneath the covers, pulling them up to her chin and laying there scared out of her wits.   
She wished she were brave enough to turn away and curl up and toss a goodnight back over her shoulder but she was terrified of what Harry might do if she made him angry right now. 

She felt Harry get into bed and didn’t dare to look over at him. Then she felt a hand graze over her stomach and jumped. Harry slid right up to her. She could feel on her thigh that he wasn’t wearing boxer shorts anymore and she black despairing panic rose up within her.   
Harry.. her best friend Harry.. was going to rape her. Quite soon. There was nothing she could do.   
He would probably even convince himself that she wanted it.. or that it was necessary to erase everyone else from her mind.. or something along those lines.   
His hand moved down her body and brushed over the waistband of the black boxers she still wore. She felt Harry lean in and blow into her ear softly. His hot tongue traced the shell of her ear. Then his hand moved in a swish and curl pattern and her boxers vanished. She whimpered now in fear. 

Harry whispered in her ear “Shhhh shhhhh.. its ok.”   
His hand had moved up under the blankets and started to stroke her breast in what she supposed he thought was a comforting manner. 

“Please Harry.. “ she begged. “Don’t do this!.. you don’t really want to do this!.. please.. please.. you’re scaring me.”   
She felt tears siding down her cheeks and when Harry realised he leaned up over her and then he licked them away.   
She stared up at him distraught. 

“Touch me, Mione” he whispered roughly. His eyes glowed wickedly.   
She blinked back more tears. 

He smirked “It’s ok if you think of me as a brother. I kind of find that idea a bit hot, actually. Being your older brother..stealing your innocence – showing you what your body can do.   
Except you’re older than I am of course.. But that doesn’t matter. I’m more experienced than you. I can be your older brother for this fantasy.” 

Hermione shivered. Now it wasn’t just Harry her best friend about to rape her.. it was Harry her brother about to rape his younger sister and getting off on her tears and pleading. She felt sick.   
Harry laughed. “You’re so repressed” he scoffed. “But I know how I can fix that”   
Her eyes widened and she quaked in fear. God.. what was he going to do now?! 

She didn’t expect it when he did it. Harry looked into her eyes and hissed a long fluent stream of parseltongue.   
She shuddered, the sounds affecting her on the deepest level.   
She felt herself suddenly throb in want and her eyes became half lidded in lust. Harry grinned nastily. 

“Like that, huh? I thought you might..” 

He hissed something else and she shuddered again and couldn’t suppress the moan that rose up in her throat.   
Harry’s eyes flashed excitedly and he kissed her hard. 

She didn’t want to react but she found herself kissing him hungrily, turning toward him, her hands reaching out, needing to touch his skin; feeling his chest, hard and hot and tiny nipples pebbled against her palms.   
Harry groaned into her mouth and slid closer to her. She wrapped one arm around him and trailed her fingernails down his spine. The sensation made him arch in pleasure and smirk against her mouth.   
He leaned back away from her kiss and looked at her in dark amusement when she tried to follow him and capture his lips again. 

When he hissed again.. it sounded different to the last two. God... she loved the sound of it when he did that.. it made all her insides quiver and melt. She felt...she felt..   
...intolerably horny.   
She needed him to touch her more.   
“Please Harry.. I need you” she whispered. “I want you so badly!” 

Harry, instead of touching her, actually withdrew further and rested himself on his back, pulled his arms up and laced them behind his head.   
“Touch me, Mione. Show me how bad you want me” he commanded lazily. 

She felt a desperate ache inside her. It needed to stop. She needed to do anything to make it stop. Harry could stop it! She curled against him and started to kiss his chest, licking it and sucking his nipples. He groaned his enjoyment.   
She pulled herself up to straddle him.   
She was soaking wet and he unfolded his arms to place them on her hips and pushed her down while he ground his cock against her hot slick slit. She moaned loudly and rocked against him, feeling some of the ache inside her lift slightly. 

Harry hissed at her again and she shivered from head to toe, moaning. He laughed and did it again. She bucked against his cock.   
“Put me inside you, Mione” Harry said in a low voice.   
She looked up at him and even through the haze of her lust she hesitated, continuing to grind against him instead.   
He hissed aggressively and she whimpered in need.   
“Put me inside you, Mione” he repeated with a threatening undertone. 

She rose up on her knees and looked down reaching for his thick circumsized cock. She rubbed the head against her clit for a bit and Harry grunted in pleasure. He hissed again.. longer.. and the lust haze became thicker. 

She suddenly felt an urgent need to have his cock inside her. If she didn’t fill this empty aching soon she would die.   
She raised herself up further and placed him at the entrance to her vagina.   
The hole was so small.   
She tried to lower herself onto him but it just didn’t work. 

Harry seemed to work out what the problem was after a half a minute or so of pushing and pulled his hips down and out of the way. He reached up and dragged her down onto his chest and then rolled with her till she lay beneath him.   
Her curls scattered around her head like a halo and Harry put his hand under her knees, pulling her legs up and pushing them wider.   
She writhed mindlessly below him and whined “I need you.. please.. make it stop!” 

Harry looked down at her and smiled wonderingly.   
“I always dreamed you would look this way, Mione. I’m sorry.. it’s going to hurt a little now.”   
He furrowed his brow and corrected himself.   
“Well.. I’m not sorry... I’m glad that you saved yourself for me. I love you so much. I’ll try to make it as painless as I can, ok? “ 

Hermione looked up at him uncomprehendingly. She was too far gone to really care about anything other than her need. 

Harry hissed again and it was like waves of balm washing over her. She arched into it, sighing in bliss.   
At that moment he thrust his hips forward hard and forced himself a few inches into her tight channel. 

She yelped in pain and tried to bring her knees together but Harry had pulled out a little and now threw himself forward again, driving deeper into her. Now she cried out in the unexpected sharp stabbing pain. Harry groaned loudly. 

“Oh God Mione.. so tight... so hot and wet.. Oh god you feel so GOOD. Better than I ever imagined.. “ 

He pulled out almost all the way and slammed back into her, this time managing to get all the way in.   
He collapsed down onto his elbows over her, his head bowed over her shoulder, his hips twitching slightly.   
“Oh God.. .fuck.. calm down..calm down..” he was mumbling to himself. 

Hermione whimpered softly, tears running down her cheeks. “That.. that hurt..” she wept.   
Harry pulled himself up at the sound of her voice and kissed her tears, kissed her lips. “I know. I’m sorry Mione. It does, the first time. It will feel better soon.” He rocked his hips against her and she winced.   
“Mmmmm god you’re good, Mione.. you feel.. so.. fucking..amazing..” he growled against her neck, kissing and sucking her, leaving a blue trail of love bites up her throat. “Mine..” he mumbled.   
He lowered himself against her body and wrapped his arms around her.   
“Mm.. put your legs around my hips” he whispered into her ear. She obeyed immediately and he started to move again. 

It didn’t hurt as much now except when he first started to move.   
There was this strange enticing friction.. It felt like she wanted more.. Harry’s face was buried deep in her neck and he held her so tightly. She pressed her cheek against his.   
“Can you.. harder.. “ she whispered curiously.. Harry responded immediately, He started to smack down against her harder and lifted his head to look into her flushed face.   
“Like that?” he asked, with the dark satisfied..slightly cruel.. look on his face. She suddenly found she didn’t mind sleeping with the Dark Lord Potter and moaned, nodding. 

“More” she breathed. 

He started to pound her hard now, their flesh made a meaty slap as he laid into her. Sweat from his forehead dripped down onto her lip and she licked it away, enjoying the salty taste. She leaned up and licked his cheek, wanting more.   
He moaned in animal need and tilted his head back so she could reach his throat.   
She licked and sucked and nipped him while he fucked her harder and harder..She felt herself racing toward the finish line and her moans became urgent.. insistent, her hips bucking up to meet his cock eagerly. 

“Oh god..Harry.......so good.. she slurred.. 

Harry looked down at her, panting, his green eyes glowing.. He hissed a rough stream of parseltongue and she screamed as her orgasm broke over her.. He smashed his mouth down onto hers, kissing her brutally, painfully, swallowing her screams of pleasure and fucking her wildly, erratically, as if he were trying to drive her through the bed..   
Then he threw his head back gasping and groaned loudly as he drove his hot load deep into her, Jerking helplessly against her, panting as the last spasms wracked his body. 

After a minute he tossed himself down in the bed beside her, half laying on her, his arm and his leg still curled possessively over her body. They both panted silently and tried to collect themselves.   
Hermione could feel her mind returning and she didn’t want it back.. Didn’t want to think about what just happened.   
Didn’t want to think about anything at all. 

Harry looked at her and raised the hand draped over her to brush the damp hair out of her face.   
“You’re mine, Mione. You always were. What happened was what was always going to happen. That’s why you waited. You belong by my side.” 

She sighed. As the endorphins left her system slowly the fear of making Harry angry returned to replace them.   
She didn't want to point out that he had used a spell in parseltongue to force her into a frenzy of lust and another to allow her to come.. She didn’t want to say where she knew it from. She could see the conversation ending in pain.   
So she just nodded and closed her eyes. 

Harry lay silently beside her for a few minutes and then he reached for her and turned her onto her side in the bed so that he could spoon up against her back. He wrapped an arm over her, cupping her breast loosely. The other arm he curled up under his head and bent. His fingers just brushed her temple. 

“Night Mione.. he whispered. 

She let herself drift off to sleep. 

 

When she found herself in the black space, Rodolphus was nowhere to be seen. 

She was not surprised and didn’t even bother yelling for him.   
Harry appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around her and then she found herself lying in a bed on a dark beach with him.   
He stroked her hair and told her to go to sleep again. She nodded and closed her eyes and then there was nothing for a while.


	26. Chapter 26

She woke to pain.   
Harry had used a lubricating charm of some kind and was just pushing inside her brused pussy. She lay on her back and her knees were spread wide. She gasped and, half awake, tried to fight. He grabbed her wrists and pressed them down to the bed next to her head, putting his weight on them as he slid home, groaning in relief. He started pumping immediately and it hurt. It hurt more than it had the previous night. She lay, un-reactive and hoped he’d finish soon.   
When he did, it was with an animal grunt of enjoyment. He pulled out immediately and she felt trails of cum drip down onto her inner thighs. Only then did he look up into her shell-shocked face.   
There was not a trace of remorse on his pale familiar features. He grinned wickedly.

“You looked so beautiful that I had to have you again.” He flicked his fingers and she felt a scourgifying charm ripple over her, cleaning her inside and out. “I’ll get you a potion for last night, ok? I mean.. I want to have kids with you Mione but not just yet. I want to enjoy you for a while first” 

Hermione felt cold. Children?! Enjoy her?!   
It was like a puzzle her mind just couldn’t seem to get itself around – how was this..this..monster.. Harry?   
Had Ginny been keeping it all inside? Was he different with her? Was this all just normal? 

Harry had rolled out of bed and walked through a door she assumed was the bathroom. Shortly thereafter she heard the sound of a shower.   
She thought about trying to run while he was gone but she was positive the doors would not open for her. This was her world now. These rooms.   
He had as much as said that he wasn’t going to let anyone in and that implied that she would not be going out either.   
She was just a doll that he could come back to whenever he felt like and fuck or torment. 

The shower was still running so she allowed herself for a moment to think about Tom. He was supposed to be the most evil person in the world but he hadn’t treated her like this. Harry and Lucius would probably get along famously. She wished she could go back to the morning in bed with Tom and Severus. Either of them, really. It suddenly felt like they were the best moments in her life and they hadn’t lasted long enough.   
The second time she should have known better; - shouldn’t have let Tom leave. She should have teamed up with Severus and pulled him back into bed and forced him to snuggle down and let them both adore him longer.   
She recreated the moment in her mind when she had first woken up curled between them both. It was ..perfect..   
Tom had looked like Voldemort and Severus had looked like professor Snape and it was nevertheless exactly right.   
She tried to remind herself of how Tom had scared her with his anger but all she could think of was how insecure he’d been and how when he learned about Rodolphus he hadn’t punished her, he’d just held her and told her she loved him best of all.   
Thinking of him made her heart hurt. 

She suddenly realised she couldn’t hear the shower. 

She looked up and Harry was standing dripping by the side of the bed with a black towel wrapped around his hips and a face like thunder. He glowered at her and raised his hand..   
he seemed to falter for a second and it dropped but then he raised it again and whispered crucio.   
He held it for a long time. He held it until she started screaming and sobbing. 

By the time she had recovered enough to look around, he was gone. Everything was quiet. 

She lay perfectly still for a long time, straining to hear the faintest sound. After perhaps a half hour she tried to move and cried out pitifully at the horrible twanging and jangling of her nerves and muscles.   
In agony she dragged herself up and onto her feet. The pain was exponentially worse when she was standing.   
She had massive sympathy for professor Snape suddenly. Imagine having to teach like this! Voldemort had told her that the time when she had first healed him, he’d been so hurt he had crawled the entire way from the forbidden forest to the castle and couldn’t think straight to open the passage to the dungeons. 

Thinking of Hogwarts was bad though. It just reminded her of all the things that were forever gone.   
Of a time when things had been clearer. 

She began to trudge to the bathroom and relieved her bladder. At least she hadn’t peed all over Harry’s bed when he cruciated her. God only knows what he would have done to her if she had. Some base instinct for self preservation must have forced those muscles to hold. Or perhaps he’d just prevented her from losing control of her bladder.   
She wouldn’t put it past him to think of that. 

How many times had Harry used that unforgiveable? He hadn’t had any problem with it. 

She limped and ached her way to the shower and turned it up as hot as she could stand.   
She had to stop thinking about Tom and Severus and Rodolphus and life before.   
Harry had warned her and now it seemed he was through with warnings and would just punish her every time she did.   
She could avoid all this. Life could be..could be.. tolerable? Existence could be..tolerable.. if she just did exactly what Harry wanted all the time. She should try to learn his moods and anticipate what he wanted from her. 

She thought again about how much he’d changed. He’d disagreed but she wasn’t sure he really believed that himself. 

Perhaps he realised he’d changed but liked how he felt now... – liked what he could do... and didn’t really care to wonder how it had come about. 

 

 

After she had dried herself she couldn’t find any of her clothes, and didn’t want to upset Harry any more by just presuming to wear any of his. She decided to just stay in the towel. 

She wanted to leave the bedroom. 

She wanted to leave his chambers but she contented herself with dragging herself with difficulty into the library, where she curled up in the wingback chair and stared emptily at a book on runic magic for hours without reading it.   
She knew it was hours because the light on the floor of the sitting room from the window had turned orangey and then bluish the few times she looked up. 

She wasn’t.. thinking.. exactly. It was like a kind of meditation.   
She thought it might be a little similar to what she did in the cell in Voldemort’s compound. She just went inside for a while. Closed up shop and let her outer processes run themselves.   
Eyes blinked. Heart beat, lungs filled and emptied. Blood circulated to her extremities. All quite automatic.   
She just wasn’t really there. But she kept a feeler out somehow. Like a motion detector. 

If Harry came and found her like this he would be angry. 

She would come back when Harry returned and do whatever he wanted until he let her sleep. 

The slam of the door brought her back completely and she felt a sickening flood of adrenalin wash through her.   
Harry was back.   
She saw him then. His dark silhouette in the marginally lighter darkness of the library door.   
The room was dark and cold. The fire hadn’t been lit. Was she supposed to light the fire? Would he be angry?   
She could just make out his hand wave in the air and the lights flicked on. He flung a hand absently in the direction of the fire and it burst into life in an orange fireball.   
Frowning, he walked over to her slowly. 

“Why are you sitting in the dark, baby?” he asked gently, sounding concerned.   
“The house is wired for electricity, you only had to flick the switch. You know that.” 

She looked up at him. “I’m sorry Harry, I didn’t think of it. I don’t mind the dark.”   
‘Please please please dont hurt me’, she thought. ‘Have to remember to turn on all the lights tomorrow. Maybe there’s matches to light the fire.’ 

Harry’s face broke into a smile. “it’s ok, Mione. I’m sorry I...cursed you.. this morning.. I was hurt when you thought about him. I won’t do it again” 

She looked at him guardedly, not believing a word of it.   
He reached into his pocket and pulled out two phials. One was a milky white substance and the other an all too familiar purple potion bottle. 

“You got these from Draco” she said dully. Harry nodded. 

“Snape may be the biggest git ever, but he knows his potions and he’d never deliberately harm his godson.”   
Hermione nodded and took both, swallowing the potions without hesitation. The ache in her body subsided to a tolerable level. 

Harry went on   
“The birth control potion is good for six months and it works the morning after. I made sure.” He looked at her as if he was expecting praise. 

“Thanks Harry.” She said, trying to sound enthusiastic. She wanted to say something else complimentary but she just couldn’t think of a believable way to phrase it. 

“So what have you been reading?” he asked suddenly.   
She lifted up the book so he could see the spine. She had read this book before in her third year so she wasn’t worried about being quizzed on its contents. He did ask her a couple of questions about it and she answered without hesitation, confident she was correct. Harry seemed relieved. 

He sat down a bit precariously on the arm of the chair and was wearing his dithering over important but unwelcome information face. It was one of the ‘old-Harry’ faces. She waited patiently. Eventually he spoke. 

“Look.. there’s a meeting tonight with some of the order and they want me to bring you so you can talk to everyone.”   
He paused and scrutinized her. “I don’t want to take you though. And I don’t want you to talk to them about anything at all.”   
She quite understood why he might feel that way, he was after all keeping her prisoner in his chambers and.. and other things.   
Harry frowned at her but didn’t call her on it. 

“But if i don’t take you, then it’s going to be ridiculous with them. They’ll keep bugging us till they get to the bottom of everything” 

Hermione tried to stamp at the miniscule nanoparticle sized flicker of hope that ignited inside her. It was cruel to hope. ‘Stupid stupid stupid.’ She beat herself up internally. 

“So.. so I have to take you, Mione. And I’m going to have to put you under the imperius so that I can field their questions. You’re not stable enough at the moment to carry it off. Don’t worry – if you just let go, I’ll handle everything. They’ll never even notice. And then we can come home and relax.” 

She felt another small part of herself die, deep down inside but nodded stonily.   
“ok. Do it Harry. Do whatever you have to do.” Her voice sounded old and bitter. Harry frowned again at her warningly. 

He looked at her and intoned “Imperio!” 

Immediately it felt like the world was infinitely improved. Everything was just fine. Everything was wonderful in fact.   
It was like riding in a magnificent carriage.. watching a film of events. She was a passenger in her own head.   
It was like..   
but the memory slipped away easily.   
Harry was leading her wordlessly to the door and then he turned and looked at her as if for the first time and shook his head at himself. 

Without even dropping the imperius he transfigured her towel into a white babydoll dress that fell to mid thigh. He looked at her face critically and then cast a glamour over her eyes.   
Lifting her arm he rubbed over her mark with his thumb and it seemed to sink into her skin and fade away. 

He turned again, apparently content and led them both out of the chambers. 

She could feel sensations in a very strange objective kind of way. The carpets against her bare feet were interesting. Harry had not put any underwear on her either and it felt.. drafty.   
They walked silently through corridors and down cold stone stairs till they came to a room somewhere in the back of the house. 

Harry knocked on the door and then opened it, poking his head through the gap and peering around in a manner that was very Harry-like.   
He opened the door wide and she could see the room was full of chairs and couches and lots of people.   
Some she recognised, most she didn’t.   
All the Weasleys were there except Percy and Fred. George stood rather uncomfortably next to Bill near the back of the room. 

She looked around, almost expecting to see Professor McGonagall, but it seemed the Dark Lord might not have lied about her passing. 

Harry led them both in to the centre of the room where a roundish area was free. The couches and chairs were all arranged around it.   
She had a faint memory of death eaters but the memory was sublimated almost immediately. 

Harry was talking to everyone. Saying how distraught she was and how she needed some time to recover from everything that happened there. He was telling them that he suspected Ginny might be dead but couldn’t confirm it.   
She half listened. Her eyes were on Harry but her attention was on her peripheral vision where moonlight scattered over a large lake outside the windows in the back of the room.   
She shifted her attention around the room insofar as she was able without moving her eyes and she thought she could make out a pale white-blond head of hair somewhere off to the left. 

Harry had finished talking and now it was as if someone had picked up her strings and started to puppet her. She found herself talking.   
The mode of speaking was not.. entirely.. her.. She used words that she might not have selected if she were going to render the same information.   
Her eyes panned the room of their own accord, looking at the faces. She could see Draco now and he was sitting with an expression of polite interest and a relaxed posture but in his lap his fist was tight, his knuckles white.   
She felt she should feel something about this but really everything was wonderful. It was just lovely to be here, with these people. Even more wonderful not to have to deal with speaking and thinking for herself. 

Her hands were gesturing to emphasise something. She was talking about how Voldemort was killing muggle children for potions experiments? Oh?! But he wasn’t! At least not as far as she had been aware.   
Maybe he had been, who knew?! She was sure Harry knew better than she did. 

Questions were asked of her by various faces and she responded to some with explanations and with shaking and stuttered apologies to others and then she felt herself crying and sobbing. 

What was this about?!   
People were standing and hands were patting her on the back soothingly. Mrs Weasley was thanking her for some reason. She shook her head. 

Hermione wished that the crying would stop. The tears impaired her view of what was happening.   
And then she was turning and Harry was there. He had put his arm around her shoulders and was leading her away from the others, back out of the room. 

 

 

They were halfway down a corridor, far away from the room when Draco’s voice stopped Harry. 

“Potter!” 

Harry turned them both and her face took on a look of polite surprise and welcome.   
Draco looked at Harry with disgust. 

“You think I don’t recognise the imperius, Potter! I’ve used that curse more often than you’ve used scourgify” 

Harry frowned at him. “What are you talking about, Malfoy?!”   
She heard herself assuring him that she was fine and that he was paranoid. 

Draco’s face flashed a picture of misery for a milisecond before he composed himself. 

“Theres two reasons why you’re full of shit, Potter. Firstly.. Granger would never...ever...wear that dress..and she’s obviously not even wearing underwear.. or shoes for fuck’s sake. Second – she’s acting like there’s nothing wrong.. and I haven’t seen her act like that since she’s been here.” 

She felt her face split into a massive grin and her hands clapped sarcastically. Harry sounded amused when he spoke.   
“Oh all right, Malfoy. You caught us out. Bully for you Hermione wasn’t really up to facing everyone.   
She’s a bit frightened of them all at the moment. It seemed like the best solution if they just stopped bothering her till she could recover. “ 

Draco sneered at him. 

“Don’t try to out-Slytherin a Slytherin, Potter, you’re not equipped. Clearly you just decided you wanted to keep her to yourself. Do you realise how selfish that is?! Granger is the hottest piece of ass around this place! You’re a Gryffindor – you should know how to share!” 

Harry smirked. “I never share, Malfoy. Hermione is mine. Thanks for the heads up about the outfit. I’ll remember for next time.” 

Hermione felt a strange conflicted irritation. She felt fine but she had the strangest feeling she shouldn’t be feeling fine. 

She felt herself smile a serene smile and turn and then she was kissing Harry needily, her arms around his neck and fingers playing in his hair, her leg lifted and wrapped around his waist, pulling her baby doll dress up to dance over the curve of her buttocks. 

She heard Draco whine.   
“Oh come on.. There has to be something you need that I can get you for a slice of that. Think, Potter! I won’t do anything to her that can’t be fixed with a few cleaning charms. You can always obliviate her if you’re worried I’ll make you look bad in the sack.   
I’ve got money.. I’ve got rare books.. cursed objects..   
if the Dark Lord has something you want, maybe I can steal it for you, depending on what it is. Throw me a bone here! “ 

She stopped kissing Harry and moved back, turning to look at Draco. Her face was curved in an entirely unfamiliar sexy moue. She ran her tongue over her lips seductively.   
“Anything.. Draco?” she heard her voice purr huskily. 

Draco looked visibly needy.. his eyes darted between her lips and Harry’s smug face.   
Finally he ground out “Anything. Name it!” 

Harry smirked at him and she uncoiled herself from Harry’s body, turning to press her back against his chest and rub her ass over his groin.   
Harry’s mouth was right next to her ear when he spoke to Draco next, and his hands were curving over her abdomen and cupping her breasts. She heard herself give a sexy little moan of want. 

“I want you to find a way to get Rodolphus Lestrange here, subdued and in cover of night.” Harry told Draco. 

The blond boy’s face demonstrated how absurdly unlikely this possibility was. 

“Lestrange hardly ever leaves the dungeons. He’s.. he’s stronger than I am. And his absence would be immediately discovered by the Dark Lord. Why do you want him here? He’s dangerous!   
Surely there must be something else you want”   
Harry’s voice was cold “There’s nothing else I want that you can give me, Malfoy. Get him or go hungry.” 

Hermione was spun abruptly and kissed again, her mouth sucked of its own volition at his tongue and her fingers danced down his body to rub his erection. 

Draco growled 

“Potter.. I can’t do it alone. But...maybe I can set him up and if you give me some help we can bring him in.” 

Harry pushed Hermione back, smirking and she observed herself struggling to reach his mouth, leaning against his hand and trying to get closer to him. The green eyes narrowed at Draco, considering.   
After a moment he responded “Just me. Nobody else. We’ll have to set him up in a situation where the two of us can take him.” 

She couldn’t see Draco’s reaction but his next words pricked her through the happy haze, making her think briefly that maybe everything wasn’t quite as wonderful as it seemed 

“Fine. I’ll set it up. But I want her now.. I don’t want to wait. I’ll give you my oath that it will be done and you give me her for the night.” 

Harry’s face turned back to her and scanned her needy pouting struggles to reach him. He debated for a long time..   
She felt his hand stroke her head, his fingers running through her hair. 

“You’d have to keep her under imperio the entire time” he said finally. 

Draco snarled “No. I’ll ward the room up tight. She has no magic, Potter. I’ll only imperio her if she refuses to cooperate. I want to see her real face while I fuck her.” 

Harry scowled. But eventually he gave the answer the blonde clearly wanted to hear.

“Fine...Whatever Malfoy. I don’t want to find out you’ve hurt her either.” He looked at Draco pointedly. 

She heard Draco and could tell he was smirking. “Heard of healing charms, Potter?! Don’t worry. If I hurt her, you won’t find a thing when you get her back.” 

Harry’s face darkened. “And you walk her there under imperio. If you take her outside your door - even for a second - she better be riding the happy cloud. If you fuck up, you’ll pay.   
If something you do leads to problems with the order, when I’m done with you, you’ll beg Voldie for asylum.” 

“Yeah, fine. Imperio!” 

Hermione felt a slight shift in her state.. It wasn’t any less distant or unconnected to events, but it felt a tiny bit like trying to watch two TV channels at once. The feeling ceased when Harry dropped his curse and she felt herself draw away from him and straighten her clothing.   
She stood there then watching them both passively. 

Draco looked like Christmas had come early. His eyes were glittering with hunger. 

“I’ll bring her back at midday tomorrow. You’ll be in your rooms?” 

Harry nodded at him but his face looked discontented. Perhaps he was reconsidering, she wondered idly.   
He stepped up to her and wrapped his arms around her, then kissed her on the forehead. 

Into her ear he whispered. “I’m so sorry Mione. I don’t want to let him take you but I need to get your vampire here or you’ll die. I can’t get him here without Draco.   
Don’t worry, you’ll never remember tonight and after he helps me get Lestrange, neither will he.   
I’ll protect you! If he hurts you, I’ll remember and he’ll pay!” He kissed her impassive cheek gently and stroked her hair again. “I hate this..” he murmured. 

“Are you finished, Potter? You’re wasting my time with her” Draco snarled petulantly. “You’ll see her tomorrow. Transfigure a teddy bear or something!” 

Harry made a face and after cupping her cheek with his hand, turned away and stalked off down the corridor.


	27. Chapter 27

Draco walked closer to her. 

“So, Hermione ....You don’t mind if I call you that, right? After all.. we’re close now.” He sneered nastily.   
“I doubt you mind anything much right now. Let’s go to my room and change that” 

He turned on his heel and marched off down the corridor. Hermione found herself running to catch up and hanging herself on his arm.   
Draco was smirking but his eyes were dark. 

She didn’t mind much – no.. not much at all. She watched the pictures go past on the walls. 

After a few minutes the carpet gave way to white marble floors at a stark delineated cut off across the floor. All the colours of the walls changed too, from peaches and reds to white and silver and green. The marble was very cold on her feet, she observed. 

When Draco moved, his shoulder length hair shifted like silk and gleamed. It suited him better than the short hair he’d had last time she had seen him. The thought of Lucius rose up in her mind briefly. Lucius with short hair. It sank back again. She had stopped moving. 

Draco turned them and placed his hand on an area of the wall indistinguishable from any other area. It wasn’t a door, just a wallpapered stretch between two revoltingly ornate frames. There was no flash but after a few seconds Draco pulled his hand back and grabbed her forearm. Then he walked through the wall, pulling her after him. 

Hermione felt muted surprise. What a clever hidden entrance! 

Draco dragged her over to a large black extremely thickly velveted armchair and tossed her down into it.   
She sat passively wondering what he was doing. 

It had seemed quite clear that he was intending to force her to have sex with him but now Draco was pacing up and down angrily. He seemed to be in some kind of internal dispute.   
She suddenly felt the pleasant haze she had been in dissipating like fog. She didn’t move. She stayed perfectly still, although her eyes widened somewhat as fear rose up to fill the void. But it was familiar. She was always scared now. It was right to be scared.   
She watched Draco as he paced and eventually he turned and rounded on her, hissing. “Ok.. you were right, Granger.   
He is just like the Dark Lord. But what can I do about it? He damn well marked you, for circe’s sake.   
He knows where you are! Always!   
He’s too powerful for me to fight him for your..dubious.. honor. The rest of the order would kill me if I even tried.   
There’s no way anyone else will believe that saint Potter has gone to the dark side. I can hardly believe it myself.   
Fuck, he can act!   
I can’t stop him. In all likelihood he’ll obliviate me tomorrow when he realises I didn’t shag you bloody. Aaugh!”

Draco flung himself onto the sofa and covered his face with his hands. 

“There’s nowhere we could go if we ran. I can’t keep the Dark Lord and him at bay. They can both find you anyway – The Dark Lord trailed us ALL. Over. The. Bloody. World when I snatched you and Weasley.   
They followed us to Antarctica!   
And He doesn’t even have to bother tracking us. He can probably just apparate to your side with that mark. I know the Dark Lord can, whenever I’m not inside the wards here. He doesn’t only because I’m not important enough to bother with. Once he popped up on my father in the bathroom.” 

We can’t run. I don’t even know how to begin to create a place safe from them.” Draco was raving, growing more panicked. 

“Take me back to the Dark Lord then” Hermione said quietly. “He can protect us. His wards are unbreachable without the dark mark. I don’t have one so Har.. he probably can’t apparate me out.” 

Hermione realised she felt scared about mentioning Harry’s name and she noticed Draco was not using it either.   
There was a reason nobody said the word Voldemort if they had a dark mark or knew they were around someone who did..   
....or thought there might be the slightest miniscule chance that such a person were anywhere around..   
in fact it was better just to avoid the word full stop.   
It was because there were rumors that the Dark Lord could tell if his name was spoken in the presence of his mark.   
Harry knew about those rumours. She wouldn’t put it past him to use something like that too. 

Hermione looked up from her worried thoughts. Draco was sitting up on the couch staring at her and had gone even whiter than he had been before. 

“Are you insane?! The Dark Lord will kill me if I turn up with you suddenly. He’ll know I betrayed him. You have no idea what you’re talking about!!   
If I stay here, all I need to do is forget about what ha-he is doing to you and I can continue to be fine, - unfucked, untortured, able to sleep in my bed at night with only the usual tolerable level of fear.   
Let’s face it – you’re just a mudblood.. and you’ve been a vicious little bitch to me since we met, why the fuck should I rush into death for you?! You’re nothing! You’re just a little piece of dirt, not even worthy of licking my boots.   
I don’t know why it should bother me to see you getting what you deserve.” 

Hermione looked down. Draco was perfectly right. It would be better for him to just obliviate her now, fuck her and hand her back. She waited for him to do it.   
“I know. You’re right. I’m sorry. It was a stupid idea. If you got me to him, even if you got out again without anyone the wiser, Har-..he would do the same thing to you that the Dark Lord would, if not worse.” 

There it was again.. that flash of misery flicked across Draco’s face. He dropped his head into his hands and crouched over his knees. “i need to think” he croaked. 

They both sat there in silence. From somewhere in an adjoining room a clock ticked constantly, the sound reassuring rather than ominous.   
Hermione looked about the room. It was opulently decorated but, she realised, very..very cold. Everything was silver, black or white. Small accents of green or blue were present here or there.   
A set of elfin grystal goblets on a black lacquered cabinet were encrusted in emeralds. They were lighter than Harry’s eyes but equally cold and glassy. The floor was black marble with silver veins.   
In the middle of the black velvet suite a solid chunk of clear glass stood as a coffee table. It was rough on the edges as if it had broken off and there where white faint veins and cracks like ice through it.   
A fireplace of white scrolled plaster housed a fire that burned with a cold blue flame. It produced heat but it looked cold. 

“Can you protect me from the Dark Lord somehow?” Draco’s voice sounded thin, hollow. 

She thought for a while and then responded uncertainly “I don’t know. I tried to protect Rodolphus. The Dark Lord promised me his life for enduring the initiation trials silently and obeying his orders. I know Rodolphus is fine. I dont know whether he’d listen to me if I begged for your protection.   
He could hardly kill the person who brought me back... Surely. So.. he probably wouldn’t kill you.. But he also isn’t big on gratitude...” she faded into silence. 

Draco swallowed. “So, no?” 

Hermione grimaced. “I can’t guarantee it. I might be able to. I’d do everything I possibly could to. But He.. He..   
...it’s difficult to know what to expect from him and I have no leverage. All I could do would be to beg.. weep.. I don’t know what I could offer him.   
He wanted to mark me. Can a person even have two marks?   
He will be so angry with me when he finds out.   
But.. but.. i can ..probably.. take Harrys mark off if the Dark Lord releases my magic. He can’t stay mad over it.” 

Draco looked at her like she was insane. “What the fuck are you talking about, mudblood. You can’t take off a mark. It’s there till you die.   
Do you think I’d even be here if I could just take off the Dark Lord’s mark?” 

Hermione bit her lip and looked at Draco. “It..it doesn’t matter. I was talking rubbish. I forgot that the mark is permanent.   
But I think I know how we can save you from the Dark Lords anger, Draco.” 

He looked dubious. “You aren’t the forgetting type granger. And if you were then any plan you might come up with would be worthless.   
I’m sure it is anyway. Nothing your kind produces is worth a damn” 

She rolled her eyes. “Oh don’t be a ferret, just when I was starting to like you Draco”   
She experienced satisfaction at his look of surprise.   
“its.. risky. But if it worked it would be the answer to everything.” She frowned slightly. “Well.. sort of.. Not really.   
I think the world might not see it that way but really...would the British wizarding world be any safer under Ha-..   
under the other dark lord?!   
It’s only a matter of time before he starts doing the same kind of thing anyway.”   
Draco stared at her blankly.   
“Ugh. Do I have to spell it out. We give ..him.. to the Dark Lord.”

The blond boy’s eyes bulged out of his head. He whispered, as if he were terrified of someone hearing.   
“Don’t even think that loudly.. oh god.. Just thinking about what.. what.. P-P”   
he stopped and closed his eyes. 

Hermione rose from the chair carefully and padded across the marble to the couch. She sat down next to Draco and, not expecting her proximity he yelped and jumped away from her.   
Remaining very still she looked at him with wide eyes. 

“It’s the best way.   
I.. i think i know how we could do it.” 

Draco lay splayed against the arm of the sofa, away from her and was breathing quickly. “I.. I can’t.” He choked out.   
“I just want to forget ..” 

She looked at him sadly. “Me too” she said. “I want to go back to fourth year.” 

She looked away and wrapped her arms around herself. The thin cotton dress wasn’t very warm and she suddenly felt chilled to the bone. It wasn’t to do with the temperature in the room.   
In her peripheral vision she registered Draco slowly pulling himself up from his half supine position to sit next to her again. He seemed to be indecisively hovering and then she was stunned to feel his black robed arm curl around her shoulders. 

“Its.. Its ok, Granger. It will be ok somehow.” 

She looked at him and sighed. “I guess. Thank you for the potions, by the way.” Draco looked startled.   
“What potions?!” 

She furrowed her brow. “The ones you gave Harry. I recognised the purple one against cruciatus effects from when Severus asked me to get some for him in his lab.” 

Draco jumped up from the couch as if a fire was lit under him and sprinted out of the room.   
There were sounds of things crashing. 

He came back very slowly, dragging his feet against the ground as if something had made him very weary. 

“He’s been in my room while I was out. Oh Merlin...He can get in here whenever he wants to. My wards...the entrance... It’s all for shit.   
He removed a cruciatus potion from the back. I would never have noticed it gone. I have a lot of them. What else did he give you? I couldn’t find anything else missing.”   
He slouched over to her and let himself drop onto the couch beside her again, a little further away.   
“He obviously cruciated you since dinner last night? What did you do?” 

Hermione looked away uncomfortably.   
“The other potion was in a clear phial. It was milky white and thin. It tasted of peppermint. He said it was a contraceptive potion.” She couldn’t resist adding bitterly “He said he would get it for me because he wanted to enjoy me for a while before I had his children” 

Draco looked at her as if she had slapped him. 

She continued. “I.. I took it. I didn’t want to make him angry again.   
I know that peppermint is never an ingredient in contraceptive potions. I guess Harry doesn’t know that. Or maybe he knew I knew and didn’t care. This morning he didn’t even wait for me to wake up before he..”  
She couldn’t finish the sentence and swallowed uncomfortably.

“After he had showered he used the cruciatus on me because he caught me thinking of the Dark Lord.   
...I’m not allowed to think of anyone but him.” Her voice wavered slightly on the last part.   
She looked up, suddenly afraid that Draco would be sneering at her, but he was just sitting there staring at her with a haunted look on his face.   
When he spoke it was like the life had been sucked out of him. 

“Do you know.. my father gave me to Macnair for a night when I was twelve... because he lost a hand in a card game.   
My mother didn’t say a word. She was too afraid of him. “ Draco’s eyes drifted away from her, to stare blankly at the empty chair opposite.   
“My father likes to gamble. He’s usually quite good at it – else we’d be living like weasels by now.” 

When Draco spoke next his voice sounded thin and tense and strangely eerie 

“...After he did it once.. he would stake me whenever he was on a losing streak  
...or if I’d pissed him off  
...or if I was asked for.   
By the time the Dark Lord required me to ..to fuck assets – foreign ministers and dignitaries mainly - for him, It wasn’t as if I hadn’t already been shared around half the Death Eaters anyway.” He narrowed his eyes at the empty chair again as if someone he loathed sat in it. 

In earlier times.. perhaps when she was at Hogwarts.. or even maybe after she had been staying in Voldemort’s domain, Hermione might have said something like “oh god! I’m so sorry!” or “that’s terrible”   
After she lived with the Dark Lord she might have tried to make a joke or changed the subject.   
Now though.. what could you say? She’d met Lucius. It was what it was. No amount of patting or shhhing would make it otherwise. 

“Draco..” she started.   
He looked at her angrily, obviously expecting some kind of trite consolation. 

“I’m not sorry I punched you in the nose and called you ferret.. but if I’m ever in the position to prevent anyone hurting you, I’ll do it.   
You need to obliviate me.. and then you need to-” 

She was entirely unprepared when Draco put his hand over her mouth and pulled her against him, crushing her shoulder against his chest. He took his hand off her mouth and wrapped it around her too, turning her and pulling her close like a child with a comforter.   
“Just. Don’t. Say. Anything.” He gritted out, with obvious difficulty.   
“This doesn’t mean I think you’re a person or..anything..” She heard him say softly. He bowed his head and rested his chin on her shoulder then. 

After a few seconds she gingerly wrapped her own arms around him, resting her hands on his lower back. She didn’t pat or rub. She just held him. They stayed that way for a long time. She rested her head against Draco’s neck. He was warm and he smelled of a sweet, sharp, cologne. She almost felt safe for a moment.   
If she could just go to sleep like this and never wake up.. 

Draco’s voice roused her from near slumber when he said, sounding miserable. “Tell me your plan” 

She didn’t want to let go of him and her arms tightened briefly before she reluctantly pulled back. 

Draco looked somehow softer than she had ever seen him before. Almost unguarded. 

“it wouldn’t be easy” she began. “and you’d be at risk from all sides.” 

Draco looked at her tiredly. “I already figured that much”   
He rose slowly from the couch and walked to the black vitrine, drawing out an ornate dark blue bottle.   
Two goblets he snatched from the top of the cabinet clirred and resonated in his hand as he walked back to her, tossing himself back down on the couch by her side.   
He slouched, half reclining against the back of it and offered one of the delicate jewel encrusted works of art to her. 

“This is an elfin crystal set that has been in my family for over five hundred years.   
It is the kind of thing you never dare to profane by drinking from it.” He sneered. “My father entrusted it to me as a reward when I was twelve. A year later he beat me bloody because I allowed the house elf to dust it.   
I performed the cleaning charm myself from that point on.” 

He raised the blue bottle. “This.. this is a type of liqueur made from the berries of the Gelfthorn bush.   
Not just any berries though.. The Gelfthorn bush, which a prissy little bookworm like yourself probably knows has been extinct for over two hundred years.. - maybe once in a decade it produces berries in winter.   
If the snow doesn’t kill them off – and its an alpine bush so the snow always kills them off – the berries grown in winter are...were the sweetest, richest and most sought after of delicacies.” 

“This – “ Draco raised the bottle as if it were a beer and he were toasting a round at the three broomsticks with friends. “This is probably the last bottle in existence.. anywhere.. of winter Gelfthornberry liqueur.” 

“I got it as a reward when I was fourteen for being..” He paused and his face grimaced wretchedly   
“..for attending a kind of party, shall we say. I..I nearly died.   
Father was ..contrite.. for a while. He gave me his most valuable bottle.   
It’s..priceless.   
And we’re going to drink it down to the last drop. And then we’re going to smash the goblets.” 

Draco’s face was terrible to behold. 

“Now tell me the bloody plan so we can hammer it out and get drunk already.”

 

Hermione gulped and began.   
“Well.. I thought.. with the mark, Har-.. um he can probably control whether I can leave his wards or not. So you probably can’t just take me out of here without his knowledge anyway.” 

Draco looked at her infuriated and disappointed but she raised her hand 

“I wasn’t finished.. God!   
Look.. He actually created the opportunity himself. He wants you to lure Rodolphus out. What you have to do is convince him that Rodolphus wont be lured unless I’m going to be there. The details aren’t clear to me yet.   
Whether it’s better to try to convince him that Rodolphus believes he is returning me...”  
she wrinkled her forehead.. “No, it sounds implausible. He’d never buy it. It has trap written all over it.”   
“OK.. as Severus says.. the best lie is hidden in the truth.. He needs to believe that Rodolphus has been convinced that you have been infiltrating his base and are going to smuggle me out.“ 

Draco raised his hands   
“Wait – stop! Why does Lestrange want you so badly. To gain the Dark Lord’s favour? And why does he want that fuck anyway? He whored you out to me just to lay his hands on him.   
Lestrange is worse than my father. He’s a vicious bastard. Believe me! Didn’t you say that you begged the Dark Lord for his life?! What the fuck would you do that for?!   
I need to know these things, Granger! It’s my life on the line. Everyone in this little farce will bend over backwards to keep you alive so they can screw you over a little longer. Me they’ll just kill.” 

Hermione scowled momentarily and then nodded. “Ok. but you have to swear that you won’t reveal anything I tell you to anyone who doesn’t already know it.” 

Draco thought for a while and then pulled his wand and made the oath. A faint wash of magic indicated it had been sealed. 

Hermione nodded again and began 

“it’s kind of.. complicated. Um. Well..you know about your godfather and the Dark Lord, right?” 

Draco looked at her blankly. 

Hermione raised an eyebrow. “Nothing?! Seriously? Ok.. well.. he was seduced by the Dark Lord when he was about our age, before the Dark Lord tried to kill Harr..him and lost his body. They.. resumed their relationship when he got a new body in the cemetery after the Triwizard tournament.” 

Draco looked slightly green. “That’s disgusting, Granger! Severus would never...” 

Hermione scowled at him, interrupting. “Not really.. The Dark Lord was a gorgeous looking man before he was killed. Severus was kind of hot too.. in a pale and surly way.. when he was younger. Personally.. I think he got better with age.” 

Draco raised his eyebrows and stared but said nothing. 

“Anyway.. so.. Severus belongs to the Dark Lord.. Their magic is really compatible. It’s hard for your godfather to resist him when he uses it.” 

Draco snorted “I’m trying to see how this, revolting though it may be, is related to Lestrange wanting you and Saint P. wanting Lestrange. get to the point!” 

Hermione swallowed. She nodded and looked at the floor and just spoke as quickly as she could, trying to get it out.   
“Ok. well.. um. My magic is compatible with theirs too. Especially the Dark Lord.   
Um.. I’m His, ...like Severus is. We’re all kind of... together. He wanted to bind us after the initiation.   
As in marriage binding, not binding my magic.” 

Glancing up, she tried to ignore the gaping, appalled, incredulous expression on the blonde’s face and turned her eyes back down to the floor. 

“But I need to go back to the beginning almost. The Dark Lord had Rodolphus show me around the dungeons when I first arrived in his ..castle or whatever it is.. and he kind of took a liking to me. Oh. Um. And he’s a vampire also.”   
Draco made a weak sound of dismay. She closed her eyes. 

“And.. skipping some things but after your father tortured me I said some things that pissed the Dark Lord off and he threw me in a cell. Rodolphus came and I let him bite me. I didn’t know what would happen. I.. it’s complicated. It doesn’t matter. But Rodolphus considers me his too.   
I’m beginning to wonder if there’s any of me left to be mine.   
So um.. some things happened and Severus almost died and then later I was in the lab with him and Rodolphus came and they had this huge argument and in the end Severus stupefied Rodolphus and called the Dark Lord and I begged him not to kill him.   
And he didn’t even punish me. He punished Severus a little though and he said he’d spare Rodolphus if i withstood the trials and followed every order   
...but you know that already. And then you portkeyed me out of there in the middle of the initiation.” 

She tried to breathe. After a moment she opened her eyes and glanced up cautiously. Draco was gaping at her and blinking.   
He spluttered “Wait ..I ..I need to get my head around what I want to ask first.” He gritted his teeth together. 

“Ok.. lets start with – WHY in HADES would you want to fuck the Dark Lord?! You’re complaining about.. about Him upstairs and you want.. that?!   
and what the fuck does the Dark Lord want to marry you for?! Forgetting – why the blazes he wants to marry at all.. does he want offspring from you too?! Merlin, Granger!   
– but no. Go back to the part where the man uniting the wizarding world under a banner of justified inequality and hate for all things muggle suddenly wants to bed a mudblood, irrespective how clever or attractive she might be.” 

Hermione smirked wryly “Why Draco. How nice of you to say so.”   
“I told you. My magic is compatible with his. I can’t resist it when he uses it on me. It’s just not possible to fight it.   
And besides.. he-...he’s not like he is with everyone else to me.. at least.. not really. He’s..almost..nice sometimes.” 

She hesitated, worried she might be saying too much, but said anyway, if only for the sake of Draco’s apparently weighting on asthetics 

“He doesn’t look the way you think he does anymore either. I don’t know if he wants children. He never said. It wasn’t why he wanted to bind us all.” 

Draco rolled his eyes at her “if he wanted you for your compatible magic, he wouldn’t have made you a squib, would he?! I’ve already sworn an oath granger. What are you not telling me?” 

She shifted uneasily. If she told him about her ability he’d probably refuse to help her. Draco was pretty much the most pure blooded wizard possible. He’d be scared of her. 

“It’s beside the point, Draco. It doesn’t matter. Rodolphus wants me back because he considers me his and because he doesn’t want me to die.. which I will..within the next month if i don’t see him.   
He wants Rodolphus for the same reason – to keep me alive. He swore to let Rodolphus live if I took his mark.   
He promised that if i didn’t, he’d capture him and torture him till I did.” She turned her arm over and exposed the mark on her wrist that had faded back up onto her skin.   
“As you see – I gave in. But Rodolphus refuses to come here and He refuses to let me go.   
Enter Draco Malfoy with an indecent proposal..” 

Draco bit the inside of his cheek in irritation. She had noticed him do that in class sometimes when something he considered unfair happened to himself or other Slytherins. 

“You must be a fucking fantastic lay, Granger” he sneered abruptly. “I might have to have a go just to see what all the fuss is about”

Hermione frowned, unaccountably hurt by the implication. Was he calling her a slut? 

“I’ll have you know that up until last night I hadn’t actually.. done it before..   
The Dark Lord was protecting me because he wanted to.. um.. marry me I guess. He had Severus on a tight rein and Rodolphus would be overjoyed if I remained a virgin forever because it kept my blood so sweet. I guess he’ll have to be disappointed.” She looked away angrily and folded her arms. 

Draco placed the goblet he had been turning over in his hands on the table next to the blue bottle.   
“Malfoys dont.. apologise” he ground out after a while. “So get back to the plan!”   
“You want to convince your roommate up there that Lestrange thinks he’s getting you back – why should he really bring you? I can lie to Lestrange and he’ll never know you aren’t coming.   
Or he could just glamour or polyjuice some muggle.” 

Hermione thought about it. It was a problem. The solution occurred to her after a moment. 

“Rodolphus would sense my proximity. That wouldn’t fool him. He can feel where I am and what state I’m in.   
He was how the Dark Lord was tracking us.   
A glamour would be useless and polyjuice would fail because it would just feel to him like there was more than one of me suddenly and he’d get suspicious. You can tell Him that and he’ll believe it.” 

“I have to actually be there to pull the ruse off and lure him in.   
But we need to find a way for the setting to appear to disadvantage Rodolphus and yet in reality disadvantage him.”

Draco’s face suddenly fell and he turned to her with panicked eyes. “you want me to go to the Dark Lord and confess everything..” 

Hermione bit her lip. “No. You can’t do that either. Harry might find out. He knew about some things that happened with the Dark Lord that nobody else knew about.” 

Draco appeared to deflate slightly in relief “You would have to go to Rodolphus and make him keep it a secret.   
Maybe.. maybe Severus too..   
but you’d have to ask him whether he thinks he can truly keep anything secret from the Dark Lord. If he can’t you can’t tell him!!   
It might be better not to try. Asking would just make him suspicious.   
Rodolphus can keep a secret. We’ll just have to figure out a situation that looks like he has Rodolphus trapped and at a disadvantage when the reverse is true.” 

Draco nodded grimly and bit his cheek again. Hermione brightened.. 

“I think I know a way.. maybe.. Do you know if animagi can perform wandless magic when transformed?”   
Draco shifted his eyes uneasily. 

“I have no idea, Granger. But I can probably find out. Why?” 

She frowned. It had seemed obvious why to her. Unless Draco thought she might be talking about someone other than Harry. 

“Draco.. are you an animagus too?!” she asked him point blank. 

He bristled. “Who told you? How did you find out?! If you tell anyone!! Its all your fault anyway. Stupid mudblood calling me names. You did something to me, didn’t you?!” 

The answer began to dawn on her like the sun rising on a new day. She burst out laughing and Draco snarled and got up and stalked away, pacing. Hermione tried to pull herself together and keep a straight face. 

“Really? A ferret??! No.. i didnt do anything.. I had no idea – I was talking about harr..” she bit the word off in time. 

“That’s.. that’s not that bad, Draco. Ferrets are agile, clever. ... vicious too, even if they look quite cute.” She smirked. “Could be worse! You could be a slug, or a pig, or even an elephant. I mean.. what good would an elephant be?   
A ferret is useful. You can sneak around without anyone noticing!” 

Draco turned to her, clearly unconvinced.   
“An embarrassment is what it is! A Malfoy transforming into... into vermin! We poison ferrets on our grounds. My father would.. “ He stopped.   
“¬He’s an animagus you said. What is he?” 

She told him.   
He looked even more miserable and scuffed back to her, flinging himself down in the chair melodramatically. 

“But he’s a Gryffindor.. It isn’t fair!! I should be a snake! I deserve it!” 

She felt sympathy for him despite the faint amusement she still tried to hide behind a serious face.   
“It’s a rare ability, Draco. It’s good that you have it at all. I’m glad you’re not a snake.” 

She hesitated, curiosity pricking her. “Would you show me?..” 

“NO!!” he growled angrily. 

“Pleeeeeese?” she whined, smiling. 

“It’s not up for discussion, Granger. What does pott- fuck! We need to come up with something to call him. Something safe.” 

She nodded. “Ok.. something meaningless – like john doe? Or something descriptive like Apep?” 

Draco looked at her quizzically   
“I was just thinking of ‘the light lord or scarhead or even lord thingy” 

She thought for a moment. “lets call him scar. There’s a muggle movie about lions and one lion is always pretending to be on the good guys’ side but he’s really an evil bastard”   
Draco smirked. “the Lion King?”   
She reeled her jaw back in.

“I do leave the wizarding world occasionally, Granger. Scar is fine.   
What does scar’s animagus form have to do with anything?” 

“There’s a spell to force a wizard into and out of their animagus form. Severus knows it..and Remus Lupin. I dont know who else you could ask. If you could surprise him and force him into his snake form maybe you could trap him.. or at least distract him long enough to stupefy him.” 

Draco looked dubious. “I cant do wandless magic at all. I don’t know if he could do it. Snakes don’t have hands, but I wouldn’t put it past ..scar.. to have found a way around it.” 

She stared at him. “Maybe I can find out somehow. But I don’t know how. You’re going to have to obliviate me before I go back. I won’t remember.” 

Draco swallowed. “You’re leaving me with everything, you know that, Granger? I could just pretend we had a good time tonight and forget about the plan.” 

“You could.” She agreed. “you probably should.” 

He flicked his thumbnail with his finger nervously. “ok. ..ok. It could work.” He muttered. “it’s not quite right yet.. but I can figure out the rest. “ He stared into the distance for a while.   
“I’ll need your memories for Lestrange. He ..isn’t friendly with me like he apparently is with you. I haven’t gotten closer to him than the length of the great hall in the last couple of years. He’s dangerous.” 

“Tomorrow morning” she said. “Take the whole night at once” 

Draco blinked.. “No.. now! I-..” 

She frowned and then raised an eyebrow. “You what?” 

He dropped his eyes. “Nothing. We’ll do it in the morning.”   
Draco pulled himself out of the chair by the large rounded arms and walked over to sit on the couch next to her.   
He reached for the delicate blue bottle and drew his wand, casting a charm and pulling the cork. 

A strange thick golden aroma filled the air. It had hints of blueberry and magnolia. It was sweeter than honey.   
She inhaled and her nose warmed in a strangely pleasant way.   
Draco’s eyes glittered as he turned to her, the blue fire reflecting in them slightly. 

“Its different than I imagined” he said very quietly, not sounding at all like the spoiled brat she’d always known.   
He sounded confused.   
The scent was intoxicating but not cloying. She sniffed at the air and smiled.   
It made her think of childhood. Her parents. Christmas. Crookshanks. Good memories. 

Draco poured the bottle and the liquid was surprisingly azure blue and thick like syrup. It gleamed in a way that evoked impressions of unicorn blood.   
They both stared at it as he filled their goblets to half way and then put the bottle down. 

Hermione bit her lip. “Draco.. are you finding yourself remembering..”   
He croaked hollowly “yes.” But didnt elaborate. 

They reached forward as one and took the goblets. Hermione brought it to her lips and inhaled deeply, feeling like her mind was being wrapped in warm silk.. or like she was being hugged by her mother.   
Draco just watched her, transfixed, as she tilted the glass and the liquid slowly slid down to her lips. 

She took in a small mouthful. It was like drinking melted honey but the taste was entirely different.   
It was beyond delicious. Her eyes lit in wonder.   
It tasted like.. like... like things she could almost remember when she was very young.   
It tasted like flowers and warm breeze and clouds and hope. It tasted of promises made and kept. When she was a small child, the word magic had evoked impressions and the liqueur tasted of that feeling. Wonder and brightness and possibility. Sweet and herb and warm and fresh all at once. 

“Oh Draco!!” she gasped. “It's-..” she couldn’t finish the sentence. She just closed her eyes and floated through the sensations. A whimper next to her told her that Draco had tried the liqueur. 

They both sipped slowly at their goblets in silence, experiencing internal revelations and feeling..beautiful things.. caress their minds until Hermione realised she was tilting the crystal for the last drip of blue wonder to slide slowly down onto her tongue. She savoured it and turned, suddenly aware of Draco at her side.   
He was leaning back on the couch, almost horizontal.   
There was a small drop of blue at the corner of his mouth and the thought crossed her mind that she could just.. just.. lean over and lick it off but his small pointy tongue slipped out and swept it away. 

She looked at him and it was as if he were changed.. although he looked the same.   
His skin was opalescent in the firelight.. his eyes like silver moons. The thin lips that had seemed so cruel and arrogant looked delicate and innocent.   
His hair was glorious. She wanted to touch it. 

She looked at his eyes and he was looking at her strangely 

“More?” he asked, thickly. 

The thought of drinking more almost made her want to cry. This was ..all.. there ever would be of this.   
She didn’t want it to be gone forever. It was so very lovely.   
And then she realised she was crying.   
Draco raised a slow hand and brushed tears away from her eyes with his thumb. “Don’t cry Granger. It hurts to look at you when you cry.” He said softly.   
She knew what he meant and smiled sadly. 

“its just.. sad.. that this is the last.”   
He swallowed and looked away.   
“I know. We have to finish it though. I want to finish it.. in case...” 

The death of Draco suddenly stood in the room like some kind of tangible ghastly apparition. She grimaced. 

“You won’t! Forget what we talked about! I’d rather have you as a friend in this place than lose you”   
He looked up at her and his face seemed to twist in pain.   
“You want to be my friend?” he rasped, his lip trembling.   
“Merlin.. pour another glass.. I want to forget what’s happening and remember some more” he sounded desolate. 

She poured and handed him the goblet.   
His hand shook. He tipped it to his mouth and took a large mouthful as if it would ward off his thoughts. 

Hermione sipped at hers and reeled slightly, becoming fascinated with the pretty elfin goblet and the unusual movement of the liqueur when she tilted it back and forth. It seemed to glow with the firelight. 

She was reminded of a time when she had been camping with her parents and grandparents when she was very young. They had gone to the banks of some lake and the water was very pale blue and cold.   
Her father had taken her in a little boat onto the lake and had fished while she had played and talked with two stuffed animals who she was ‘friends with’ at the time. They had pretended some silliness. They were on a quest for treasure or something.   
Her prattling had almost certainly scared away the fish but her father never told her to be quiet. He just sat in the boat and held the rod and watched her, smiling and looked around at the peaceful forest and mountains. 

“What was he like?” Draco asked softly. 

She looked at him, confused. “who?” 

“Your father” he said as if it were obvious. “You were just telling me about him fishing when you were young.” 

She furrowed her brow. “I didn’t realise I was speaking. I was just thinking about it.” 

Draco smirked but it was a good natured smirk of amusement. “Well you were. Your lips were moving.” 

She thought about his question before answering.   
“He was.. quiet. Clever. But just.. not overly flamboyant or expressive. He liked simple things. He had silver rimmed square glasses. He was a dentist, - I guess you knew that already though. He didn’t talk to me about every little thing like mum did.. but when I was worried or had a problem he was the best one to go to. He would listen and then ask questions and it would all become clearer.   
I miss him. He was a good dad!” 

Draco was looking at her with something like envy on his face. He took a small sip from his goblet and the envy look faded slightly and became a little dreamy.   
“My best memory of my father is my seventh birthday. He gave me a training broom and then he spent the rest of the day teaching me how to fly it.   
He stood beside me the entire time with his hands out, ready to catch me if I fell. And then I flew higher, till I was almost as high as the top of the walnut tree and he was telling me to come back down.   
I hadn’t heard him sound like that.. worried.. alarmed.. and it scared me so I tried to tilt the broom down to fly lower but I lost control and fell off.   
I was falling and I thought I was going to break all my bones but he caught me in his arms and hugged me so hard I couldn’t breathe and yelled something at me. I don’t remember what.   
I just felt so happy that he had been scared. Stupid. That my happiest memory of him is when he was angry at me.”   
Draco blushed faintly. 

Hermione smiled. “I think it’s a good memory. His anger was because he was frightened of losing you.. because he loved you.” 

Draco took another gulp and finished off his goblet.   
“Do you still want to see my animagus form?” he asked after a minute. She nodded eagerly. 

“Yes! Oh go on! I promise I won’t say anything” 

He half smiled and looked sheepish. It was a strange look on his aristocratic features.   
“If you told anyone they’d never believe it. They’d think you were making a joke at my expense” 

He fumbled at his pocket and drew his wand, not flicking it, just holding it in his hand loosely.   
Then, more slowly than it had been with Harry, his features started to blur and shift and he drew in toward the centre, the black of his robe giving way to white fur until a small white ferret stood on the black velvet of the couch.   
It had grey eyes and a pink nose and ears and she laughed when it reared up on its back legs and folded its tiny arms in a sulky pose very much evoking the impression of Draco at his arrogant best. 

Hermione reached out gingerly and stroked a finger over his bullet head and the ferret-Draco flinched and unfolded his arms looking up at her startled.   
She did it again, only this time she ran her finger down the length of his body. He was very soft. His fur felt like a rabbit she had petted once. Softer than crookshanks had been.   
He arched his long back as her finger moved over it and darted his head at her in a ferret expression of shock. 

“Nobody has petted you like this before?” she asked, smiling. The tiny head shook a no. 

“Do you want me to keep doing it?” she asked.   
He stood still for a long minute and seemed to be thinking before he slowly nodded and scratched a tiny hand over his face. She smiled wider. A ferret facepalm then. 

“It’s not a big deal, there’s no need for that” she sniffed. 

He crooked his head and lowered himself down to stand on all four paws again. The implication was obvious: hurry up and pet me then, if you’re going to.   
She stroked a finger over his head again between his ears and he gave a small squeak. Then she cupped her hand and ran it down his back which arched again as her hand moved over it, and down his tail.   
She repeated the motion several times until he hunkered down on his haunches and lowered himself to lie down.   
She stroked him once more and then she slid her hands underneath his stomach. 

He leapt a foot into the air and darted to the end of the couch before turning and looking at her, breathing quickly. 

“Calm down, Draco” she said, shaken herself by his reaction. “I was just going to pick you up and put you in my lap. I.. I wouldn’t hurt you. I’m sorry, you seemed so relaxed.. I didn’t think...” 

The ferret curled its tail around itself and sat, looking at her for a long time. She didn’t know what he was thinking – this face was even more difficult to read than his human one.   
After a while he walked stiffly, his back arched, over to her and climbed onto her lap, lowering himself gingerly and curling into a tight ball with his head on his tail.   
He was very warm and soft on the white cotton of the babydoll dress. It was nice. Like a hot water bottle. It reminded her of crookshanks.   
She cautiously stroked his fur again and he twitched a tiny ear, watching her warily. 

She curled the corner of her mouth up wryly and whispered. “I won’t hurt you. I promise!”   
Only then did he close his eyes and relax somewhat, his body slowly uncurling to limpness. 

She ran her fingertips all through his soft soft fur and pulled his tail gently straight, gripping her hand around it loosely and stroking down its length. Draco squeaked softly again but his eyes didnt open.   
She continued to pet him soothingly for a few minutes and then wrapped her arm slowly, cautiously around the curl of his back, scooping him up to lie in its crook,   
His eye cracked slightly as she lifted him, scooting back on the couch to lean against the side armrest with her knees raised. She held Draco in the crook of her arm up against her chest, protectively, like an infant. 

When she started to stroke his throat and belly he made a sound between a squeak and a growl and she assumed this was the ferret equivalent of a purr. “Do you want some of the liqueur?” She asked quietly. 

His eyes opened, looking up at her from a position of limp relaxed enjoyment. He nodded and she reached for the goblet.   
She frowned, looking at him and looking at the glass. Then she dipped a finger in the thick blue liquid and drew it out, carefully waiting for it to drip so as not to waste any.   
He watched her and seemed to look down at his paws. She wondered at it and it dawned on her. 

“Nobody will ever hear about this Draco. I swear. I just don’t want to tip it all over you” 

He nodded and looked up at her again. His nose twitched as she brought her finger to his mouth and he licked it with his hot rough little tongue eagerly till it was clean and then his head fell back against her arm and his whole body seemed to stretch languorously.   
When she stroked him again, tickling his stomach, he growled loudly in his tiny high pitched voice. 

She fed him several more fingerfuls of the liquid and he seemed to melt against her, his eyes tiny slits of abject pleasure. Suddenly he curled upright and climbed up, putting his tiny claws on her collar bone, his bullet head an inch from her chin. Then he transformed. It was strange. One second she had a small white animal in her arms, the next there was a blond wizard straddling her hips and looking down at her with an expression of near painful wonder and confusion.   
He leaned down without warning and pressed his lips against hers, closing his eyes.   
She kissed him back, tilting her head. It seemed right. He was offering to risk everything he had for her. The least she could give him was a kiss. 

He didn’t try to deepen the kiss. There was not even a hint of his tongue and his hands stayed on her shoulders but it was wonderful. It was phenomenal.   
He leaned back from her and opened his eyes, looking down at her with an unreadable expression. 

“I ..just.. wanted to know what that would feel like” he offered as an explanation.”   
He turned his head, looking at the table and her quarter full goblet and his empty one. The bottle of liqueur was a quarter full. He looked back at her. And then he reached for her goblet. 

“Maybe.. maybe we can keep the rest and share it after its all over.. if-..” 

Hermione leaned her head against the armrest and looked up at his delicate features.   
“We’ll get through it, Draco. The plan will work. And I’ll find a way to protect you. There.. might still be some things I can offer for leverage. I think I can persuade the Dark Lord to see that you have given him more than any of his other servants by rescuing me and bringing him..scar.” 

Draco looked down. “and Dumbledore” he said quietly. 

“Yeah. That too. .. I’m at least seventy percent confident that I can save you if we both get to him” 

Draco was swirling the viscous blue liquid in the goblet thoughtfully. “It’ll have to do” he said distractedly.   
“You know.. it’s peculiar but..I don’t feel as angry as I did. It must be this stuff.” 

Hermione smirked and brushed his silky hair back from his face. His eyes darted to her, caught off guard.   
“Must be..” she said. “Maybe there’s some way to restore the plant somehow. There must be seeds or remains of some kind somewhere.” 

He looked at her as if he was considering the same thing and blinked, obviously storing the idea away for the moment. Then he drew his wand and levitated the cork back into the bottle, casting a stasis charm over it. 

“-Or perhaps there’s a way to duplicate the liquid itself.. Severus might know.” She gasped   
“yes. I’m sure there must be! Oh damn. Why did we drink so much of it? What if there isn’t enough left to work with? “ 

Draco looked at her with a faint smirk. “Then we’ll be the last two people to ever know what Gelfthorn liqueur tasted like. Care to share the last mouthful?” 

She smiled back at him and realised that opening and sharing this bottle of liqueur, the finest, last, drop of something wonderous.. that Draco had obviously suffered greatly for.. was probably the greatest gift anyone had ever given her. 

“Yes please!” she said wistfully, trying not to think about how it could be the last time she ever tasted the beautiful stuff. 

Draco threw the entire rest of the goblet back in one mouthful. The moue of shocked disappointment on her face was irrepressible. Of course he wouldn’t share the last sips of it. What had she been thinking?! Stupid! It was Draco. And really – he shouldn’t. He deserved it.. needed it more than she did. 

Then he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers and she hesitated.   
He pressed insistently and finally she kissed him back. No sooner had she opened herself to him slightly than he was deepening the kiss and a warm mouthful of Gelfthorn liqueur flowed into her mouth.   
She moaned at the sensation of the creamy sweet reactive substance swirling around his tongue as it stroked her own and twirled around it. 

She thrust her own tongue back against his and passed some of the liquid back. They both swallowed, groaning in pleasure and continued to kiss, sucking gently at each other’s lips and tongues to get the last remaining drips and sheens of liqueur. 

Finally he drew back, leaving them both panting.   
“Oh god..” Hermione moaned softly. “We should have been drinking it like that from the beginning!” 

Draco snickered and it had overtones of his usual arrogant self.   
“One more thing that nobody is ever going to hear about, Granger”   
He dropped his leg to the ground and got up off her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him kissing her.. or stopping kissing her.   
It had been.. nice.   
Draco was nothing like she had thought.. he didn’t kiss like she had presumed he would – Not that she had ever thought about that much, obviously.   
And he was nothing like his father either when she had thought he was like a Lucius in training.   
She looked up at him, preoccupied. He was transfiguring the schnapps bottle to look like a bottle of cheap mead in black glass of the type they sold at the hogshead. He put it back into the vitrine at the side and paused before putting another couple of bottles in front of it. 

She pulled herself up from the couch and picked up the two crystal goblets, carrying them over to the cabinet where the others stood. 

“Shall we go to bed, Granger?” Draco asked from behind her, wrapping his arms around her and taking the goblets from her hands.   
She realised she would normally have felt threatened by that.. his proximity. The casual encirclement.   
She didn’t. She felt.. comforted. 

“Yes. I’m feeling strange.. I think. Not drunk at all but..perhaps the ..other..effects of the liqueur are still lingering a bit.” 

Draco pulled his wand and cast a cleaning charm on the goblets and placed them back with the others.   
She didn’t remind him of his desire to smash them. She was pleased he hadn’t. They were beautiful.   
Even if Lucius was a black hearted arse, these were a family heirloom and didn’t really belong only to him.   
It would be wrong to destroy them. 

Draco seemed to be thinking something along those lines too as he stood with his hand on the cabinet looking at them and sighed. He turned away sharply. “I just.. don’t feel angry enough to smash them anymore. Come on.”

Draco walked off through the door he’d exited at speed before when she’d mentioned potions and she trailed after him. 

His bedroom was set in light and dark green tones together with black. She wasn’t surprised. He did consider himself the consummate Slytherin. The black futon bed was marginally unexpected. 

The room looked like a blend of classical and oriental lines. He had paintings in an abstract style on his walls.   
She thought it might be Piet Mondrian but the colours seemed off.   
The overall impression was quite empty. Aesthetically pleasing in its sharp perfect lines but devoid of warmth or life. 

She thought about how Draco had reacted to being petted and decided he probably spent all his time in a shell of snotty arrogance for a reason.   
He certainly hadn’t had the most loving home and she doubted his friends at Hogwarts were the kind that you could open up to. Slytherins tended to view the softer emotions as weakness and would move in for the kill. 

She wondered if Draco had ever been lonely at school. 

Turning to him she saw he was unfastening his robe at the side and a sickening thud of memory hit her of the previous night with Harry.   
She felt that black horrible fear slide tendrils into her gut and chill her back. 

Draco, naked but for green silk boxers had slid back a white rice paper panelled wall and was hanging his robe up carefully.   
She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to stop shaking. 

He turned back and alarm broke out on his face. “Granger! Shit!.. I’m sorry. Calm down!! Its ok.”   
He reached into the wardrobe and pulled out a white tee-shirt and quickly threw it on before he approached her. 

“I didn’t think. I wasn’t going to-.. Damn it! “ He frowned and rushed back to the wardrobe and retrieved his wand from the pocket of his robe and approached her again.   
She tried to smile reassuringly but it just looked queasy. “I-I know Draco. It’s ok. I’m sorry. I can’t help it.” 

He raised his wand and her cotton dress lengthened to the floor and grew short arms. 

“Thanks.” She mumbled, feeling stupid. His eyes were wide. 

“Look.. I won’t touch you. You don’t need to worry. I just hadn’t thought about it. I’ll transfigure single beds.”   
She shook her head urgently.   
“No. It’s ok. I know. I know you’re not him. It was just for a second there I couldn’t help remembering.. but it’s ok now. Please don’t. I..I feel safer when I know you’re around.” She looked down, aware of how irrational and needy she sounded and hoped he wouldn’t take it the wrong way.. but for some reason she knew he wouldn’t.   
He did for some bizarre reason make her feel safe. His presence was oddly comforting. 

Draco looked unsure.   
Actually he looked fundamentally shaken. He stepped back, running his hand through his hair nervously. 

“Granger... Look-..” He trailed off. 

They both stood and the silence became uncomfortable. 

“Maybe it’s better if I-..”   
Draco didn’t finish the sentence because he was already shrinking and growing fur and then he stood up on his hind legs on the floor, peering up at her towering over him.   
He tilted his head and then turned and scampered in that strange bouncing-slinky way that ferrets have over to the bed and jumped up, scratching and clawing his way onto the comforter.   
He walked to the pillow and turned in a circle, falling on his side and curling in upon himself. 

Hermione watched him, amused despite herself. He made an excellent ferret.   
If it weren’t for the fact that he was an adult wizard, she’d love him for a pet. 

She walked over to the very low bed and pulled back the covers, climbing in slowly and burrowing down, wrapping herself up warm.   
Draco opened one eye a crack and looked at her then closed it again slowly. 

She reached up and stroked his head gently, curling her finger around behind his small round ear. His whiskers twitched but he remained still in a posture of sleep. 

“Thank you” she whispered and closed her eyes.

 

 

She woke to Draco shaking her roughly. 

“Granger, wake up!”   
She had no sooner opened her eyes than the panic on Draco’s face galvanised her into action. “It’s him isn’t it.”   
He nodded frantically. 

“I set wards throughout the corridor. Only one has gone off – he’s dismantled the others. Quick - Think of last night, starting at the moment you entered my quarters and ending right now.” 

Hermione blinked.. it was hard with that long a time period. After a few seconds she nodded. 

Draco drew a long strand of white ephemeral memory from her forehead and dropped it with some difficulty into a red potions bottle, stoppering the top and then casting some kind of charm on it before transfiguring it into a black velour slipper and running to toss it into his wardrobe.   
He raced back and dived under the covers pulling her against him.   
Hermione could hear steps in the other room as she felt both of their clothes vanish and then she heard him breathe “Obliviate!”


	28. Chapter 28

Disorientated Hermione blinked and looked down at.. Draco sneering at her?! In bed?! Naked??!   
She screamed and jerked away, pushing with her arms and kicking as he held her in place around the waist. 

“Shut it, mudblood or do I have to punish you again?” Draco’s voice was harsh and full of sadistic glee. 

She stopped screaming and panicked silently, trying to think.   
Harry was going to kill her. Literally. He would avada her. Why the hell would she sleep with Draco?!   
She couldn’t remember how she got here.. how did she get into bed with him?! Oh god.. 

She went over the last thing she could remember and understood. Harry.. Harry had given her to Draco for the night. There wasn’t a word to describe the revulsion she felt.   
Had Draco..   
he was leering at her.. of course he had. Probably over and over. She remembered Lucius.   
She was glad she couldn’t remember anything of the night. He must have obliviated her. 

She abruptly noticed Harry standing in the doorway, his face dark and threatening and looked at him desperately, not sure where to turn, the frying pan or the fire. 

“That’s enough Malfoy. Let her go.” 

Draco looked up. “Fuck off, Potter, we made a deal. I have her till midday” 

Harry raised his hand and Draco yelled and thrashed, hitting her in the chin in the process with one flailing arm.   
She yelped and crawled backward the moment she realised Draco’s hands were off her.   
Harry had marched over to the bed and now he grabbed her by the upper arm, dragging her bodily to her feet. He ripped the cover off the bed and transfigured it into a black woollen robe, helping her.. well.. forcing her into it. 

Draco was panting and whimpering, lying in the middle of the bed on his back, naked.   
He croaked, shocked. “you.. you cruciated me.. what the fuck Potter?!” 

Harry’s smile was something that hid under beds and frightened small children.   
“You weren’t listening, Malfoy. I told you to let her go. I warned you that I didn’t want to find out you’d hurt her. Your time is up. You had her over the night and that was already far too long.   
How many times have you obliviated her?! 

Draco couldn’t raise his head to look at them as he rolled his eyes. His voice was supremely controlled. He’d obviously been cruciated a lot in the past as it sounded almost normal, if a bit laboured on some words. 

“I liked the way she panicked every time she suddenly found herself in bed with me. It was the best part of having her. Fucking her when she first came out of it before she realised where she was and watching her eyes when she remembered what you did and why she was here.” 

“CRUCIO!!” Harry yelled. 

He composed himself again quickly and released the screaming twisting blond boy, who this time had tears in his eyes when he finally stopped jerking around and couldn’t quite stop twitching.   
“I’ve had enough of this now. You had your night. Go and find a way to get Lestrange here, Draco. Come and see me when you get back.”   
Draco snarled, gritted teeth and nodded. “Yes.. Potter.”   
Harry brightened. “Better, Malfoy. I should have just done that in the beginning. You’re not worthy of being in the same room as Hermione, letalone...” He scowled again. 

Hermione was standing beside him shaking and trying to turn invisible. She flinched back when he turned to her now. 

“I’m sorry, baby. I have to put you back under to go back to our rooms. I wish I could trust you.. but..you don’t know what’s in your best interests at the moment. You might do something daft.” He let the sentence fall and raised his hand and she felt herself fall into a warm contented haze. It was like balm. Her pinched face relaxed and she smiled a serene smile back at him.   
“Thank you Harry” came out of her mouth and the black haired boy grinned.   
“You’re welcome Mione. Don’t worry. I won’t let you remember him. It’ll all fade away like a bad dream. It never happened.” 

Harry turned to Malfoy. “If I ever find you’ve so much as implied something vaguely I’ll make you slice it off, yourself, Malfoy. And you are going to be your normal arrogant self if you see her again. I don’t want her thinking well of you because you’ve been overly nice to her for whatever reason.   
You’ve always been a little shit and that’s how you’re going to stay.” 

Draco nodded slowly. “yes, Potter” 

Harry turned and stalked out of the room and Hermione found herself following behind him like a balloon trailing after a small boy. Harry took her arm and walked her through a blank stretch of the wall. Out in the corridor he took her hand and they walked.   
Hermione felt very quiet inside. She observed things but nothing really mattered. It was a lovely feeling. She hoped she could stay like this forever. 

 

They were walking through corridors decorated in peach and grey when Ron suddenly turned the corner into the corridor up ahead and saw them both.   
His face reddened when he saw them holding hands and he started marching toward them. 

Harry stopped them both immediately. She heard him groan under his breath and wondered vaguely what he would do to Ron now. 

Ron had reached them now and stood in front of them both, fuming. His eyes flicked between them both and then down to their hands. 

“So you’re with Harry now, Hermione? Are you over your thing for You Know Who or is Harry just something to play with till you can get back there?”

Hermione felt her face twist into a hurt expression. Harry took a step to half stand in front of her against Ron.   
“Oi.. leave off, mate. She’s traumatized from being in that place and I’m only trying to help. Everyone here seems to want to tear her limb from limb.” 

Ron’s eyes bulged.   
“She’s not traumatised, She’s a snake. Look at how quickly she latched onto you! And you’re protecting her from being questioned. That’s what you’ve been doing, isn’t it? Harry – you know that we need to find out what she knows. Are you bloody mental, getting this close to her?! She..” 

“I know what she did, Ron. You’ve told me over and over now. I get it. But Hermione is our friend and it was my fault she was in Hogsmeade and ...I’ve just got to try to help her, ok?” 

Ron’s face was a picture of confusion, suspicion and betrayal.   
“No.. it’s not ok. It is NOT OK, Harry! Why are you doing this, mate? You know that me and Hermione were..” 

Hermione found herself speaking in a cold snippy tone. “Were Ronald. For about five minutes before you went off with that slag. You have no right to judge us. Harry and I have always been there for each other.”   
Again the spectre of his desertion last year hung in the air and he looked at Harry almost pleadingly. 

“But you know I always planned to marry her.. after we’d rescued her. .. I .. I went into bloody snakeface’s lair for her.   
To save her. You said that-...”   
Harry looked at him with an understanding expression and put his hand on his shoulder “Things change, Ron. Neither of us planned this and when you came back so terrified, I never thought you’d still want that. You were just calling her a snake! You don’t even know yourself what you want. I can’t let you mess her around, mate. She’s been hurt so much already.” 

Ron looked confused, angry and hurt. “You..you went behind my back and took her, Harry. Why did you do that?!   
You could have anyone you wanted – why did you have to take Mione?!” 

Harry just shook his head. “That’s not how it was, mate. Believe me. Neither of us expected to feel this way.” 

Ron shook his head disbelievingly, turned and walked away. 

When he had turned the corner down the corridor Harry’s face shifted and it was like day turning to night.   
“Shit. Bloody Ron.. Fine! I’ve had enough of this – I don’t feel like meeting anyone else this morning.”   
He turned to her and she felt a subtle shift in the air and then they popped out of the corridor and appeared just inside his chambers. The slap of the wards slamming back into place while she was still dizzy from the apparition was actually faintly nauseating.   
Harry appeared to be focused internally and after a few moments he sighed in relief. “I don’t think anyone noticed the wards drop for a second. I’ll have to alert the perimeter to do a full check though.”   
He pulled a galleon out of his pocket and pressed his thumb to it.   
Hermione found it mildly interesting that he was still using her charmed galleons. Everything was still wonderfully abstract and pleasant. Harry looked up at her absently. 

“Oh. Yeah. – they’re great. You were always coming up with great ideas, Mione. If I send a patronus everyone around can hear the message and.. well.. my patronus changed recently. Its better if they don’t see it. They might get the wrong impression.”   
He put the coin back in his pocket and turned to her, seemingly indecisive.   
“I might have to go and find Ron in a bit before he talks to anyone. But I can’t just leave you like this.. I won’t allow you to remember what happened with Malfoy. I couldn’t stand it if you looked at me all the time like you did in his room. I’ll just have to obliviate Ron too. It’s the only thing i can do.” He walked over to her and stroked her cheek gently with the back of his fingers. “I don’t want to see you hurt, Hermione” 

He took her hand again and walked her into the bedroom. “We’ll start over. I.. I understand I was wrong yesterday.   
I should never have..done that.. to you in the morning. Any of it. I don’t know what I was thinking. I won’t do it again, ok?” 

He was turning down the bed and he vanished her robe and helped her in, pulling the covers up over her. 

“I’ll be good to you and you’ll love me like I love you and we’ll be happy. I promise, Mione.”   
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, lingering over her for a second. Then he put his hand on her forehead and whispered “Obliviate”

 

Hermione woke slowly. The room was dim and as there was no window in here it was impossible to tell what the time was. She felt disorientated. 

The thought abruptly reared up in her mind. Harry! Where was Harry?!   
She froze, listening and darted her eyes around in the half light, the whites flashing. 

The room was empty. But he could still be in his chambers somewhere outside the door.   
She cautiously let herself remember last night. Harry had..had.. cast some kind of parseltongue spell on her and she had had sex with him.   
It had been immensely satisfying when she came and then he had held her as she slept. 

She tried to tell herself that it was the same thing Tom had done.. it hadn’t been cruel. It hadn’t been.. been.. rape.   
The word hissed in her head in a sinister way.   
It hadn’t been, right? She’d wanted it! Perhaps not at first.. but she’d enjoyed it! And he hadn’t hurt her much and... 

She swallowed and got out of bed carefully. She wanted to shower but she was scared of going in there till she knew for sure Harry wasn’t here somewhere. Creeping to the door, she cracked it open and peered out into the bright overcast light thrown from the window. The room seemed empty.   
She tried to see into the library but she could only see the thin slice visible through the open door and she didn’t want to go out there without any clothes so she closed the door again very carefully and crept into the bathroom, shutting herself in. 

There was no lock. Well.. there wouldn’t be, would there, she thought wryly.   
After a few minutes of standing in the middle of the white muggle fixtures and glass room she shook her head and pulled herself together. 

 

When she came out of the bathroom in a towel, the bedroom was still empty but she found folded clothes on the bed.   
At first she froze – Harry was here somewhere.   
The icy chill she felt at that idea was overwhelming. It felt.. it felt even bigger than it should. He.. he hadn’t really hurt her, she told herself.   
So he’d slapped her once – she was considering catatonia at the time.   
He forced her to take his mark – but aside from the weird similarities to Voldemort – he had said he needed it in order to protect her.   
He’d said he loved her.   
So he’d.. he’d cast on her last night. It was kind of like giving her amortensia. But Harry could be a bit.. a bit.. irrational.. when he wanted something. Look at his behaviour when he thought Sirius was at the ministry of magic being tortured by Voldemort.   
Maybe he was just..   
maybe he didn’t realise she didn’t want to..   
maybe he hadn’t done that before and he didn’t know the effect it would have on her..   
maybe.. 

She felt sick suddenly. Something was wrong. Something was even more wrong than she thought everything already had been. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it might be. But it was very bad. She needed to get out of here! 

Get dressed!!   
They were her clothes, she realised as she unfolded the jeans, teeshirt and underwear. Her own, from her trunk.   
She felt a rush of relief. It was like a small piece of home. A relic from earlier simpler times. 

She dressed quickly and ran her hands up and down her jeans as if to confirm that they were real. No shoes or socks.   
Her hair was dripping down the back of her teeshirt. ‘won’t be going far like this’ she guessed. 

After a few minutes to collect her courage she opened the door and stepped out to the sitting room. It was empty.   
A tray with a bowl of cereal, a small pitcher of chilled milk and a plate of fresh cut fruit lay on the coffee table.   
There was a small folded white card with the word ‘Mione’ written on it in Harry’s messy handwriting. 

She sat down at the leather couch and picked up the card. 

Inside was written. “I love you! Sorry I had to go and take care of some things. If you need me, you only need to kiss your mark. I keyed it that way since you can’t use a wand right now.”   
Hermione blinked at the card and looked down at her arm. The mark lay like a black bracelet. The flames swayed hypnotically and she stared at it for a while. It really was quite a clever thing, she supposed.   
Nevertheless she was certainly not going to kiss it. Not even if mountain trolls stormed the room or the furniture spontaneously burst into flame around her.   
She would never..ever.. kiss the mark to call Harry. 

She smirked for a second and imagined Voldemort had set his marks to work that way. The cowled black figures smooching their own forearms every time they wanted to report something. 

She wondered if Tom was ok. What had he done since she’d vanished? Well obviously he’d chased her but.. then what?   
Where was he now?   
Was he only miles away, still trying to get through the wards?   
Was it even possible that there were wards that Lord Voldemort could not break? How did Harry do it?! He was suddenly so strong and powerful ..   
her mind added quietly.. and dark. He’d said his patronus changed recently.. he’d decorated his rooms to almost exactly match the Dark Lord’s He wore the same expressions for Merlin’s sake. He’d.. he’d used.. that spell on her last night.   
He was literally becoming Voldemort. 

Was Tom doing it? Did he know and he just hadn’t told her – had he done something?   
She had the feeling she was missing a key piece of the puzzle.. forgetting something important. 

Inspecting the plate of food, she decided that the fruit was probably ok. She’d never really liked cereal much anyhow. Biting into a strawberry she thought more about Harry’s behaviour. It wasn’t quite correct to say it was all new.   
He was right when he said that last night – he had increasingly often over the last two years had strange little flashes of Voldemort-esque behaviour and expression.   
He’d get feelings..   
he had dreams of him.   
Sometimes he had said things that weren’t quite.. right...

She’d put it down to the scar and their connection.   
But what was their connection? – had anyone ever really explained why? Had Dumbledore said anything? Tom hadn’t - he hadn’t even mentioned Harry after she’d accepted his death.   
Well.. maybe once.. He didnt like it when she thought of Harry. That was similar to Harry’s behaviour too, she realised. 

Why was Harry literally becoming Voldemort now suddenly? Why had he had those flashes and turns when he was younger?! 

She could almost feel the shape of the answer in the back of her mind. It was simple.. but it eluded her, like a splinter just out of reach under the skin. 

She had finished the plate of fruit, apart from the white grapes which she’d never really liked, and now she stood up and walked to the library. She strolled slowly past the bookcases, scanning the titles and trying not to think about the question of Harry’s changing personality.   
She recognised unsurprised that most of the books were dark arts related in some way and more than a few had been in the bookcases Voldemort had placed in her room. 

Harry wasn’t just changing.. he was like.. night and day. He was nice and sweet and Harry one minute and the next he flipped completely and it was like she was standing in front of a twisted version of Lord Voldemort.   
It was like he had two personas.. 

The idea felt almost right. Two personalities.. two Harry’s ..   
Or not quite. One Harry and one Lord Potter. 

She thought for a second. What if he had some kind of split personality. What if.. what if.. .   
The thought slid away again. 

Harry might have some kind of mental disorder but he didnt seem to have two entirely separate personalities. He seemed more to have.. a spectrum.. Harry at one end and Lord Potter at the other.   
She discarded the idea and tried to clear her head but it keep niggling at her like an itch she couldn’t quite scratch. 

He’d always had little moments of Voldemort’s influence but it was obvious that that wasn’t who was driving him or else he’d have returned her to the Dark Lord by now. He had..moments. little things. An automatic movement.. a tone of voice..   
She hadn’t recognised it most of the time back then because she’d never actually seen Lord Voldemort for any significant length of time.   
It had been worse when he’d been wearing the horcrux locket. She hadn’t wondered at the time because the locket was a nasty thing and could make anyone edge but maybe it had done something to him! Maybe it.. infected him or something. 

She’d found it horrible, the way it whispered ..wrong..things into her mind all the time and Ron obviously hadn’t been able to stand it at all but Harry had always just been silent and stoic about it.   
She’d assumed he didn’t want to complain when there was nothing they could do - but maybe it had affected him.   
Maybe he’d listened to it. 

What did it whisper to him? It had started out telling her that she was nothing, worthless, a failure, a worthless mudblood not fit to hold a wand – that she was going to let everyone down – that she would get them all killed, they’d be better off without her. She was a danger to Harry and wasn’t good enough for a pureblood like Ron. It was a horrible thing. 

Harry had worn it the longest. Once she’d had to actually cut it out of his chest when he’d worn it too long and it somehow started to stick to him.. to be absorbed into his flesh.

Aaargh.. it was infuriating.. almost she had it then. Just a flash.. and then gone. 

Ok. start again. Harry wore the horcrux the longest. It didn’t look like it upset him as much as her and Ron. It had never stuck to her like that.. but then she wasn’t the boy who lived. Maybe it was some attack on him.   
Ideas swirled in her mind. Harry failing to cast the dark spell to kill the piece of soul in the horcrux.   
But he’d always had odd little mannerisms and feelings.. He’d always had a little bit of Voldemort to him. 

She fell against the bookshelf. Not to him. In him. IN him.. He’d always had a little bit of Voldemort IN him ever since he’d survived the killing curse with only a scar.   
He was a parseltongue. It was a rare ability and it had been clear that it had something to do with the connection he had with Voldemort – the Potter family had never had a parseltongue before – but it was just one more strange little thing. They’d all been children. Who thought about things like that then? They hadn’t understood what was going on and so many other distracting things had happened and then it had just been something she took for granted without too much thought 

– Harry was a horcrux!!! 

Killing Harry’s mother had torn whatever remained of Voldemort’s soul and then losing his body, a piece of his soul must have become lodged in Harry somehow.   
Unless he did it on purpose?   
No. She abandoned that idea. She didn’t think he would have intentionally destroyed himself like that. He’d been very angry at it.   
So..Harry was a horcrux. He had two souls. That was why he could feel things Voldemort felt sometimes, and why it was so easy for the Dark Lord to get into his mind. He was part of him. 

And like that.. the entire horrible shape of the answer unfolded before her like a map to a nightmarish world.   
She had done this. 

She was responsible for the changes in Harry. For her own.. well let’s not mince words.. for her own imprisonment and maybe the way he’d forced his desire on her.   
She’d healed Voldemort. She hadn’t known.. she’d just done it. She’d healed a part of his soul when she’d revived him.. and even more when she’d transfigured him. It hadn’t just been his face that she’d altered. She’d somehow removed the venom in his system that kept the transfiguration from holding. She had done something to his essence.   
And god only knew what Tom had done to them all when he had been in control of her ability for a while after she’d healed Severus. 

But the problem was – she hadn’t known that he had any horcruxes left. She thought she killed the last one months ago when they had found Nagini’s hiding place. 

When she healed Tom – he was connected to Harry by the soul fragment. She’d healed this torn piece of his soul too.   
Made it stronger.. and probably it was more closely connected to Harry’s own soul now than it had ever been – hence why his abilities.. his tastes.. his patronus.. his personality.. everything had changed. 

She slid down the bookcase to the floor. 

She realised suddenly.. even with her magic back.. she didn’t know whether she could undo this. A soul probably wasn’t like a piece of fabric where you could unpick the threads and separate them. Harry had blended with Voldemort’s soul! There was no Harry anymore.. there was only this new person. This.. Lord Potter with a Harry mask. Perhaps.. with Harry moments.. mannerisms..   
SHE had destroyed the saviour of the light. 

The horcrux had said she would and now she had.   
She had doomed the entire wizarding world to a choice between two dark lords. 

THIS kind of thing was almost certainly why conduits were killed before they came to strength. 

She’d ruined everything and given half a chance she’d use her ability to try to fix Harry and probably fuck everything up even worse somehow. 

Maybe she should just stay here, where she’d never be able to use her magic.. where the wizarding world was safe from her – She had loved Tom.. and she had always loved Harry. She’d just.. get used to them being the same person.   
She owed Harry that much.   
He wasn’t asking anything from her but.. but.. love. 

And probably obedience, she added to herself realistically. He was the Dark Lord Potter after all. 

She would try. She’d try to be what he needed.

 

 

When the door closed quietly hours later, Hermione was lying on her stomach on the sofa in the sitting room, reading a book on wizarding genealogy in the dull light from the large window.   
She turned to look over her shoulder at Harry, who seemed pleasantly surprised. 

“Hey..” he said smiling, “You look a lot better. Are you hungry? What have you been doing all day?” 

She smiled back at him and closed the book, keeping her hand in the page so as not to lose her place.

“I feel better. I don’t know how long it’s been since I had a decent night’s sleep. Thanks for breakfast by the way. It was sweet of you.” 

Harry fumbled in his pocket and found a scrap of parchment. He moved to perch on the couch against her horizontal form, taking the book and marking her place with the parchment scrap, then putting the book on the table next to the tray. 

“I’ve been reading most of the day” Hermione said. “Although since I didn’t feel like dark arts, there wasn’t much to choose from” She shot him a mock scolding expression and then smirked.   
He seemed surprised.. even perturbed, by her easy manner, but the look faded immediately to be replaced by an incorrigible-Harry grin. 

“Well.. You can’t fight what you don’t understand, Mione. I’ve had to learn a lot in a short time.” 

She truly believed that he had. 

“I could do early dinner I guess” she smiled and rolled over on her back, stretching. “What did you have in mind, Harry?” 

He smiled brightly suddenly and leaned down and hugged her to him hard. “Mione.. I’m ..I’m so glad you’re ok.. I was worried about you all day. I love you so much! I’m sorry.. a-about last night.. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have.. I knew it at the time and I did it anyway.   
I.. I couldn’t help it.. I wanted you so badly..   
I can’t even make myself regret it completely now because.. because it was amazing. YOU were amazing..   
It was wrong though. I know it was wrong to push you. Can you forgive me?”   
He stared down at her with wide sincere eyes and she wanted to believe it was true. She wanted to believe that he really felt sorry – that she was talking to what remained of Harry. 

But really.. she sighed inwardly.. it didn’t matter whether she was facing a remorseful Harry or a manipulative lord Potter. She would accept them both and that meant accepting this heartfelt apology. 

“Of course Harry – It's ok. I.. I was a bit upset about it this morning but I’ve had some time to think and I’m ok now.   
And.. and.. besides.” She blushed inadverdently “I..liked it..   
I’m sorry if you don’t like me mentioning him, I’ll try not to – but I liked it when He spoke parseltongue too. I guess I maybe have a thing for the sound? It.. does things to me..”   
She felt herself turning fire engine red with embarrassment at saying aloud what she had long known to be true. 

Harry smirked. “Is that so.. “ he said quietly. She nodded.   
He leaned down, brushing his lips across her cheek and hissed something very softly into her ear.   
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up slightly, pleasurably, but there wasn’t that aching compulsion she’d felt last night. 

“What did you say?” she whispered. 

“I said.. ‘Hermione-I love you’” he murmured and kissed her gently.   
She kissed him back, opening to his tongue without prompting and slowly winding her own against it. He made a faint sound in his throat like a groan and, sighing, drew back.   
“This is.. all I ever wanted.. Mione.. Just.. you. And to be left alone for a bit. Maybe somewhere I can ride a broom if I feel like it, without worrying that Death Eaters would turn up.” 

She leaned up and pecked him on the chin. “Well you’ve got that now. So long as you don’t make me ride one.”   
He chuckled and sat up. 

“So.. dinner then? I’ll even cook! I’ll even cook something with more than one colour!!” She laughed and let him pull her up off the couch. He seemed to remember something. “Oh. I almost forgot!” 

He reached into the back of his belt and drew out Lucius’ silver dagger. Hermione’s eyes widened and for a second she felt an unexpected wave of fear wash over her. Its Harry.. Harry Harry Harry.. not Lord Potter.. she reminded herself. He’s not going to torture me. He loves me. 

“Ron gave me this when I saw him earlier. Apparently he took it when we were moving you when you first got here.   
He wanted to keep it.. he seemed a bit obsessed with it actually..but I told him he had to give it back. So here.” 

He offered her the knife and she couldn’t prevent herself reaching for it eagerly. It hummed almost happily in her hand when she took it.   
Harry smiled and there was something a bit dark to his expression. “Try not to frighten him with it, ok?”   
She looked up at him guiltily and nodded. For some reason, now she had it, she didn’t want to lose it again.   
It made her feel strong. She dithered about putting it down on the table.   
Harry saw her hesitation and the grin that broke out on his face was unmistakeably dark. 

“Oh.. all right. If you want it that much...” 

He wandlessly summoned a sock from his room and transfigured it into a sheath that she could attach to the back of her jeans.   
“Thanks” she grinned at him, fitting it and feeling its comfortable weight just above her buttocks. Harry hesitated.. and a strange expression came onto his face.   
“You know... I almost wish I could have seen it.. When you used it on him.. The whole scene.. I dont know why.. it’s just..kind of a turn on.” He wore a small secretive smile and she couldn’t help but shiver. Definitely not talking to Harry right now, she thought; this is Lord Potter again.

Harry blinked, surprised, and snorted in amusement “Lord Potter? You really think of me like that? Come on, Mione – be reasonable. Everyone has a little darkness in them!   
So I happen to maybe get off just a little on the idea of you dressed in a skimpy leather bikini, on a stage surrounded by Death Eaters and Snakeface himself, terrifying the piss out of Ron – wet prat that he is.   
So I’m a little pervy then. It’s hardly the ultimate symptom of evil.   
Probably not enough to make me a dark lord, at least.   
Some of us in the room get off on hissing snakes, remember. Be a bit fair!” 

Hermione saw his point, but it didn’t change the fact that it was Lord Potter she was addressing.   
She smiled. “That’s true. We’re all a little twisted I guess.”   
She paused and then a malicious little part of her made her say it 

“Ron for example.. gets off on being cut.. on a stage.. in front of hundreds of Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort.” 

Harry’s eyebrows almost entered his hairline. “Are you serious? He was turned on?! ..He never mentioned that part.” The ‘Dark Lord Potter’ smirked and appeared distracted by his thoughts. “Interesting..” 

She smiled back. He shook himself slightly and then he was all Harry again.   
“So.. dinner.. “ 

He held out his hand and she took it and they walked down to the kitchen.


	29. Chapter 29

Hermione wondered as they walked back to the room just where everyone was. This place seemed to be huge but tonight they hadn’t run into anyone, even downstairs in the rooms near the kitchen.   
The place had been silent as the grave and strangely vacant in the dead overcast light through the windows.   
Looked like it was going to rain tonight. 

Harry had cooked peppered steak, fried potatoes and corn on the cob with melted butter   
“three colours is enough, right?”, he’d asked.   
His cooking was simple but tasty – her steak had been perfectly cooked - just a half a shade short of well done, the way she liked it.   
Now they were going back to his chambers and she mused on the strange absence of aching fear she had had since her realizations of the morning.   
She felt.. acceptance.. somehow, of whatever might happen. Whatever he might do.   
She deserved it. 

Harry looked at her, worried. “Mione.. what’s wrong? What.. what do you think you’ve done?”   
She didn’t answer. 

“Mione!..”   
He stopped and put a hand in front of her to stop her too. “Talk to me.. what were you thinking about?” 

Hermione felt a moment of panic and the decision came snap quick. “Ginny. I was thinking about Ginny, Harry. That’s all.   
It doesn’t matter. Could we not talk about it?”   
Harry’s face went from mildly worried to alert, suspicious and stubborn. She could tell that there was no way he was going to let it go now.   
He looked up and down the corridor and nodded, taking her hand and walking more quickly to his rooms. 

No sooner were they inside, he rounded on her again. “Ok. now I want to know exactly what it is with Ginny. I told you we’d talk about her later. Later just arrived.   
I want to hear about Ginny right now Hermione. I’m not playing around anymore. Tell me or I will dig it out myself with legilimency.” 

She considered what to tell him 

“Don’t try to think of a way to change the subject or put me off, Mione. Tell me the bloody truth.   
Whatever it is – I promise It’ll be ok. I’ll listen and then we’ll never talk about it again if you don’t want to.   
If you try to lie to me I’ll know.. and I’ll be disappointed in you..” 

There was a vague threatening undertone to that last part, she realised. Harry.. Lord Potter.. would be disappointed. And that wouldn’t be a good thing. 

“And stop calling me Lord Potter. Its daft.” 

She smirked at that and sighing..decided to do what every rational neuron in her brain was advising against and tell Harry what had really happened. 

“Ok. fine. We’ll talk about Ginny.” 

She went over to the sofa and sat down on it sideways, leaning up against the armrest on one side. Harry followed her and sat himself down to lean against the other armrest and look at her.. only slightly worriedly.   
Hermione thought hard about where to begin. It was hard to explain things in a way that made sense.   
She had been.. distressed. But it was hard to explain to others why exactly. 

“Ok. I’ll tell you about Ginny, Harry. I will... but.. I’ll also have to tell you about some other things.. or ..um.. it won’t make any sense at all.   
The ..other things.. are probably going to make you angry and jealous. I’m just telling you that.   
I’d rather not talk about it but if you insist.” 

Harry’s face went from worried to black and moody. “Yeah. Ok. just get it over with.” He looked away and swept a hand through his messy hair in agitation in a way that was so like Tom. 

“Ok. so.. the first thing you have to know – well you probably already know - is about Voldemort’s magic.” 

Harry looked up as if she’d thrown a curveball at him. “What about it?” 

Hermione winced.   
“It’s... well... my magic is compatible with his in some way so when he allows it to flow around himself... it’s very.. um.. compelling, you might say. Its- ..well it feels really good... uh.. as in attractive.. and it makes it hard to even think a coherent thought. Hard to move.. impossible to even begin to fight him.   
And he knew that even before I did. And he used it to his advantage.” 

Harry snarled acidly. “Fuck.. I’m going to kill him slowly. An Avada is too good for the creep.” 

She decided not to point out that he himself had used a spell on her last night to seduce her.   
Harry blinked at her, shocked, and looked away. 

“Ok. go on.” He growled. 

She swallowed. “Ok. so um. He used his magic on me to get me to kiss him – I didn’t want to at the time and just as I did he took it away so I realised what I was doing and I felt terrible. Like I was betraying you.”   
Harry brightened somewhat.   
“Then he took me to the dungeons to see Ginny.” 

Harry became immediately focused. She wondered suddenly exactly how much he had cared for Ginny and a small feeling of apprehension settled in her gut. 

“Ginny was hanging from some chains on the wall and she was naked.” There was a slight wince from the boy who lived.   
“When she saw me, at first she was concerned for me but then she figured out I wasn’t a prisoner in the dungeons and that Voldemort hadn’t hurt me..   
well.. he hadn’t hurt me much at least. For him.   
And i was clean and well dressed. It would have looked like he hadn’t hurt me.” 

“I think Voldemort said something about the kiss he’d just made me give him and she started screaming at me and calling me names and saying I’d betrayed everyone and I felt terrible.. cause I felt like I had and then Voldemort actually defended me to her. And she insulted him... something about his appearance. I don’t remember.   
So he changed himself to look like Tom Riddle.. you know – from the diary?” Harry nodded, white lipped. 

“Yeah.. I remember. He looked..alright.” 

Hermione rolled her eyes at him. “Translation – the boy was practically a greek god, Harry! Virtually irresistible to a young first year if he lavished attention on her. And he had a way of speaking too..” 

“Yeah yeah. Fuck! Stop. I know the guy was good looking. I don’t need to hear all this.” Harry looked annoyed and ..self conscious? 

“Harry.. you know that you had the same effect on girls, right?   
Just Tom was aware of it and used it to manipulate people – while you were always kind of oblivious. You just ignored them all. You could have had half the school, if you’d wanted. Probably more than.   
You were really.. really.. popular with the girls.” 

Harry looked sceptical. 

“No really.. you were. You just lacked confidence. Tom had an overabundance of confidence however.   
When he stood in the cell and made bloody moon eyes at Ginny and released her and asked her to forgive him for having to keep her at arm’s length so that YOU didn’t get suspicious and threaten her life.. she just seemed to cave.” 

“I know now that the whole thing was a setup but.. I really don’t believe that part was fake. She really did love Tom Riddle. She wasn’t as helpless and unaware as we all thought – she knew what she was doing and wanted to help him, wanted to be with him.   
He said as much and she confirmed it. She believed he’d get out of the diary and run away with her or something. But then she was eleven!! Gullible like all children.” 

“Anyway.. so he held her and kissed her and got her to tell him she loved him apparently purely to throw it back in her face because she’d yelled at me for kissing him. Then he dropped her like trash.   
She wanted to know why. Why me and not her? And he just started complimenting me and insulting her in the cruellest way imaginable. And then he said it was because of our magic. And when he let it flow around him strongly Ginny started screaming in pain and I couldn’t move for how good it felt and then he kissed me again. As Tom.” 

She decided not to elaborate on the kiss in too much detail.. that it hadn’t stopped when he drew his magic back.. or even when he’d become Voldemort again.   
“And Ginny made some kind of comment while he was kissing me. Something insulting. I dont remember.” 

Harry interrupted. “She wasn’t screaming anymore at his magic?” Hermione cursed inwardly. Harry was not really interested in study but he definitely didn’t miss a trick. It was hard to get anything by him. 

“..No.. he’d.. he’d pulled his magic back then.” Harry looked at her pointedly.   
“And.. ok.. I kept kissing him that time. I’m sorry. But I did. “   
she looked away.   
“And anyway.. when Ginny said whatever she said he got angry and crucioed her till I pulled on his arm, to get him to stop. And he did stop. I think he was just so surprised that I’d actually dared. And he said he’d come back and torture her some more later and I begged him to leave her alone and..   
Anyway.. he made me grovel and kiss his boot but in the end he promised to never hurt Ginny or allow anyone else to hurt her against her will and to give her a comfortable room.” She paused significantly. 

“He promised it on the condition that I’d willingly take his mark at a time of his choosing.” 

Harry scowled. “I thought he promised to spare the vampire if you took his mark.” 

She grimaced. “Yes. Well.. I’m getting to that. Some things happened.. a lot of rather emotional things happened.   
He took me to Remus and then after we came back he kind of um...seduced me.. as Tom..   
but.. well. it took a lot out of him magically to hold that form and he held it too long and I didn’t realise and then after we’d .. um.. afterward he kind of collapsed. He tried to tell me to get Severus before he passed out.” 

Harry looked at her as if she’d grown a second head. “You had Voldemort lying absolutely helpless on a bed...alone...   
You’re joking.. you have to be.. How COULD you, Hermione?! What the fuck.. i thought you cared about me...   
He’s been trying to kill me since I was born...was there anything actually stopping you strangling the bastard? Or smothering him with a pillow? Or.. “ 

Hermione put her head in her hands. She couldn’t stand to look at him. 

“..No.” she said in a tiny voice. “There wasn’t. I could have killed him. But I was just so shocked when he collapsed and he’d.. we’d just.. and he was so..   
he’d hurt himself just to please me..   
he’d defended me to Ginny.. he took me to Remus to cheer me up... he was nice to me...and i felt like it was my fault he was in this state.. I just .. I’m sorry.   
I thought you were dead, Harry!   
I thought that this was the new world. Voldemort’s world. No order left. Everyone dead or in the cells.   
And he had been kind to me. “   
She couldn’t help the panicked guilty confused tears pricking her eyes. “I’m sorry.. I-..” 

Harry looked at her and seemed torn. 

“It’s ok, Mione.” He said wearily. “I can see how it might have been, and you’re the kind of person who would even try to save the worst monster in the world. You’re too good. But I love you for it. So it’s ok. Don’t cry..”   
Hermione cried for a bit longer, it felt like the tears over this particular incident had been long coming. 

When she wiped her face clean on the backs of her hands and sniffed, Harry was looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face. She smiled weakly and took a deep breath.   
“It’s only going to get worse, Harry.” She said sadly. 

He looked sceptical, as if he’d thought that that was the worst thing she could possibly have done. 

“I got the house elf to get Severus and he had to go away again for his potions and while he was gone.. I .. I um.. I..”   
Harry sat forward impatiently, gesturing with drawn eyebrows for her to continue.   
“I ..sort of.. healed.. Voldemort.   
Accidentally. I didn’t know I was doing it.   
But..he knew what had happened immediately and he was just over the bloody moon in his secretive sneaky little way. And then Severus came back and..” She trailed off..

Harry was staring through her, looking quite distracted by something he’d thought of. He blinked at her..schooling his expression back into polite interest. She felt, ominously that whatever he’d been thinking might be something to do with her ability to channel raw magic.   
He’d said it didn’t matter but she could almost scent his sudden temptation in the air. He’d be trying to find ways to get her necklace off soon, she had no doubt. 

She frowned. “And Voldemort got him to heal me – I was hurt in the battle. Nothing major. Just a big scar. It didnt work till Voldemort tricked me into healing myself.” She took a breath.   
“And..anyway.. the next day I was in a very strange mood. I felt like I was missing something or something didn’t add up and I just kept thinking about Ginny.   
It made no sense but I had this inexplicable feeling like... like she couldn’t be trusted. Like she’d duped me.   
Like she and Voldemort together had tricked me into swearing a wandoath to take the mark when she had never been in any danger to begin with.   
And I just felt so.. mad. I cant even begin to describe how mad I felt. She’d accused me of all these things.. she’d made me feel so bad about betraying you by not spitting in Voldemort’s eye the minute I met him and all along she’d been the one who was a lying traitor.”   
Hermione tried to stop her face from twisting in disgust and rage but it was still so hard not to let those black emotions take over. 

Harry looked unsure. “Ginny was a traitor?” he said, sounding sceptical.   
“Yes.” Hermione said through her teeth. “She took the mark more than a year ago. She was spying on you...and on me.. for him.” 

Harry vacillated between disbelief, sorrow and rage. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t have to. It was clear he’d had no idea. He’d been angry with her only because she’d cheated on him with other boys.   
“How do you know?” he managed to get out finally, hope springing to his face - “did Voldemort tell you that?” 

Hermiones face darkened.   
“No. I’m sorry Harry. Ginny told me that. I had the elf bring her. The memory you saw of her.. that was after I’d tied her up and found her mark. After that I questioned her for a bit..   
She was a spy. She said she had no choice. But you know you can’t take a mark unless you accept it.. so she clearly had to have done that.   
Maybe she didn’t have a choice though. I have a different appreciation for choice these days..   
but the way she behaved with Tom.. I think she chose it on some level.” 

“She apologised to me for lying to me.. she said she hadn’t known what would happen in the dungeon. But I was too angry really to listen.   
I just couldn’t get past the idea that she would be protected forever now. Voldemort would protect her from my vengeance. She’d always be there.. smiling..laughing at me behind my back..” 

Harry swallowed thickly.. He looked more than apprehensive. He looked like a man watching an oncoming tsunami who knows that running is futile.   
“What did you do?” he asked and there was a strange kind of fascination in his voice..a touch of excitement in his eyes. 

She looked at him with a ‘Don’t be thick’ expression. She didn’t say anything.. but the memory flashed past her inner eye insuppressibly. Her hand sliding so quick and decisive across Ginny’s throat with the glass and then the blood.. everywhere.. spraying.. gushing.. running out of her.. hot and red, all over her face and her hair as she knelt over Ginny.   
The redhead gasping, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. The light leaving her eyes. 

Harry leapt up from the sofa and darted to the other side of the room to get away from her, one hand to his head.   
He reached the wall and put a hand on it as if to steady himself, breathing in great deep gasps. 

“Fuck.. Hermione..” he choked out. 

She found she felt relieved. She’d expected to feel terrible, telling Harry this – wracked with guilt for becoming a bloodthirsty ruthless murderer.. for killing his girlfriend.. well.. former girlfriend now... but strangely enough it felt fine.   
Complete.   
Ginny had not only betrayed her, she’d betrayed Harry too and she deserved it.   
She would do it again if she were back at that moment in that place.   
And anyway.. It was done. It couldn’t be undone. Anything could be accepted with a little effort.   
Even Ginny. Even Lucius. Even Harry.   
“yes Harry?” she responded sweetly? “is your curiosity thoroughly sated?” 

He turned and looked at her and there was something black and pitiless burning in his eyes. He wore a strange half smile. “I...wasn’t prepared for that, just then. You surprised me.” He began to walk slowly back toward her.   
“But I shouldn’t be surprised. In every possible way you are perfect for me, Hermione. And that.. that was-..”   
He had reached the sofa and now lowered himself to kneel in front of her.   
“-Just bloody amazing. I never would have thought you’d have it in you to do something like that..”   
he placed his hands on her raised knees and gently parted them, crawling forward to kneel between them and leaning over her to lie against her with his head on her right breast. 

“I would have done the same thing.. probably not that way.. but she would have been dead when I was done.   
You were right to do it.” 

Hermione smiled wryly. “It’s funny you should say that.. that’s exactly what Voldemort said.” She snorted softly, amused despite herself by the strange hybrid boy that lay draped over her.   
Harry said nothing but moved his head against her breast as if he were plumping a pillow and wrapped his arms around her, putting them in the space at the small of her back. He was heavy.. but it was a comfortable heaviness. 

After a minute he said in a lazy content voice.. “Show me something else.” 

She hesitated, her mind reeling. Something else? What did he want? 

“Show me him.. Voldemort..   
nothing sexual or anything.. I don’t think I can handle seeing that. Just.. something else.   
Show me how he was around you when nobody else was there.” 

The first thing that floated up in her mind was sitting on the floor at Lord Voldemort’s feet as he talked to her about the horcruxes and stroked her head. Then.. feeling his magic and gasping in pleasure.. and then him reading quietly on the bed next to her when she woke up after the cruciatus potion had done its work; his fingers absently playing in her hair.   
The reluctant remorse on his face when he told her about poisoning Harry in his sleep. 

She felt Harry snort softly against her breast at that. “as if..” he muttered. 

Then Voldemort was standing, a pleased glitter in his eye.. “You were jealous..”   
She didn’t dwell on that memory but skipped to the next thing that occurred to her..being carried through a bright summer day by the beautiful boy with red glittering snake eyes, pressed gently to his chest and then being laid carefully down in the tall grass while he fretted over her and asked her to come back. This then immediately changed to being held in his arms on the floor of Severus potions lab as he whispered in her ear “but you love me most of all, dont you? More than Severus. More than Harry. More than your parents or your cat or the sun or your studies.”   
Hermione gasped, stung by the memory and afraid of Harry’s reaction. She tried to think of something to distract him. 

In her minds eye, Lucius slid the silver blade over her breast as she hung, burning and suffering from her caning. 

Harry jerked against her.. “What the fuck was that?!”   
She hoped to god he was talking about Lucius.. 

She focused on the entire memory. Lucius in her room.. cornering her and forcing her to dress in the lace underwear.. suspending her.. making her choose..   
a brief flash of Rodolphus fucking morel snuck in but she thought back on Lucius..   
She was hanging.. as he touched her.. the pain of his cane.. the burning that didnt stop afterward.. him taking off her underwear.. covering her back, ass and thighs with excruciating burning lines. 

She suddenly realised that Harry was breathing faster. Was he.. was he excited at this? 

“Yes” he breathed. “Show me more” 

She thought of Lucius touching her with his fingers.. offering her the choice again.. the knife.. the knife! He began to cut her.. over and over and over again.. up her body..   
Harry was definitely panting now..   
Lucius telling her about the pureblood girl who he’d fucked with the knife.   
Harry actually groaned, turning his head in toward her breast and nipping gently. “I want you..” he growled.   
She was somewhere between disturbed and amused. Voldemort had said Severus had enjoyed her torture. No doubt Harry would have been a happy spectator too... 

“I would have saved you” Harry said.. “but it’s happened already.. there’s nothing I can do.. and you..are so fucking hot.. covered in blood and tears, ...begging...desperate.   
I can’t explain why.. you just are.” 

Hermione felt a small shiver of apprehension drift up her spine. She didn’t want Harry to want to see her like that too much. He might want to do that to her himself.   
She thought of how she’d freed herself and felled Lucius.   
Harry actually made a little disappointed tsk sound.   
She remembered how Lucius had looked, naked, stretched to the limit, yelping and panting as she cut him. 

Harry raised his head and looked at her in surprise. She smirked. “It was just a test. It was all just a stupid test to see if I could use my ability.   
Clearly.. I could.“ 

she remembered how she’d cut Lucius and when he’d gotten hard and begged her to keep going, it hadn’t been interesting anymore when he wanted it.   
She had a flash of a naked Ron, covered in blood in a dark amphitheatre, his cock jutting out straight from his body while she walked around him,a dark expression on her face, carving into him lightly with the silver knife, as a serpentine Voldemort looked down from his platform, greatly amused.   
Harry gasped and she could see by his expression that if she were a video recorder, he’d be hitting rewind and watching it again. 

A slow sneaky look slid onto his face.. “You know.. I have a penseive, Mione.. There’d be much more detail if you’d let me..” 

She groaned, irritated now. “Harry Potter. The suffering of your two best friends is not your wank material.” 

He grinned broadly. “Oh.. but it would be a shame to let it be for nothing.   
At least this way – something positive comes of those depraved acts.” 

She rolled her eyes. “No, Harry.” 

He wavered.. various expressions flashing across his face.. Anger, disappointment, determination, indecision and finally that threatening little half smile that was worn solely by that part of him she considered ‘Lord Potter’.   
“Ok mione.. another time maybe.” His eyes glittered.   
“Time for bed, then?” 

She realised that she in fact.. did not want to go to bed with Harry when he was wearing his Lord Potter smile.   
This morning’s apology would be worth exactly diddly squat if he was in this mood. 

“Fine!! Get your pensieve. Take the bloody memory.” 

Harry grinned nastily. “Oh?.. I had just come up with something even better.. but I guess that’s good too. Hang on. I’ll be right back.” 

He came back with a small portable pensieve and put it on the table, It’s liquid sloshing wetly but restrained within it, probably with some kind of charm.   
“Ok.. Malfoy first” Harry said quietly, drawing his wand and placing it to her temple. 

She bit her lip. “You’ll give it back, right? I .. I dont like the thought of missing pieces of my memory.”   
Harry nodded impatiently.   
“Sure, Mione. I can duplicate it and give you back the original.” 

He looked eager and it occurred to her suddenly that Harry would probably love it among the Death Eaters.   
The continual buffet of sex and suffering available would be very enticing to him.   
With the exception of her time with Rodolphus and Lucius and her initiation, she had actually seen very little of that kind of thing.   
She was quite certain that Severus’ memories would have Harry in rapture for months.. probably years.   
..Well.. if he didn’t hate him so utterly, she supposed. 

She focused and thought about the morning when she’d woken to find Lucius in her room. She stopped the memory just when she was preparing to kill him.   
“ok.. do it..” she said and Harry immediately drew out a long ghostly strand of memory, depositing it neatly into the pensieve.   
He cast something and then immediately drew it back out, flicking at her head. She blinked and flinched but the strand felt like nothing at all and immediately sank into her. There was a feeling of relief. 

“Ok.. now Ron” Harry breathed. 

She prepared her mind and gave him the memory and he gave it back to her.   
He started to turn and she said.. “Wait.. Take these too.”   
His eyes lit up with excitement at the thought of new memories he hadn’t seen in her mind yet. 

She gave him Rodolphus’ torture of Morel from the moment they entered the cell till the moment Rodolphus pulled away from the dead girl and stood up, and the memory of Lucius’ visit in her cell..from the time she started singing, thinking herself alone, till the time he left her standing barefoot in a floor length robe in a puddle of her own blood.   
She wasn’t sure about the second memory of Lucius. He had performed cunnilingus on her..   
Harry might get upset and possessive over it..   
but she reasoned – she’d tried to fight him off and she was restrained. He couldn’t blame her for her body’s reactions. And the man had bloody cruciated her, for the love of god. 

Sighing and shaking her head she stood. “Ok.. I’m going to bed, Harry. Enjoy. Please don’t wake me up if they’ve put you in the mood for a bit of practical experimentation. Go and find someone else to torture in that case.”   
She realised what she was saying and it occurred to her that she would never have thought something like that a few months ago.   
Aside from the thought of Harry torturing anyone being utterly ridiculous, she would never have offered some random person up just to spare herself a little pain.   
It seemed that she was changing. She just couldn’t find it in herself to be a martyr. Let someone else bleed for his amusement. 

Harry raised a questioning eyebrow at her offhand assumption of his willingness to torture others.   
She leaned down and kissed him on the corner of his mouth. He turned his head and kissed her back lightly. 

“Goodnight Lord Potter” she smirked and sauntered off to bed, leaving him sitting with a strange faint smile on his face. 

Unhesitatingly she stripped naked and got into bed, crawling deep under the covers and closing her eyes, surprised at how exhausted she felt.   
She felt..ok. She realised.   
Understanding that Harry was now a Harrified-version of Voldemort.. and already having found it inside herself to love Voldemort.. to accept his capricious vindictive nature along with his more considerate tender moments.. she found.. she could possibly accept the new.. Lord Potter. 

In some ways she supposed – she was lucky.   
The old Harry would never have understood what she’d done to Ginny.. or ..any of the rest really.   
He’d have been unreasonable and emotional and accusing. She’d have been brutally interrogated by Moody and Kingsley and tossed into a cell in Azkaban. Lord Potter had probably saved her from that horrible fate. 

She drifted off to sleep, quite contentedly. 

At some point in the night she half woke up when arms wrapped around her and a warm naked body pressed up against her back.   
She mumbled unintelligibly and stroked Harry’s arm before slipping back into a deeper sleep again with his face tucked into the back of her neck and his warm breath on her skin. 

 

When Hermione woke in the morning Harry was gone again. She was surprised to feel vaguely disappointed. She rose and showered.   
There was a note pinned to the wardrobe and she found Harry had filled half of it with her clothes.   
It was.. a strangely domestic thing to do. Like she had moved in with him permanently. 

She smiled and selected her clothes: Black jeans and a pale green fitted shirt. 

Leaving the bedroom she saw Harry had left breakfast for her again. There were no house elves here so he must have gone down to the kitchen and prepared it and then brought it back for her before he left to do whatever he did all day.   
What did he go off and do all day, anyway? 

She picked up the little white note next to her breakfast - toast with warm half melted butter, a slice of rockmelon and some scrambled eggs on the side.   
Harry had actually cooked for her and placed it all under a stasis charm so it would be fresh when she woke.   
She felt..a warm rush of emotion in the bottom of her heart. 

The note, when she opened it read. “I can’t believe that Lucius Malfoy is walking around right now with the word filth branded into his chest. I wish I had photos to leak to the prophet. You’re a goddess, Mione! I love you!“ 

Again that little warm clench gripped her. She ate her breakfast and tried not to think too hard. Afterward she wandered into the library and started reading a potions text. 

 

When she looked up from the chair hours later to see Harry slouched in the doorway she could immediately tell something had happened. He looked upset.. his shoulders hanging.   
She had no idea how long he’d been standing there, she certainly didn’t hear him come in. 

“What’s wrong?” she tried. 

He pulled an annoyed face, but she didn’t think it was directed at her. 

“Your bloody vampire is still refusing to come here. I can’t persuade him.” 

She looked down.   
“Voldemort would have to let him leave, Harry. If Rodolphus just came here, he’d have him in constant agony through the mark.   
Besides.. he probably thinks you just want to kill him. You did just want to kill him in the beginning.” 

Harry glared. “Well now I want to kill him again!” Her eyebrows shot up, afraid.   
“..But I wont. Calm down. I promised you. I’m just pissed off at the moment.   
Draco’s come up with a plan and I don’t like it.” 

Hermione frowned again   
“Draco knows? Did you tell the entire order?” 

Harry transfigured a chair to match her own and let himself fall into it “Of course not.. They’d never understand.   
Which means I’ve got to find a way to get him here myself with only Draco to help me.   
I need him to talk to Lestrange for me, get him to come out and meet me.”

“Draco wants to pretend that he’s rescued you and pinned your escape on someone else.   
He says Lestrange will come out if you’re somewhere outside the wards.” 

Hermione sat up straighter – “No Harry – you can’t take me out of here. If Tom gets me back he can give me my magic back and use me to do.. something terrible.   
I’ve no idea what he might use it for but we really shouldn’t take a chance on finding out.” 

Harry goggled at her. “What’s brought this on? You were only too keen to run back to him last I checked.”   
She pursed her lips.   
“I’ve had a think about some things and I think that what I can do is too dangerous. The wizarding world would kill me for good reason – I could.. I probably would.. destroy everything.   
Its tempting to use it.. to just will the world to be the way I want it. But I dont know.. I dont understand well enough the effects of my actions and it would just make everything far worse.” 

Harry frowned deeply, seemingly annoyed. “Mione.. You could end the war! You could save everyone.   
Maybe you could even bring back everyone we lost.” 

Her eyes widened. “You want me to bring back the dead, Harry? God.. why would you want that?   
They’re dead! How do you know that they want to come back from wherever they are. Its just selfish to even consider it.” 

Hermione paused, knowing Harry was talking mostly about Sirius and Dumbledore and unwilling to say how she felt about him. Harry was not likely to listen anyway. She tried again.   
“Look.. it wouldn’t matter. If he were to take this off”   
she lifted the necklace   
“It would mean he had me under some other kind of control and felt safe doing it. And whatever I wanted to do with it wouldn’t matter. He’s ...”   
she bit it off, unsure whether to tell Harry about this. 

Harry sat up and leaned forward. “What?! What were you going to say. What are you scared of telling me?   
Tell me, Mione!” 

She bit her lip.   
“Harry.. he can just reach into me and use me like a puppet. He can access my magic.. he already did it once. My ability is essentially his ability if he gets a hold of me now.” 

Harry jumped up and stalked over, his face a black threatening storm. He pressed his hand to her forehead and growled “legilimens.” 

Hermione felt pain immediately.. Harry was even rougher than Severus had been.   
She supposed he hadn’t been using the spell long but it felt like he was scratching her brain with claws. 

She pushed the memory he was looking for to the front of her mind, trying to get it over with as quickly as she could.   
She could feel him there while she remembered Tom, curled around her back as she lay against a naked Severus Snape, She felt Harry’s confusion at the scene and her emotions which were anything but revolted at lying next to their professor this way.   
She felt his sharp hungry interest when Tom entered her mind..entered her body.. and grasped her power.. the roaring of the magic through her.   
When professor Snape became young, Harry seemed stunned - even more so when he started apologising to her. 

Harry wasn’t letting go of the memory. Her head felt like it was being torn apart.   
She heard herself telling Severus she loved him.. and then Tom when he pulled away..   
she felt her head flare in pain as Harry reacted to Voldemort saying he wanted to bind her in marriage..  
They watched the fight when Tom accused her of wanting to control him.. and Harry still kept watching..   
as Severus bound her magic again and held her, apologising, saying she’d ruin everything.. that he wanted them to be together. 

She could feel Harry’s turbulent emotions slashing against her mind itself. 

He didn’t stop watching even when Tom crawled back into bed and started kissing her..   
She felt panic through her pain.. Harry was going to hurt her when he let her go.. she could feel his anger. His jealousy. 

The younger professor Snape was kissing her now and Tom knelt behind him, looking down at her and hissed in parseltongue. 

She felt something like amusement from Harry when Tom lied about what he’d said in the language.   
He didn’t stop watching.. he held her there and watched through their sex right up until Tom disapparated.   
Only then did Harry pull back. 

The feeling was to her mind like someone dragging a serated knife backward out of a stab wound.   
It hurt. badly.   
Harry looked down at her with only the barest sympathy. 

“Snape too, Mione? Fuck.. its almost worse than Ginny. Who there hasn’t had you in some way?” 

She looked up helplessly at him.   
His face was eight parts disgust and two parts raw dark lust.   
She wanted to tell him that she’d had a crush on professor Snape before this all happened.   
She didn’t want to tell him she’d had a crush on professor Snape before it all happened.   
She wanted to say emphatically – you were dead, Harry. Severus loved me! 

She couldn’t move. Her voice refused to cooperate.   
Harry reached down and scooped her up in his arms, holding her to his chest and walked with her into the bedroom.   
He seemed to waver..   
She could almost see his decision painted in neon colours above his head.   
He wanted to fuck her.. to reclaim her from the memory.. but he didn’t want to do it while she was like this..   
He laid her down on the bed and then stalked out, without a word. 

She lay, paralysed and stared at the ceiling. 

Eventually he returned carrying two phials.   
He tipped them down her throat without ceremony and she felt her strength and the feeling in her body begin to return. 

Harry just lay on the bed next to her on his back with his arms folded under his head, staring at the ceiling pensively, obviously lost in thought.   
After she could move and speak again she lay there quite still, unwilling to disturb him. 

“I’m not.. good.. at sharing things I care about, Mione.” Harry said finally.   
“The thought of them with you makes me want to throw up.   
seeing it makes it so much more real.   
But hearing you say you love him.. them..   
feeling it... “ he turned to her angrily.   
“It makes me want to obliviate you back to before the battle of Hogsmeade. I want to destroy them.” 

Hermione swallowed. She realised instinctively that this wasn’t an empty threat. She had to be very careful or Harry might decide to actually do that.. and if his legilimency was so rough.. there was a good chance that such a massive obliviation might leave her a case for the permanent spell damage ward at St Mungos. 

“I love you too, Harry” she said softly. 

He turned to her and pulled her against him desperately, clinging to her. “You’re mine, Mione. Mine! Not theirs.   
None of this should have happened.” 

She nodded and wrapped her arms around him. “But it has, Harry and I’m not the person I used to be.   
Neither are you.” She hesitated significantly.   
“You ..liked.. the memories I gave you last night. Do you really want things back the way they were before?   
You’re not... you’re not innocent anymore, Harry. Would it be enough for you if I was?” 

He gripped her even tighter. “God.. I don’t know what’s happening to me Mione.   
Some of the things that go through my head... I can’t even tell you.   
Sometimes I think there really is something wrong with me. Why do I want-... ...I want to hurt people.   
Do you know what I mean?   
Sometimes when I have to interrogate people the order catches.. I go further than I should..   
nobody knows.. nobody would believe it.. I heal them afterward.. but sometimes..I stop caring about what they know and just want to see how much I can hurt them. I’m.. I’m not right, Hermione.” His voice dropped to a whisper..   
“I think I want to hurt you too.. like in the memories. I..I can’t help it..   
Maybe you’re right when you call me.. when you call me that. I’m becoming like him.” 

Hermione felt a cold shudder at Harry confessing he wanted to torture her. She had already thought it, but to hear it..   
she wondered how long it would be until he carried it out.   
He would..   
Harry always got what he wanted. So did Voldemort. It was only a matter of time. 

“It’s ok Harry.” She whispered uneasily. 

“He suddenly rolled and pinned her beneath him. “Is it, Mione?” he said in a darker voice.. He leaned down and kissed her lightly, licking her upper lip with a pointed curled tongue.   
“All the things.. I want to do..to you? Are they alright by you?”   
He gripped her wrists and pulled them down, pressing them into the bed next to her head. It felt...uncomfortably..familiar. She couldn’t put her finger on it but she wanted to get away. She looked up at him wide eyed. 

“..N-no.. Harry.. I meant.... I d-didn’t mean that.. please don’t, Harry! Stop! Please!!” 

He smiled cruelly, faint light flashing off his glasses. “I like it when you beg, Mione.”   
He released her wrists and pulled himself up to straddle her and lean back.   
“But.. I want you to love me too.   
I can’t lose you now.. I won’t “ He stroked a hand down her cheek and over her breast.   
She shivered, but it wasn’t altogether unpleasant. The prospect of torture had receded somewhat.   
The boy looking down at her was neither Harry nor lord Potter but something between the two.   
His hand cupped her breast and brushed across her nipple. She felt them both stand up and looked up at him unflinchingly. 

He smirked.. “So responsive..”   
he seemed to think of something and his smile became dangerous once more. 

He got off her and stood by the bed, looking down. “If I take you somewhere.. will you do as I tell you when we get there?” 

Immediately her fears spiked again. 

“Why.. what do you want me to do?” she asked uncertainly. 

He shook his head. “You have to agree first.   
You have to promise to..to obey me.. no matter what I tell you to do. Swear it, Mione, and we’ll go somewhere other than these rooms and the kitchen.” 

She didn’t want to.. but the thought that he might revert back to his original plan and torture her propelled her to nod mutely and respond in a soft, unhappy voice. “Ok Harry. I promise.” 

He grinned. “Great! We’re going to have fun Mione. I promise. You’ll like it when we get started” 

The leaden foreboding in the pit of her stomach couldn’t be ignored.   
He was either going to do something horrible to her.. or he was going to do something horrible to someone else and make her watch..or..or even participate. 

She nodded numbly and stood up like a robot. He took her hand and led her out of his chambers.


	30. Chapter 30

They walked through corridors decorated in pink and grey until they came to a door like all the others and Harry pressed his hand on it to open it. 

Inside there was nothing. Nothing much.   
It was a tiny room without windows, carpet or furniture and only one other door in the left wall. It looked the kind of poky little place you’d find in a run-down tenement building. 

“What..?!” she began, confused. 

Harry waved her off and walked to the other door without hesitation, opening it and stepping out into a small, cosy hallway with a red and gold runner on the floor and pictures of hand drawn country landscapes on the walls.   
The wallpaper had a floral motif. This place felt like..a cottage or the kind of house that someone’s grandparents might have. 

Harry motioned for her to follow and they walked to the end of the hall and down a narrow carpeted staircase that curved back on itself.   
When they reached the bottom of the stairs she could hear the sound of people down the hall talking.   
She recognised Mrs Weasley’s voice and looked at Harry wide eyed.   
He whispered into her ear. “We’re going to try to avoid them but if anyone does see us, just smile and act normal.   
You and I are just friends here, don’t try to hold my hand or kiss me.   
Don’t answer anything about Voldemort or your time there. Don’t talk about anything related to the order or any meetings. Just look uncomfortable if anyone says anything about those topics, ok?   
Don’t say..anything..to make them suspicious about me, Mione.. or I’ll have to obliviate them and then I’ll have to take you back to our rooms and make sure you don’t do it ever again. Understand?”

She nodded frantically, her hands white knuckled and tight with the effort of remaining calm. 

Harry scrutinized her for a moment and then nodded. He stepped down off the stair and turned back down the hallway away from the voices. 

At the last door in the dim hallways he pressed his hand against the wood and focused for a moment. There was a click eventually and then he reached down and turned the knob. They walked in.   
The room was dark but in the half-light thrown by the open door she could see a form lying in bed, obviously sleeping. 

Harry ushered her in impatiently and then closed the door.   
A candelabra near the bed with six candles in a circle sprung to life and the form in the bed leapt up with a cry, in a tangle of blankets   
“Whosthere?! Wha?! Who?! Wazzit?!”   
She saw Ron blink at them both muzzily and collapse in relief and then his mind seemed to catch up with him again and he leapt back again.   
“Harry!!! What’s she doing here?! You’re letting her just walk around now?! Why are you here?!   
He had pressed himself against the wall, standing on his bed in blue and white stripy PJs and looked a bit ridiculous, she thought. 

Harry smiled.   
“Calm down Ron. It’s alright. I’ll protect you from the scary unarmed barefoot girl, ok?!” 

Ron frowned. “No need to be like that, mate. I’m just saying, is all.. she shouldn’t be wand’ring around. Never know what he’s done to her. She could go off at any time like that mad Lestrange bint!”   
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. “Thank you so much Ronald. I am not mad and I’m not who you should be worried about.” Harry shot her a sharp look. 

“Ron.. come down, mate. You’re making my neck hurt. Look.. she’s got no magic and she’s not armed..” 

Hermione considered the knife in its sheath on her belt under her shirt and quirked her lips faintly. Harry went on 

“..We just got bored in my room and thought we’d come see how you were doing.   
Maybe you want to come play some exploding snap or something with us. We might make a pizza for dinner.” 

Ron obviously took the possibility of pizza into account and wavered, looking at Hermione with a furtive suspicious expression and then back at Harry, uncertainly. She could see he was on the tipping point. 

“Ron.. I’m sorry about.. about what happened, ok? I had no choice. He was going to kill me and Ginny! I didn’t know what else to do!   
I tried not to.. not to hurt you too much. Please forgive me!! “ She said and realised that, apart from the lie about Ginny and herself, she did mean most of it. She had tried not to hurt him too badly and she didn’t really feel like she’d had much of a choice.   
She wasn’t.. particularly.. sorry about it though. Harry was right. Ron was a wet prat.   
And, she thought, he seemed to think with either his stomach or his prick.   
He was looking at her indecisively, his eyebrows raised as if he wanted to believe her. 

She smiled gently – “come with us! you can have your own pizza. I’ll put pineapple and bacon on it, just how you like it. It’ll be like it used to be.” Harry smiled encouragingly.   
“Come on, mate.. give her a chance! I’ll protect you. I’ll make sure she doesn’t overpower you and have her way with you with a butter knife” He laughed and Ron laughed nervously too. 

“Yeah.. have her way with me. Funny, Harry” he smiled queasily. 

“So you’ll come?” she asked, injecting as much fragile hope into her voice as she could. 

Ron swallowed nervously.“Sure guys. I’ll just pop and tell mum where I’m going, else she’ll worry.” 

Harry looked up “Oh.. yeah. I’ll do that. You ..uh.. might want to put some clothes on, eh?” Ron looked down and then back up to them, looking at Hermione a moment longer and blushing slightly.   
It was..sweet.. she realised. 

“Um.. i’ll give you some privacy, ok Ron?” she mumbled and followed Harry out to the hallway.   
No sooner had she closed the door than he had pressed her against the wall, his hand on her chest.   
“I’m not the one you should be worried about??!” he hissed at her softly. “What did I tell you on the stairs?! Don’t do it again! You’re just lucky he was too daft to get it.”   
She nodded uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, Harry. It just slipped out. I tried to make up for it”   
He nodded slowly. “yeah.. ok.” 

He suddenly seemed to prick his ears at something and walked quickly to a point halfway down the hall, starting back just as the doorknob turned and Ron opened the door, dressed in a dark blue robe and trainers.   
Ron jumped slightly when he noticed her standing in the corner in the dark.   
“Wh-what are you doing standing there, Mione..” he asked fearfully. 

She looked down.   
“I don’t want anyone to see me here. They’ll all think I’m a danger or ask me things that make me uncomfortable.”   
She glanced back up at him briefly and then turned. Harry had almost reached them. 

“It’s all set. Your mum invited me for dinner tomorrow night. I’ll see if I can make it – I dont want to leave mione alone in the manor and its probably better if she doesn’t come round for tea just yet.“   
Ron nodded at him and avoided looking at Hermione.   
“Let’s go, mate. I’m hungry. We haven’t eaten yet” Harry threw back at Ron and they all went to the stairs. 

Ron clumped up the stairs after her and she tried to climb with a straight back so her knife wouldn’t peek out. She was worried that the noise they were making would drag whoever was in the kitchen out. Harry obviously hadn’t said anything to them so it would be bad if they discovered them. But nobody came out to yell alarm at the unexpected guests. She supposed Harry might have cast some kind of silencing charm on the door. 

As they crossed the run down little room back into the wider more stately corridors of what she realised was ‘the manor’ Hermione wondered for the first time where she was.   
The building Ron had been in.. and indeed the intervening room both seemed very different places to the pink and grey corridors around Harry’s chambers. 

“They’re in different parts of the country” Harry called back at her. “It’s a spell i found that connects buildings through doors. Essentially it’s as if all the buildings are under the same fidelius charm. You can walk from one to the other and if one is ever somehow compromised, I can just shut it down and the rest of the structure will stay intact.   
My manor is the centre-point” 

She was astounded. What a fantastic idea. Harry was amazing!   
“Are you sure you should be telling her all that” Ron grumbled from behind her. She felt a momentary swell of anger. 

“Yes Ron” Harry said peevishly. “Hermione is our friend and I trust her.” 

She wondered if they were really going to have pizza. She actually was hungry.   
Harry seemed to sigh in front of her   
“Pizza first then, guys? “ he asked. They both responded enthusiastically in the affirmative.

 

After they had eaten.. they walked back to Harry’s chambers full and a lot more relaxed than before the meal.   
Somehow the act of making the dough and creating the pizzas and eating together was cathartic. Ron warmed up and soon he and Harry were discussing quiddich and telling her about the anecdotes in the Weasley family that she’d missed out on over the last two months.   
She laughed and joked with them but didn’t quite allow herself to relax fully. 

She had a bad feeling that Harry hadn’t brought Ron here for laughs and pizza. Not with the way he’d smiled as he thought of it. 

She stopped as Harry unwarded and opened his door and let them both go in in front of him. 

Ron looked around the place as if he’d never been here before. “Looks different, Harry.. what happened? Mione redecorate in the five minutes she’s been back?” 

Harry closed the door quietly behind himself. “No Ron” he said in a bored voice. “I just felt like a change.” 

Ron was looking around slightly uneasily. “Where’s her room then?”   
Harry didn’t say anything but walked off toward the library. Ron seemed to take this as an answer. 

“Oh.. trust Hermione to choose to live in a library”   
He slowed as he walked in, taking in the quite..dark.. atmosphere in the room and the lack of a bed.. or wardrobe.. or any other sign that anyone was living in here.   
“Harry..?” he began querulously but he abandoned whatever it was he was going to say when Harry turned around, having reached the middle of the room. His face was twisted in cruel amusement.   
“What is it now, Ron?” he asked softly, dangerously. 

Hermione had followed Ron into the library and now she closed the door gently, leaving the room illuminated only by the fire in the hearth and a torch on one wall.   
It was..a rather dark and oppressive room, she realised unexpectedly. All the dark arts books seemed to emanate a soft malice and the light threw deep shadows. The blue tones of the walls and carpet became black.

“Harry.. what’s going on?” Ron asked nervously.. his voice just a touch squeaky. 

“What’s going on Hermione?” Harry asked, smirking.   
She swallowed, and decided that there was no merit to resisting. She smirked darkly back at Harry and responded breathily. “I don’t know, Harry. What is going on?!” 

Ron looked more than a little afraid now, his face darting back and forth between them on either side of him. He finally decided that she was the bigger threat and turned his body slightly to face her.   
“Mione.. stop it.. whatever you’re doing. Just stop it. It’s not funny.” 

Harry laughed, full throat “He still thinks it’s you he has to worry about! “ he crowed, delighted. 

Ron’s shaggy red head swung back toward Harry and he shifted from foot to shaky foot uneasily. He patted his pockets suddenly and seemed to panic even more. “mate.. what’s-..” 

“-going on. Yes you asked already, Ron” Harry finished for him, displaying Rons wand in the palm of his left hand, the smile melting from his face.   
“what’s going on is that Hermione shared with me a surprising memory of you and I thought you might enjoy the chance to continue where you left off during the initiation. Call it a gift.”   
Ron turned white and started shaking. 

“This is a joke, right, Harry? You’re kidding. ...You really h-had me going. Very convincing mate. Just leave off now, al-alright. Its enough.” 

Harry raised his wandless hand and Ron’s arms were suddenly wrenched up above his head till he stood on tiptoes.   
“Be quiet now, ok, mate and we’ll get started”   
He looked at Hermione who was doing her own level best not to shake. “Cut his robe off.” He intoned lowly, turning and stalking away to lounge in the dark blue leather wingback chair and watch them both, looking for all intents and purposes like the Dark Lord on his throne. 

Hermione padded forward to Ron, darting a glance up to his terrified eyes once. “...sorry Ron..” she said quietly and reached behind her, drawing out the dagger.   
Ron’s eyes got huge and he whimpered slightly. He started begging, almost incoherently. “Please Hermione.. please don’t!.. Just let me go.. I won’t tell anyone.. please don’t cut me. Please.. please..”   
Hermione looked at him sympathetically and reached up, sliding the devilishly sharp blade into the hanging arm of his robe and sawing slightly till it parted in a slit. She dragged the knife down his arm toward his collar till it fell in a large ill shaped fabric wing down under his armpit.   
One peach tinted freckled arm hung in the air, Ron’s fingers clenched to white fists.   
She repeated the action with the other arm and then moved to stand in front of him, holding the remaining tube of his robe in place in order to cut his buttons off one by one. 

Ron had stopped begging and his eyes looked over her shoulder at Harry as if he couldn’t comprehend what was happening to him.   
She heard Harry shift in the chair but didn’t turn to look, instead flicking the last button off to the side with the dagger and pulling the robe away, not unkindly, tossing it into the shadows at the side of the room. 

She turned around and looked to Harry for instruction.   
Ron was breathing shallowly and swallowing convulsively as if his throat was dry. 

“That’s good, Hermione” Harry said in a dark approving voice. “Why don’t you undress a little too. I don’t want Ron to feel embarrassed.” Hermione gulped and nodded weakly.   
She told herself.. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Nothing either of them haven’t seen before. Ron isn’t going to remember anyway. It’s ok. Harry probably won’t hurt me if I do everything he says. It will be ok!” 

She looked around for where to put the knife and in the end, tucked it into the waistband of Ron’s white cotton boxers. Ron gave a little cry of dismay.   
She stepped back and began unbuttoning her black shirt. 

“Slower, Mione” Harry growled huskily. “Look at me while you do it..” 

She complied. 

Half turning and staring into Harry’s eyes, she slowly let her hand slide from button to button, claffing her shirt as she went, to expose her black silken bra. Harry narrowed his eyes appreciatively.   
“Mmm.. keep going”   
She left the shirt hanging open and undid the top button of her low rider jeans. The tiny zip was loud over the faint crackle of the fire.   
Ron made a strangled half gurgle. She saw Harry’s eyes flick to him irritated and then soften in amusement. 

Looking she saw Ron’s boxers tented out from his body. He flushed pink, clashing against his hair shockingly.   
“Stop” Harry said quietly. She froze, her hands on the hips of her jeans where she was about to push them down. 

Harry walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders, leading her forward to stand in front of Ron. He turned her till she faced the shaking redhead.   
Ron’s blue eyes were shiny and wet and the jewels on the hilt of the silver dagger in his waistband glittered prettily. 

She felt Harry press against her back, his arms coming around to grip her abdomen possessively.   
Ron blinked, his brows furrowing. 

“She’s mine, Ron. Not yours. Never yours.” Harry said by her ear, his voice dark and cruel.   
Ron gaped but couldn’t seem to get any air.. his face looked like someone who’d just watched their pet kitten fall into a meatgrinder.   
Hermione remembered that this was exactly what Voldemort’s damn locket horcrux had whispered to him.. the fear that had made him leave them in the woods.   
She felt Harry’s hand slide up and cup her breast, while the other slipped down the front of her jeans, over her matching black silk panties. She swallowed in shock, and tried desperately not to react, looking up at Ron helplessly, an expression of frozen panic in her eyes. 

He looked at her and blinked, seeming to understand her situation all of a sudden. For a moment she thought she saw something like pity flicker on his face and then it was gone, replaced by fear and anger and desperation.   
He remained silent but his face pinched in hate. 

Harry withdrew both his hands and placed them on her hips, sliding her jeans down over her legs. She stepped out of them, so that he could toss them to the side and he stood again, his robe brushing against her buttocks slightly as he rose. After he pulled the shirt down her arms and sent it the way of the jeans, he put his arms around her again, coaxing her to lean against his chest so that he could kiss and nuzzle at her neck while his fingers stroked her abdomen and thigh gently. 

“Why are you doing this, Harry?” Ron managed to force out in a tight angry voice. 

Harry didn’t even look up at him from her neck.. and now her ear where he was nipping at her lobe in a way that made little shivers rush up her spine. He mumbled in between kisses and bites   
“Because... I can... Ron. Because.. I... enjoy...showing you-”   
He flicked his tongue in a long line up the pale column of her throat causing her to gasp slightly in pleasure and tilt her head for more.   
“..-what you can never have...” he finished, looking up now, his green eyes sparkling capriciously. 

Without warning he grabbed her arm and pulled her around, crushing his mouth to hers and forcing his tongue past her lips.   
She kissed him back, despite her guilt and low burning fear, finding this cruel game strangely exciting.   
Harry was a good kisser.. and it felt somehow even more illicit and wrong to do this in front of Ron.   
It seemed Harry was experiencing something similar as he groaned into her mouth and pulled her tighter against him. 

He released her abruptly and stepped up to Ron. “She tastes so sweet.. so..pure.. like honeyed pears.” 

Rons eyebrows rose wistfully.. and he looked at her with longing eyes.   
Harry smirked nastily. 

“She was supposed to be mine, Harry. You said we were meant to be... You said if I went into Voldemort’s base and found her..” Ron whined desperately. 

Harry laughed and drew the dagger from Rons waistband, causing the boy to flinch.   
“You had her, Ron, you stupid sod. She was daft enough to actually want you. You tossed her over for that trashy bit of fluff, don’t you remember? The one who half the year had already had a go with.   
And when you arrived here with her after Malfoy saved your ass from really getting cut you were scared to death of her.   
You don’t deserve her. You certainly couldn’t handle her.   
You’re not even really worthy of her friendship so don’t talk such rubbish about meant to be.   
Harry swiped the knife down Ron’s ribs lightly and he cried out loudly in unexpected pain. 

Harry smirked grimly at him. “Mione, come here” he said very softly. 

She felt her hair stand on end and padded to him without hesitation. 

“Raise your arms for me...” Harry murmured at her, his eyes half lidded.   
Her own widened slightly and she bit her lip, but raised her arms, expecting what would come. 

Harry reached out and slid the knife down the skin over her ribs, cutting quite deeply, to judge by the hot wet blood trails she felt race down the side of her body.   
She blinked rapidly at the sharp stinging cold pain and bit her lip, but remained silent.   
It was what Harry wanted. She could tell. 

The cut closed over almost immediately and she lowered her arms, looking up at Harry nervously. 

“That was good, Mione.. so good.. “ he praised her and then turned to sneer at Ron. After a moment’s introspection, he held out the dagger to her.   
“Cut him up for me”   
He turned and swirled away.   
The motion of his robe suddenly strongly evoked the impression of the Dark Lord in her mind. 

Harry turned back, his eyes dark, glaring.. He didn’t say anything.. he didn’t need to..   
She looked down submissively thinking explicitly. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.. your robe. I couldn’t help it. I’m sorry Harry!”   
When she raised her eyes he had reassumed his place in the chair, watching them both. 

She felt a strange sense of symmetry suddenly. 

In the dark... lit by firelight.. all these dark texts watching them like ominous figures.. her silken underwear shining not unlike the leather underwear had. ...The Dark Lord watching while Ron trembled..

She turned to Ron.   
His boxers weren’t tented any more.   
She wondered when his erection had died and whether it would come back at all.   
She found suddenly that she wanted it to. It was so cruel what they were doing to him.. it would be less so if she could believe that he were enjoying it too. 

She turned away from Harry completely and stepped close to Ron, raising the knife and showing it to him, just as she had in the initiation. 

“Let yourself go.. “ she murmured, entreating him with her eyes. “I won’t hurt you badly.. It’s ok to enjoy it if it turns you on..” She licked her lips nervously. “it’s.. I think it’s what he wants to see anyway. If you don’t he might hurt you more..   
It’s probably easier if you.. ..if you think of Harry in the same way you would Voldemort.   
It’s much better to amuse him. For everyone. So.. so let go, Ron. Please?” 

Ron seemed to nod almost imperceptibly, his lips white and pressed together tensely.   
She reached out and slid a hand down his chest gently. He shivered..   
She smiled a little dark smile and did it again, only this time she followed it by the knife blade, slicing millimetre deep into his skin. Ron hissed and tilted his head back slightly, his eyes rolling up toward the ceiling. 

She dipped a finger into his blood and brought it to her lips, licking it from her finger. Ron’s eyes widened. 

“Doesn’t taste any purer” she said, her eyes glittering. 

Ron closed his eyes and gulped and she noticed his boxers had filled slightly.   
She smiled, pleased and sliced the knife lightly across his abdomen, trailing it around his side and up his back, while walking around him. Ron flinched and whined faintly. 

She started carving lines on his back in the shape of wings and he whimpered as she cut more deeply over his shoulderblades.   
After she was done she trailed another line around his ribs, walking back around to the front. She could see that his boxers were now solidly tented once more.   
As she was looking down at them Harry growled from the chair “Take them off” 

She reached with the knife, to slide it in the waist and cut them off him but Harry stopped her.   
“No. Use your teeth. I think Ron deserves a reward for being so quiet.”   
She looked over at Harry sharply, unsure, but his face was all Lord Potter. Smirking nastily. He meant it.   
She looked at Ron, slightly shaken. His eyes were heated, excited. He swallowed and looked eager. 

Giving up and acquiescing to the Dark Lord Potter’s whim, she let herself fall lightly to her knees in front of Ron.   
The redhead bowed his head to watch her, overawed.   
Bracing herself with her hands on his upper thighs and straining up as far as she could, she could just catch the waistband of his boxers between her teeth after a couple of misses..   
Each time her lips brushed his skin she felt Ron flinch in pleasure. 

When she caught it and started to pull downward she heard him groan and felt his cock twitch against the fabric next to her face. Her eyes darted up at him.   
He was grinning, looking like a man who had not only been pardoned on death row, but had won the lottery too. 

She had pulled this side of his boxers down as far as they would go and had to let go and reach for the other side.   
When her lips brushed against the soft, soft, skin on the inside of his pelvis he gasped again and raised his head, staring at Harry imploringly. 

“Oh god Harry... oh god please... anything.. please!!... please make her suck me. Oh fuck... I’ll do anything.   
Please Harry. If she doesn’t touch me I think i’ll die.. fuck!.. so beautiful.” 

Hermione heard him babbling desperately but she had just about got his boxers down far enough.. and finally his cock bounced out, free from the lip of the waistband.   
She quickly dragged the boxers down to his feet and sat back on her heels to pull them out from under his feet. 

A hand reached down over her shoulder, taking them from her. She jumped slightly, she hadn’t heard Harry move. 

She turned, looking up and over her shoulder at him, jumping again in surprise – he was naked.   
He tossed Ron’s boxers in the general direction of the other clothes in the darkness and looked down at her.   
His cock was hard. He was bigger than Ron..   
she cut her mind off then.. thinking of saccharine voices singing waterloo again to prevent her mind from comparing him to the Dark Lord. 

Harry tilted his head amused and shook it ruefully. “Take me in your mouth, Mione” he said quietly.   
Ron whined inarticulately in frustration. His cock twitching slightly and reddening with want. 

She turned around on her knees and looked up at Harry uneasily. She hadn’t done this with him yet. He reached down and stroked her head, soothingly.   
She felt that uneasy ghost of Voldemort again and leaned forward, licking the head of his penis with the tip of her tongue, tracing a small circle around the slit there. His cock bobbed and she captured the head with her lips, sucking it gently into her mouth, before looking up at him.   
Harry looked faintly surprised. As she started to suck harder, taking more of him in, flattening her tongue against his underside, Harry said thickly. “He’s right..you are ..SO.. beautiful Mione. God.. that feels good.. deeper.. “ 

she obliged, taking as much of him into her mouth as she could reach and swallowing, trying to press still more into her throat.   
Harry gasped and bucked forward against her and she gagged and pulled away, her eyes watering.   
She looked up at his blurry form and he looked entranced. Slowly he reached down with both hands and burrowed his fingers into her hair. He pulled her back to face him, prodding at her lips once and sliding into her mouth when she parted them, gripping her tightly and pulling her deeper, gently but insistently. 

This time when he hit the back of her throat and she swallowed frantically, he pulled her hard against him, thrusting at the same time. She felt something give in her throat and he slid all the way in, dragging her along his length till her lips brushed the pubic hair at the base of his cock.   
He groaned loudly and she heard a faint echoed needy groan from Ron.   
It felt like Harry was all the way down in her neck. Like having a hard hot bar stuck in her throat.   
She blinked and furrowed her brows, trying not to panic. She couldn’t breathe. Harry held her there, jerking in small movements back and forth in her without pulling out. his head was thrown back and his mouth wide.   
“Fuuuuck..” he groaned.   
She whimpered panicked and his cock moved in her neck at the vibration. Harry lowered his head to look at her again, his eyes aglow and seemed to realise her panic, pulling smoothly out, feeling like something enormous grating across bones in her throat and watching, apparently fascinated, as she panted desperately, trying to get air back in her lungs. 

No sooner had she started to calm again after taking a deep breath, he tightened his hands in her hair and pulled her against him again.   
She opened her lips for him, looking up at him with pleading eyes and he only smiled wider. 

“You’re so..fucking.. good at sucking cock, Mione. The best I’ve ever had I think. I should probably send a thank you note to Voldemort.” 

Her eyes widened and Harry thrust hard into her mouth, pushing roughly against the back of her throat and making her gag again., he pulled back halfway and tilted his head, narrowing his eyes at her.   
“Open up again. Let me in!..” he growled.   
She winced, sucking in breath through her nose and trying to flick her tongue against the bottom of his shaft and swirl it around his head.   
She took a deep breath and leaned in and he responded immediately, pulling her up his length hard, driving through her swallowing, slipping painfully back into her throat. It felt uncomfortable.   
She tried to concentrate on sucking the base of his cock that was in her mouth and raised her hand to stroke his balls. 

Harry started to move back and forth in her, gently at first but then deeper and longer. 

“Oh god... You can see your cock moving in her bloody throat Harry” Ron groaned and bucked his hips mindlessly in the air in time with Harry’s thrusts. 

Harry pulled all the way back out and she gasped again but then he was immediately forcing his way back in, roughly fucking her mouth now, battering past the back of her throat while she weakly swallowed, convulsively; Thrusting into her throat in long deep strokes.   
She could hear him grunting and tried to relax her throat as much as she could and suck harder.   
She felt hot tears sliding down her cheeks and it seemed that that was what finally did it for Harry. He moaned, suddenly weak, and pulled her mouth tight against the base of his cock, clamping her hard against him, his body jerking, pumping his seed deep into her. So deep that there was nothing to swallow, she just felt it there.. hot.. sliding down her gullet. 

Finally he let her go and she fell back onto her heels, gasping, her cheeks wet.   
The glittering damp trail on the floor and his limpness spoke for the fact that Ron had come watching them.. quite without the need for any external stimulation at all apparently.   
She looked up the length of his body from her position on the floor and found his eyes shining and a strange tender look on his face.   
She frowned at him, her throat sore. 

Harry had stepped back and was putting his robe back on, but he let it hang open. He flung a hand in Ron’s direction and Ron, suddenly released, crashed to his knees on the floor.   
He looked at Hermione furtively and then looked back at Harry, not quite daring to move toward her. 

“Good, Ron. You’re starting to understand your position. Hermione, come here. “ 

She got, slightly unsteadily, to her feet and padded over to him. 

He pulled her roughly, his hand on the back of her neck and kissed her hard, brutally plundering her mouth with his tongue.   
When he released her he looked positively wicked. 

“You still taste so sweet..” he whispered. “Amazing..” 

He gestured behind him. “Go and sit at the foot of the chair for now.” She nodded and installed herself at the foot of his chair, knowing instinctively that he wanted her to sit exactly as she had at Voldemort’s feet. 

Harry strode up to Ron, who had straightened up and knelt now, resting his buttocks on his heels.   
He looked at the floor pensively, only flicking his eyes up once, apprehensively, as Harry approached and stood over him. 

The silence lengthened. 

Finally Harry spoke very quietly. She had to listen hard to hear him. “Do you know what Hermione calls me in her mind, Ron? Last night she even called me it to my face” 

Ron shifted uneasily. “No.” He bit out shortly. “What?” 

Harry smiled eerily.   
“She calls me ‘Lord Potter’. At first I thought it was sarcasm.. But now I think she really does think of me in those terms.   
She...accepts...it.   
She didn’t at first.. But I think she does now.” 

Hermione shivered. Had it become colder in the room? 

“What do you think, Ron? You met Voldemort while you were in his base. Do you see any resemblance? Am I like him?” 

Ron ducked lower and said nothing. 

“Answer the question” Harry said dangerously pleasantly. 

“Yes.” Ron said reluctantly. “Yes Harry. You’re scaring the shit out of me just like bloody you know who.” 

Harry laughed.   
“Yeah? Well then you’re going to find it easy to deal with this next part.” He reached forward and grabbed a fistful of Ron’s hair and dragged him down onto his hands.   
“Crawl.” He growled and pulled Ron by the head forward. 

Ron hissed and cussed and crawled clumsily beside him as he walked to the chair where Hermione sat.   
When he reached it he released Ron’s hair and turned, seating himself gracefully, the robe falling on his thighs, leaving him unashamedly exposed.   
He laid a hand upon Hermione’s head and stroked her hair and she felt a strange warm glow of pleasure at it.   
It was..inexplicably even more perverse than it had been when Voldemort had stroked her hair but it felt good to sit at Harry’s feet like this, to look up at his thin angular sculpted face and the body toned from years of quiddich.   
In a certain strange sense.. she had always been sitting at Harry’s feet looking up at him. From the very beginning. 

Harry fixed Ron with a hard look and gestured to the floor on the other side of his legs. 

Ron narrowed his eyes at him but crawled forward to sit in a posture mirroring that of Hermione.   
Harry smiled a thin cruel smile at him and turned to Hermione again. “Give me your hand, Mione. “ 

She offered him her right hand and he shook his head faintly so she offered him her left.   
Only then did she notice her mark was gone. A sudden flood of conflicted emotions overwhelmed her. Relief, confusion, shock and even a microscopic flash of disappointment. 

“Oh don’t worry” he reassured her grimly, reading her expression. “It’s not gone. I just hid it when I removed your shirt.   
I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”   
He waved his hand over her wrist and the mark seemed to emerge from within her flesh like a strange parasitic black stain.. which, she supposed, in a certain sense – it was. 

Ron gasped, jerking back. “She took his bloody mark? When? At the..” 

Harry interrupted him. “Oh Ron.. You really are such a thick prat. I have no idea how you manage to be such a good strategist on the playing field and the chessboard when you don’t get the simplest of things.   
...She took MY mark.”   
He smirked nastily as the redheaded boy gaped and scrambled backward in shock.. his eyes wide and full of confusion and denial. 

“But.. but you can’t.. you didn’t.. this is all just a joke. You’re.. this isn’t real.” He seemed on the verge of panicking and bursting into tears. 

Harry gestured at the floor at the foot of his chair again pointedly. 

After a few seconds Ron very unwillingly crawled back and sat as he had before, looking up at Harry miserably with wide wet eyes, his bottom lip trembling ever so slightly.   
Harry reached out and stroked his hair gently, ignoring his flinching. He petted him slowly, almost comfortingly, for several minutes, not saying anything, just looking at him seriously.   
When Ron seemed to have composed himself slightly and his eyes showed faint hollow acceptance, Harry stopped stroking him and said quietly. “Show him your mark, Hermione.” 

She turned and extended her arm toward Ron.   
He didn’t seem to want to touch her now but he looked down at the black flames dancing hypnotically around the phoenix shield. 

“Yeah ok.” he mumbled, his eyes shifting nervously.   
Harry leaned forward and placed a finger under Ron’s chin, drawing his face back to look up at him. 

“Ron.. I want you to take my mark too.” He said resolutely.   
There was no room for debate with that voice. It was declaring how things would be.   
Ron closed his eyes and now tears did slip from the corners of his eyes as he shook his head desperately. 

“I don’t want to Harry. Please don’t make me. I don’t want it” 

Hermione looked down, knowing that Ron would end up taking the mark. Harry would find a crack and insert a knife in it then twist and Ron would take the mark.   
She glanced up at his face, wanting to tell him.. wanting to warn him to just take it now and thank Harry for it and he would be better off. But she knew Ron hadn’t yet learned that the high road and the low road led to the same place with the Dark Lord. 

“That’s a pity Ron.” Harry said, sounding sad. “How about if I offered not to whip you?” 

Ron looked up at him fearfully and just wailed “Please Harry.. please don’t. I..I’m your friend. Why are you doing this?!..” 

Harry snorted, obviously unimpressed. “You think that’s begging, Ron? You haven’t begun to beg. But I’m feeling generous, on account of the truly fucking monumental blow job that Mione gave me there, so I’ll offer you a deal.   
How’s this: If you refuse to ask me for my mark I’ll give you twenty lashes with this”   
He summoned a thin supple braided leather whip from somewhere in the darkness behind him and tossed it at Ron.   
It landed in his lap and he picked it up in horror, running it through his fingers.   
“-and then I’ll ask you again.   
If you still refuse, I’ll cast the flagrate curse on it and give you another twenty lashes... and then I’ll ask you once more.. You see where this is going?” 

Ron stared up at him despairingly and nodded. 

“You’d be surprised how horrible that curse is, Ron. Even Hermione screamed fit to bring the roof down when it was used on her.” 

Ron looked at her in horror and more than a little pity. Harry went on. 

“However.. if you agree to take my mark right now.. I won’t whip you at all. In fact.. I’ll let you lick her.. JUST lick her, you understand.. but it’s closer than you’ll ever get to that sweetness, Ron.” 

Hermione looked up at Harry shocked and hurt. It was beyond the fact that he’d just basically pimped her out to Ron as a reward.. it was the fact that he would allow anyone else to touch her when he’d been so over-the-top possessive before. 

Harry smiled down at her secretively and she frowned, upset and confused.   
She turned away and Ron was looking at her. He had such sadness and longing mingled on his face that it hurt to look at.. 

It suddenly clicked into focus in her mind. Severus.. He was looking at her like Severus.   
She felt Harry’s hand descend on her head but instead of stroking her hair he patted her as if she was a dog who’d performed a trick correctly.   
He was going to let Ron lick her.   
She turned to him, horror writ large across her face. The memory he’d watched earlier.. and then he’d suddenly decided to go and get Ron.. 

Oh god.. poor Ron – he had no idea. She was almost certain that he didn’t swing that way. She wondered suddenly, thoughtfully, whether Severus had originally. Perhaps he’d liked girls but then.. when he’d been left with the Dark Lord..   
Tom was not easy to refuse. 

“Hermione..” Harry growled. 

She shrugged absently and turned back to Ron. Harry’s hand descended to rest heavily on her head, a reminder not to try to say something to Ron that Harry would prefer her not to say. 

Ron still wavered, his expression tormented. 

“Hermione.. crawl over to the rug and take your underwear off while Ron is making up his mind. “ Harry tossed at her easily.   
She scowled at him but crawled slowly over to the black and silver rectangle of plush oriental carpet, swaying her ass intentionally all the way there.   
Ron whimpered slightly. 

“I’ll take it if you let me fuck her, Harry.. Ok?” 

Harry’s voice was cold. “No Ron. I make the deals. I’ve offered you one. It was already an unbelievably generous deal. You should thank me for not going right ahead and torturing you till you beg for it.” 

Hermione had reached the rug and spread her knees now as widely as they would go, kneeling back on her heels and reaching behind her to unfasten her bra. She looked at Harry and Ron kneeling at his feet as she took it off slowly, sliding the straps down her arms while she held the cups in place and then flinging it off to the side like she’d seen some stripper on a TV program do while she’d been home with her parents one time.   
Ron goggled and Harry looked her up and down appreciatively.   
She reached for the waistband of her panties and slid her thumbs in the sides, raising an eyebrow questioningly. 

Ron’s eyes were glued to her with such need.. It called up Severus’ face again.. his young pale slender form, long hair falling around his shoulders as he stared at her like a starving man. 

“Ron..” Harry said, in a strange tone of voice.. “look at me.”   
Ron made a noise like a squeak in his throat and seemed unable to turn away from Hermione.   
“look at me, Ron” Harry said again in a soothing patient voice. 

Hermione removed her thumbs from her panties and slid her hands up to cup and hide her breasts, turning her attention to Harry pointedly. 

Ron blinked several times, almost as if he were waking up and turned slowly to look up at Harry fearfully. 

“I want to try something.. I’m curious what will happen. I..saw it somewhere and it made me wonder.”   
After a few seconds Ron’s eyes widened dramatically and he emitted a strangled sound. “wha.. Harry.. what are you doing..”   
he fell limply against the chair, his hand coming up to clutch Harry’s bare knee to stop himself from crashing down.   
When he touched Harry however he suddenly arched, his eyes clenching shut, gasping. 

“Oh god... Harry.. stop... stop it.. it feels like.. oh stop please..” his voice sounded like something caught between bliss and agony. Harry smiled a thin triumphant smile. 

She realised what he was doing.   
She could feel it faintly.. the tendrils of Harry’s magic uncurling and swirling around him.   
Several metres away where she knelt it was weak, but she felt herself leaning into it slightly, as if into a warm breeze.   
It felt different to Tom’s magic but there was something.. a note or a tone or a feeling to it nevertheless that was familiar. She supposed that that was ‘Lord Potter’ rather than Harry. 

Harry’s magic felt.. reddish.. and brassy.. bright like apples and spring.   
It felt sharper than Toms.. rougher.. not like caramel, more like chips of rock candy or the sound of biting into watermelon. It felt more playful but perhaps a little like the kind of play where everyone runs around with scissors and someone ends up falling off the roof and breaking their legs.   
It was like the breakers at the beach. Powerful and blustery and liable to drown you if you weren’t careful. 

Ron was moaning helplessly as Harry stroked his hair away from his face while he leaned limply against the chair, his face against Harry’s robed thigh.   
“Oh Ron.. don’t you understand?.. “ Harry was saying softly, gently, as if luring a frightened animal.   
“Your magic responds to me..wants mine.. you’ve always been mine.. Hermione too..   
You were both..always.. mine. Its why we found our way together from the start.”   
Ron whimpered and turned his face in toward the chair   
“You’re going to take my mark Ron, because you know you belong to me. You always will.   
You don’t have to be afraid of Hermione and I.. ..of being left alone.. “ 

She felt the magic ebb slightly and Harry fisted his hand in Ron’s hair, leaning forward suddenly and pulling Ron’s head back...in a decidedly familiar way, she realised..   
Ron stared up at him, looking lost and frightened. “Harry..” he whimpered, brokenly. 

Harry looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment and then, as if he had just made up his mind, he leaned down and pressed his lips lightly against Ron’s.   
Ron made a shocked sound and struggled weakly, pushing at Harry ineffectually, his arms limp with the effects of the magic swirling around him.   
Harry kissed him harder and suddenly even Hermione was floored by the sensation, pushed to lie weakly on the rug on her side as his magic swelled out at a massive level. 

Ron wailed, muffled by Harry’s kiss and she watched as he suddenly opened his mouth and started kissing Harry back desperately, their mouths working against each other. Tears slid from the corners of Rons, tightly clenched eyes. 

Hermione’s strength returned gradually as she felt the magic slowly tapering off again.. She remained where she was, unwilling to disturb them and risk Harry’s anger.   
Finally she could feel it no more and yet Ron continued to kiss Harry hungrily, almost violently.   
He suddenly rose up on his knees, leaning toward the boy who lived.. the Dark Lord Potter.. his best friend.   
Harry released his hair and slid his hand to the back of Ron’s neck, urging him still closer. 

The blood on Ron’s back had dried and looked like the soiled red brown remains of angels wings. 

He wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist, scooting around his leg, never even pausing mid-snog, as Harry parted his knees for him to kneel between them.   
They looked lovely together Hermione thought, stunned.   
It was something close to the most perverse thing she had ever seen and yet it was exciting to watch. 

Ron was pulling at Harry now, dragging him forward on the chair, kissing his jaw, eyes still screwed shut as Harry dropped his head and captured his mouth again, thrusting his tongue into it She saw it, pink and wet for a moment before their mouths closed the gap.   
Ron groaned and ground his hips against the chair a little.   
Suddenly Harry pushed him away roughly to land on the floor, half splayed, propped up on his elbows, his erection prominent.   
Ron stared up at Harry stunned and confused. 

Harry looked exultant, leaning back in the chair again, his own cock half hard. His eyes flicked over to her and she read the triumph in them and began to pick herself up to kneel once more. 

“You.. you..kissed me..Harry. why did you do that?!” Ron said in a distant forlorn voice. He sounded like he was on the brink of madness. 

Harry looked down at him carefully, compassion softening his features somewhat.   
“Because I love you, Ron, you daft prat.” 

Rons brows furrowed as if he were trying to understand a particularly complex arithmancy problem.   
“But.. you kissed me..” he said again uncomprehendingly.   
Harry raised an eyebrow at him. 

Hermione wondered – had he always been able to do that? It was more of a Tom gesture, she realised. 

“Did you like it” Harry asked, very softly. He sounded slightly worried.   
Ron blinked, obviously still not getting past the fact of what had just happened. 

“Take my mark, Ron. Give yourself to me” Harry urged in a low seductive.. extremely un-Harry-like tone. 

Ron let himself fall onto his back and huffed a deep breath, his eyes darting back and forth under furrowed brows.   
He seemed to be trying to reconcile all these developments in his world and carrying on some kind of internal dialogue. 

Harry watched him for a while and then turned his eyes up to meet hers.   
She was in a subdued state of turmoil too. Harry had said he loved Ron. He apparently wasn’t just looking to recreate the memory he saw for a night..   
What if he actually wanted them to all be together?! 

Hermione didn’t know if she could do that. Her feelings for Ron were very mixed.   
Yes, she felt some compassion for him and at one point she had had a colossal crush on him, had thought she was in love with him in fact.. but she was also bitter and angry over his betrayal.. and his hurtful behaviour.   
Had been for a long time.   
And he irritated her sometimes. He was so stupid and self preoccupied and arrogant and insecure.   
And petty. He was almost unbelievably petty. She frowned. 

Harry smiled at her lazily, his eyes wandering from her face down to her breasts. She coloured and folded her arms indignantly. The sudden darkening of his gaze prompted her to drop her arms again and look down at the ground impotently.   
“If I had my magic..” she thought viciously.. “You wouldn’t be able to intimidate me like that anymore. In fact, it would be the other way around!” 

Harry laughed suddenly and she looked up, Ron looked up too, unaware of why Harry had suddenly laughed.   
“Yes but you’re not going to get it back, Mione.   
And you know.. part of you likes doing what I tell you.   
And.. it’s not always like this, is it?! Most of the time I treat you like a queen.” Harry smirked at her. 

Ron looked back at Harry questioningly. 

He spoke to him. “Don’t worry mate. Hermione was just throwing a bit of a strop because I didn’t tell her I was going to have you join us. She’ll get over it soon enough. I’m sure you could bring her round one way or another...” he trailed off insinuatingly. 

Hermione blushed and glared at him, infuriated.   
He responded, quietly, his eyes glittering like cold jewels “- Finish stripping, Mione. I’m sorry I stopped you before.   
I needed to know whether Ron would respond to me. But you have all my attention now.” 

Ron sat up quickly, spinning on his arse and leaning back against the chair with his legs out in front of them. He tucked one over the other and looked at her, entirely absorbed, anticipation all over his face.   
Harry glanced down at him indulgently and placed his hand on Ron’s head, stroking his hair and delving his fingers to play in it. 

Ron did not flinch.   
He looked at Hermione with a new sly expression. 

Internally she gave herself a massive facepalm. Just like bloody Severus, she screamed at herself. He thinks he can position himself above me too, can be my ...master... too. Crap.   
She looked at Harry, who stared back at her coolly. 

“We’re waiting, Hermione” 

Taking a deep defeated breath she raised herself up on her knees, parting them a little further. Ron’s eyes widened while Harry’s conversely grew half lidded and satisfied as he leaned his head back against the chair.   
She slid her thumbs into the waistband of her panties again and started to slide them down over her buttocks slowly till they slipped down slightly in the front too, exposing the top of her small trimmed bush of tight brown curls. 

Harry tilted his head at her speculatively and raised his hand. A slightly prickly sensation made her look down and she saw her pubic hair had vanished, leaving a perfectly smooth pale mound. She looked up at him accusingly. 

Harry smirked and said matter of factly “Ron was just thinking about how he’d like to see you shaved, Hermione, and I thought I’d oblige him just in case he should decide to take my mark and have the chance to taste you.”

Ron was practically drooling, sitting up straight now, his cock rock hard, standing up over his thighs. 

She blinked and looked down at the ground, resigned.   
Sliding down onto her back she lifted her legs up, pointing her toes and leaned up, balancing just on her buttocks as she slid the black panties up her thighs, over her calves and off.   
She lowered her legs, bending them at the knee and let herself fall back down onto her back too, turning her head to the side so she could see Harry and Ron. 

Harry made a side to side gesture with his hand, looking at her pointedly and she closed her eyes, slowly parting her knees till they were splayed wide. 

There was silence for about ten seconds and then she heard Ron’s husky voice “pleaseHarrycanIhaveyourmark?!!” he gushed urgently.   
She heard Harry snicker. “You know.. I thought you might feel that way Ron once you’d had time to think it over.” 

She closed her knees and opened her eyes; a small sadistic glee running through her at what she knew would come next. 

As she expected, when Harry pressed his wand to Ron’s wrist, he immediately started screaming in agony.   
After it was done, he sniffed and looked at Harry reproachfully.   
“You didn’t say it was going to hurt like that!” he muttered. 

Harry snorted and grinned at him. “Yes well, where would the fun be in that,” he said nastily.   
He stood up and walked over to Hermione, leaning down and extending a hand toward her to help her up.   
She hesitated a moment and then took it, letting him pull her to her feet and wrap his arms around her. 

He whispered into her ear...”You were..amazing. God.. I think he would have avada’d his own mother for a piece of you. Don’t worry.. He’s not your master.. never.. ever.. Hermione. It was just..necessary in order for me to get him to take the mark. You’re the one I want, Mione.   
I just thought we could play with him occasionally. You seemed to like that with Voldemort..   
I want..I want you to be happy, Mione. I’m all you need. I’ll give you enough so that you don’t get bored.” 

She looked at Harry cynically and murmured barely audibly   
“Harry.. You didn’t claim Ron to keep me interested. Don’t try to feed me ridiculous lines. You wanted him and you took him because you were curious. I don’t mind. It just bothers me that you expect me to have sex with him because you want to.” 

Harry’s soft expression shifted into the hard appraising gaze she’d come to recognise. 

“...Be that way then. You’re going to do as much or as little with him as I say, Mione. I want to fuck him while he licks you and that is what we are going to do. You already know you’re going to do it, so stop dragging your feet.   
If you ask me nicely, maybe I’ll use parseltongue on you” 

She gaped at him, hurt, as he pushed roughly past her and swept out of the room, his robe billowing behind him.   
She saw Ron had gotten to his feet and was standing there looking over her body with obvious desire. 

“Don’t worry, Mione” he said quietly. “It’ll be good. You’ll like it.. you’ll see. 

He started to walk toward her and she balked, backing away a step and hurrying after Harry, feeling worried.


	31. Chapter 31

She entered the bedroom to find Harry lying naked on the bed, leaning up against the headboard, his lean hard body curved, one leg straight in front of him while the other bent at the knee, with his arm propped on it.   
He looked pensive and shot her a cold look. 

She stopped, unsure and Ron stepped through the door at her back, walking up to her and standing far too close.   
His erection tapped at her thigh accidentally and she hopped forward skittishly glancing over her shoulder. 

She felt a strange empty aversive feeling.. She didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to do this. It was somehow worse than everything that had come before.. She wrapped her arms around herself miserably. 

“Come here, Mione” Harry said softly, almost sympathetically. There was a tight worried expression on his face when she looked at him. 

She obeyed robotically, moving to the bed and climbing up next to him.   
Ron followed behind her eagerly and Harry turned away from her to look at him stonily. 

“No, Ron. On your knees and wait there.” 

Ron made a frustrated annoyed face which swiftly turned to pain and fright as he clutched his arm to his chest and dropped to his knees, yelping. 

Harry turned back to her and looked at her carefully, appraisingly, raising his hand to stroke her cheek. “Is it too much?” he murmured, sounding concerned.   
She looked at him with wide slightly crazed eyes.   
He reached out and caught her shoulders, urging her closer. She resisted for a second and his face displayed equal parts worry and irritation.   
Abruptly he grabbed her and threw her down on her back on the bed next to him. 

She froze, her entire body stiffening in dread. Harry was leaning over her with a determined expression. His eyes moved down her body with a possessive appreciative glint.   
Cautiously he shifted himself, his hand lay both calming and restraining her on her chest between her breasts, as he moved to straddle her. 

“Just let it happen, Mione. I’ll make sure you come hard” he murmured as he leaned down.   
“You don’t have to do anything.. Just let him kiss you.. Let him taste you. That’s all. I don’t know what you’re being like this for.. at one time you wanted to kiss Ron.. You wanted to be with him. Now you can. You can be with both of us.   
Well... sort of.   
So long as you remember that you’re really mine.   
We’ll see how it goes. If it doesn’t work, I’ll obliviate him and we can chalk it up as a mistake.” 

She heard a faint whimper from the floor where Ron was.   
Harry smirked nastily. 

He reached up and took his glasses off, folding them and levitating them to the side table.   
Without them he looked different. Older. Harder. With his black messy hair so long now he actually looked faintly like Tom.   
Harry smirked and gestured and his bright green eyes were replaced by red slitted ones. 

She shrieked, not expecting it. It was more than disturbing.. like this it looked like they were brothers or something. 

Harry was laughing. He turned to Ron and asked, obviously thoroughly pleased with her reaction,   
“what d’ya think, mate? Is it a good look?”   
She could only see Ron’s head above the edge of the bed but she saw him gape and turn a bit green.   
“no, Harry” he said faintly. 

Harry frowned at him as if to call him a spoilsport. “No? Maybe its just not finished?” He said, looking back at Hermione, who was trying to burrow into the bed with her shoulderblades.   
He brought his hand down his face and the tanned brown colour seemed to flow out of his skin till he was pale like marble. It was horrible how similar he looked to Tom, although their features were not at all alike.   
Harry sneered at her. “Do you like me better like this? Do you want me now?”   
She shook her head frantically.   
He looked at Ron again, who seemed to be having trouble breathing. 

“Come here Ron. I want you to lie down right here.” He pointed to the bed by Hermione’s right side.   
Ron just shook his head desperately. 

“No.. No I can’t, Harry. please.. take it off.. I can’t move when you look like that.. please stop it..” 

Harry blinked red snakelike eyes slowly, grinning, obviously greatly entertained by the paralysis of his two best friends. 

“Well..Merlin.. if you’re going to be a great big baby over it.” He flicked his hand to cancel the glamours and they shimmered off to reveal normal Harry again.   
It was an immense relief, Hermione found.   
What the hell was Harry playing at – he hated the idea of Tom.. hated her even thinking of him.. now he wasn’t just recreating her time with him, her encounters with Severus and Tom, he wanted to look like him too?   
She wasn’t sure whether he had done it to unnerve her.. or because he really wanted to see what it felt like.   
Surely it was just to mess with her.. 

The bed dipped as Ron climbed up beside her. He looked at her like she was something to eat.   
She suppressed a facepalm because in this case she was, obviously. 

Harry watched them both calculatingly. 

Ron was visibly itching to touch her and only the barest thread of self preservation was holding him back.   
Hermione scoffed at him.   
“You know.. you’re not going to be kissing me now, Ron. You’re going to kiss Harry first. That’s how it goes. That’s the little skit we’re acting out” 

Harry smiled widely, seeing she had finally got with the program like he wanted. 

Ron in contrast looked confused and somewhat disgruntled. “Whaddaya mean? Harry said-..” 

She smiled gleefully, enjoying a moment of schadenfreude. Ron hadn’t realised yet that he was about to be unceremoniously deflowered by his former best friend.   
“Ron.. Harry offered you something because he wanted to play a little skit out, and you were necessary for it. That’s all. Your getting to be with me is actually only incidental. He really just wants to fuck you.” 

Ron’s jaw dropped aghast and his head spun to look up at Harry in disgust and disbelief.   
Harry was smirking. He seemed accepting of her tormenting the redhaired boy, provided she played along like a good girl and didn’t ruin things for him. 

“..Harry?” Ron said anxiously..”she’s having me on, right? Cause I don’t.. I’m –I’m not gay, mate.. I .. I don’t like blokes that way...” 

Harry leaned down and reached out a hand, brushing Rons hair out of his eye.   
“Course you’re not gay mate.. you want to fuck Hermione, don’t you? Obviously you’re not gay.” 

Rons eyebrows had quirked at Harry touching his hair like that but now he breathed a massive sigh of relief.   
“Merlin you had me worried for a second there, Harry. After you..well.. with your magic and.. “   
Harry’s smile turned feral.   
“She’s right though. I am going to fuck you..” 

Ron stopped mid sentence and went white. His mouth gaped like a fish out of water 

“Don’t worry, mate.. you’ll like it.” 

Hermione felt Harry uncurl his magic again, only this time it was so much stronger with him straddling her, so much of their skin touching.   
So close to her core.. it felt like a vast red sharp flare, gripping her insides and twisting..  
It felt like need.. almost like the spell in parseltongue.   
She gasped and shuddered and Harry turned to her, leaning down and pressing his body against hers..   
the sensation increased a hundred-fold and she squirmed beneath him. 

Harry smiled, enjoying it and dropped his face to her throat, kissing and then sucking at her pulse point. 

She sighed and turned her face to him, lifting her arms and wrapping them around his neck. Harry’s mouth wandered up to her ear and he breathed “I love you, Mione.”   
She put her hands on the side of his face and guided him to her mouth so that she could kiss him. 

When he finally pulled away she noticed that Ron had scooted closer to them both and was watching them with an agonized needy expression. 

Harry rose up slowly like a cat and tilted his head at him with a small smile. She felt his magic increase and let her head fall back, bathed in it, reaching with her hands to scratch down his ribs teasingly.   
Ron had turned on his side and leaned in, breathing heavily through his mouth and looking like he couldn’t believe it. 

Harry growled at him, low. “Kiss the one you want, Ron..”   
Ron’s brow furrowed and he looked down at Hermione, licking his lips nervously. She turned her head lazily toward his and arched slightly..   
“It’s not me you’re feeling now Ron” she sighed in pleasure.   
Rons shaggy head swung back to Harry, confused, only inches from him now.   
Harry reached a hand out, extending a single finger and touched it feather light to Ron’s neck. The effect was extreme.. 

Hermione realised that Ron must be even more succeptible to Harry’s magic than herself, when his head immediately fell back and he groaned. “Oh Merlin.. Harry.. “   
Harry chuckled and removed his finger. The next second Ron had launched himself at him, knocking him off Hermione and onto his back across the bed.   
Ron lay on him, his hands grasping and clutching at Harry’s body desperately while they kissed like nifflers in heat.   
She sat up to watch them, something between amused and turned on. Their hard cocks rubbed together as they wound and groped each other. 

She realised that Harry could not get what he wanted. It was not the same, could not be the same.   
He and Ron were only just discovering each other. Tom and Severus had learned every inch of each other decades ago. 

She wondered if she should try to join them or if she could get away with leaving them in here and going and reading a book.   
Just at that point Harry suddenly flipped them both, almost preternaturally quickly, and sat up, straddling Ron.   
He half turned and looked back at her with a wry expression. 

“Impatient, Mione? Come here. Come and see him..” 

He held out his hand to her and after a moment she took it.. feeling that bubbling exciting red energy flow into her through his fingers again.. It was simmering.. low.. but it fizzed through her veins making her feel wild.. intoxicated.. filled with an almost childlike sense of daring.   
She crawled over to them both, kneeling beside Ron. 

He seemed to very nearly glow with an innocent apricot kind of vibe, his hair was tossed around his face and he looked up at her awed and dazed. 

“Kiss me, Mione..” he mumbled and somehow, naked and rubbing his cock against his best friend absently, he still managed to blush pinkly at her because he’d asked for a kiss.   
She felt tickled somehow and leaned down and planted a tiny kiss on his nose.   
He moved his head, trying to catch her mouth with his but she moved back, smiling down at him.   
Ron was..cute. 

“She thinks you’re cute, mate” Harry chortled at Ron. 

Ron smiled a wide goofy grin at Harry.. “I’m cute? Really?” he turned to Hermione raising his eyebrows. “cute? Really??! Kiss me again! Kiss me for real this time.”   
Hermione bit her lip, feeling uneasy butterflies. She couldn’t kiss Ron. It struck her suddenly how ridiculous this thought was.   
She couldn’t kiss bloody Voldemort.. or her professor or a vampire for god’s sake.. or HARRY. Ron was probably about the most normal person she could kiss. She’d kissed him before, back when things were normal and reality hadn’t fallen on its arse. 

Harry was watching her with a strange expression on his face. 

She leaned down and pressed her lips gently against Ron’s.   
The kiss was entirely unlike the one he’d been sharing with Harry. Ron reached up automatically, winding his fingers in her hair. His eyes were closed.   
He kissed her again.. light, chaste kisses. She probed at his lips with her tongue and he opened touching the tip of his tongue to hers before deepening the kiss and twirling his tongue around hers, deep in her mouth.   
When she pulled back and bit his top lip gently she thought she heard him mewl weakly. 

She lifted her leg and slipped it over Ron, seating herself directly in front of Harry. She heard him make a pleased, surprised sound behind her and felt his hands slide onto her hips, pulling her back slightly against him.   
His cock slid against the crack of her ass when she leaned down and went back to kissing Ron.   
She rubbed herself against the tip of Ron’s cock, which was pressed down against his abdomen. He moaned something unintelligible into her mouth, moving his hips and obviously trying to free himself sufficiently to impale her. 

Harry had leaned down and was tracing kisses down her back. She felt herself dragged slowly back by Harry’s hands on her hips, down Ron’s body till his entire cock was above her pussy. 

Ron was straining up to continue kissing her, propping himself on his elbows. 

She was gently pushed down against Ron’s chest and then she felt Harry’s cock teasing at her pussy, probing at the slick wetness around her hole. He pushed until the head of his cock slipped into her and held it there, sweeping her hair to the side and running his hands down her spine.   
His cock just barely inside her was filling her with a feeling of not quite-ness.. of dissatisfaction and she tried to push back to force him in deeper but he held her in place.   
She felt him place his hand very carefully on her lower back and was wondering why when a sudden flare of Harry’s magic roared into her where his hand lay, shooting up her spine and seeming to explode in her head.   
In the same moment he thrust into her hard, bottoming out against her cervix. 

She screamed into Ron’s mouth and he released her, alarmed and disorientated, not realising what Harry had been doing. 

Harry was thrusting into her hard and she just started to get into his rhythm and move with him while Ron looked up at her bemused when he suddenly pulled out and pushed her forward.   
Ron jumped beneath her at the feel of Harry’s hand on his prick and then Harry was guiding him into her.   
He slid home with a throaty moan of unexpected satisfaction, pulling out and thrusting back in slowly, his hands on her hips and head tossed back and to the side in pleasure. 

She whirled and looked at Harry, alarmed. He smirked.   
“Things change, Mione. You’re right. We’re not them. I already took your virginity and I’m pretty sure Ron isn’t going to be that flash at oral sex.   
Ron, who had been groaning something along the lines of “oh fuck Mione.. so hot..wet..” suddenly lifted his head and frowned. “Hey – I heard that! That’s.. not true!!”   
He tried to glare but his eyes were slightly out of focus and he moved a little faster.   
“Don’t listen to him , Mione. I’ve got the fastest tongue you’ll ever find”   
He looked at her earnestly and she smirked and leaned down to kiss him again, starting to move up and down on his prick.. He just panted and gyrated his hips, which felt good. It felt like he was touching different places in her.. the angle changed each time she lowered herself. 

She was getting into it and starting to feel her climax building when Harry, who she realised she’d entirely forgotten, suddenly grabbed her by the waist and pulled her off Ron, tossing her onto her side up by the pillows.   
Ron found himself thrusting at air and sat up, shooting Harry a ‘what the fuck?!’ look. 

Harry responded by twisting her feet out and apart, flipping her onto her stomach and stretching her.   
She looked back over her shoulder at them, not sure whether Harry was angry or playful.   
Harry grinned at Ron and gestured toward her as if he were ushering him through a door. 

This message didn’t require a translator.   
Ron didn’t wait for Harry to change his mind and possibly came close to breaking the sound barrier with the speed at which he’d righted himself and leapt upon her, pulling her ass up into the air and plunging back into her, his hands gripping her hips hard as he flung himself into her roughly. She found she liked it.. a lot..   
“Fuck..Mione.. you’ve got a hot little cunt!” he growled, their bodies slapping together loudly. “If I’d known..” 

At that point Harry gripped her ankles and ripped her legs backward, dropping her down on the bed and causing Ron to fall too. 

Ron yelped loudly, unnerved.   
She looked over her shoulder from her position on her belly. Harry was kneeling behind the slightly raised arse of Ron and had his hand somewhere in the region she supposed his anus to lay.   
Ron was scrambling to try to get up but Harry put his hand on the middle of his back and held him there. 

“Calm down Ron. You’ll like this.” 

Ron yelped again and jerked deeper into her in an effort to get away from Harry’s fingers.   
“OW!! Harry.. stoppit... don’t do that.. It’s.. It’s wrong.. stop.. I don’t like it..” he started to say angrily..but fear crept into his voice.   
Harry frowned and kept pumping his fingers into Ron’s arse.   
“Relax mate. You’re getting to fuck Mione.. and now I’m going to fuck you.. “ he hesitated.   
“if you want.. I can use a spell. It’ll make you want it.. everything will just feel amazing to you.. It’s like.. a lust potion” 

Ron half turned and looked at him, frightened. “Harry.. you don’t need to cast any spells on me – just don’t bloody try to stick your dick in me! That way I won’t need any ruddy lust potions.” 

Hermione’s neck was starting to hurt from looking around at them both and she turned and buried her head in her hands to take the strain off.   
She could feel Ron had softened inside her. She said slightly muffled, “Ron.. You have to.. or else we won’t all be together.. It’ll be just me and Harry, like the horcrux said. Harry will make you forget and you and I will never...ever.. be together again.” 

Ron gasped distraught. “But ..but Mione..” he moaned unhappily from somewhere around her shoulder.   
“Its.. gay!!. I’m not bloody gay!!.”   
He suddenly jerked as if an electric shock had gone through him and she felt the swell of Harry’s magic.   
She felt it radiating from him, but she also felt it transferred through Ron’s skin somehow faintly.   
She raised her head and looked over her shoulder. Ron’s eyes were so wide she could see the whites all the way around and his spine was stiff as a broomstick. 

She knew.. just knew that Harry had had his fingers deep inside Ron when he’d done it and she couldn’t even begin to imagine what that might feel like for a guy. 

Ron had been holding his breath and now he let it out and whimpered, moving his hips slightly, pushing back against Harry, who she heard snicker.   
The magic increased and Ron moaned, bucking his hips mindlessly. 

“Do you want it, Ron?” Harry asked in a low growl. 

Ron said nothing but his cock, which had slipped out as it softened, prodded around her pussy as he tried to find the way back in. He found it and forced his way slowly in.   
It wasn’t smooth, she’d gone a little dry and no longer felt excited. Ron shoving his cock back into her just felt like an intrusion.   
She ducked her head and cursed inwardly, hoping he’d get it over with. Ron didn’t seem to care, or perhaps he didn’t even notice. He just pumped away at her, his breath starting to speed now.   
It hurt. She willed him to hurry up and finish. 

She heard Harry groan, aggravated.   
And then Ron’s weight was suddenly gone and the burning prickle in her pussy slightly relieved. 

She rolled over and sat up to find Harry holding Ron face down on the bed, kneeling in the small of his back, his fist in the redheads hair and a snarl on his face.   
“Ron.. you really are a selfish git, you know that?” he growled. “you knew you were hurting her and you just didn’t give a shit... and all the while, I’m dancing around trying to spare you as much pain as I could, trying to make it feel good for you..” 

He turned to look at Hermione, his eyes glittering green. “You ok, Mione?”   
She nodded, frankly astounded. Harry seemed to be ok with hurting her himself but wouldn’t tolerate anyone else doing it. 

Harry looked at Ron disgusted. “I’m not sure anymore whether this is worth it” he said, speaking to her.   
“Ron’s always been a prat. It was daft of me to think it’d be any different. ..I ..I think I was just trying to get back some of what we lost.. some of the old days.. you know? When we were all close. Before everything became...complicated.” 

She realised she could understand that. Harry continued. 

“and I guess I was also curious.. just about what it would be like.   
He may have issues about homosexuality but I think.. I think I like men as well as women. I don’t know why.. I’ve been thinking about it lately. Wondering how I could find out.   
Ron’s got quite a good body and we’re...we’ve always been so close..   
I thought it’d be alright if I tried it with him. I thought he might want it too if I showed him how good i could make him feel.   
Maybe it was stupid to think we’d all fit together that way. It just seemed..” Harry shook his head ruefully. 

“I’m not going to obliviate him completely Hermione. I need Ron to help me and Draco with Lestrange.   
Apparently - at least as far as Draco says - this Lestrange is bad news. Death Eater elite.   
He’s dangerous. Really dangerous.   
Draco has a great plan but I’d feel safer with someone else at my side too if I’m going to have to take you along to lure him out.” 

Ron, who had been previously quiescent, started to struggle frantically and seemed to be yelling into the mattress.   
Harry pulled his head up by his hair and barked “yeah?” 

Ron looked pissy. 

“let me get this straight.. you bloody wake me up and bring me here to torture me and make me take your sodding dark mark, then you want to molest me, THEN you stop me halfway through sex with the girl you bloody know I’ve been after for years and who YOU stole from me and now you want me to go up against some really dangerous death eater.   
WHAT. THE. FUCK. HARRY?!” 

Harry pushed Ron’s face into the mattress and pinched the bridge of his nose with his other hand. 

“Oh.. I cant be bothered with this bullshit anymore” he grumbled under his breath. “Stupefy” he said in a conversational tone, as if it was a suggestion. The red flash stilled Ron’s movements.   
After a second or two he rolled the boy over onto his back, looking down at him sadly. 

Hermione saw on his face that he was more disappointed than he had been able to say.   
She crawled over and put her arms around his neck, comfortingly, pulling him close. Harry went willingly, enfolding her in his arms and bowing his head into the crook of her neck, kissing her sweetly. 

“You know.. you’re the only one i really need, Mione.. the only one I can trust. I love you.” he mumbled against her skin. 

“I love you too Harry” she whispered and bit her lip. 

Harry pulled her to lie on the bed with their heads on the pillows. He lifted his foot to kick Ron off the bed but thought better of it, raising his hand instead and levitating the boy to the floor at the foot of the bed and applying a quick incarcerous. 

“What are you going to do about him?” Hermione wondered aloud. 

Harry grimaced. “I guess i’ll probably hide his mark, walk him back to his room under the imperius, have him dress for bed and then obliviate his memories of us after the pizza. I’ll suggest that he felt tired and went home.   
At least that way he won’t be so wary of you next time you happen to see him.” 

Hermione nodded.   
After a minute she asked, unsure of herself “So... are we going to bed now or did you want to continue without him” 

Harry was quiet for a long time. Eventually he said in a listless voice.   
“I don’t really feel in the mood anymore, to tell the truth Mione. I had this great idea in my mind of how it would go and none of it really worked out. I didn’t really have the appetite to torture Ron as I would have if he’d been just some death eater.   
I forced you to do all these things and you did what I wanted but it didn’t satisfy and now I feel like an arse for asking it of you in the first place.   
I thought I wanted Ron but I’m not even sure of that anymore. He is just ...so.. thick.. and selfish and he really ...really didn’t want to.” 

Hermione frowned. She hadn’t been too sure of that herself. She thought that things might have gone very differently if Harry and Ron had been alone. There was just too much going on for Ron’s limited brain.   
And to have her there would have just confused him even more. 

She said as much and Harry scowled pensively at the ceiling.   
“I didn’t want you to go away though, Mione. I wanted you to be with us. It was supposed to be special. Meaningful.   
But obviously I’m not as seductive as lord bloody Voldemort. “ He turned to her abruptly, his eyes hard. 

She looked at him, shocked. “Harry.. you have this.. impression of the way things were – it’s not right!” 

He raised a sceptical eyebrow. 

She bit her cheek indecisively and went on.   
“I was only actually..with.. him once, Harry.   
And one other time – the time you saw – he was with Severus and Severus was.. well you saw.   
And that was all really.   
Most of the time I spent there I was in a cell having some kind of extended lapse of mind. I really only remember a week and a half of the time, at most.   
Tom Riddle..and - ok – Lord Voldemort too.. are seductive.. but it wasn’t how you seem to believe.   
And while we’re on the subject - I only ever gave him one blowjob. I didn’t learn anything from him. I wasn’t around him long enough to. Most of the time I remember I was around Severus.. or Lucius Malfoy.. or Rodolphus actually.” She trailed off. 

Harry was looking at her sceptically. He asked unkindly “Oh come on, Hermione – you’re like the most repressed person in the world. How did you know how to swallow my cock like that if you didn’t spend all your time there on your knees in front of him.” 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I read Harry. Books. You know? They tell you how to do things! The Kama Sutra, Edge’s ‘Methods of Physical Stimulation’, Rank’s ‘Sex and Sexual Magic’. I looked it up when I started to think I might like Ron..that way.”   
Harry sneered faintly, staring up at the ceiling.   
“Yeah well.. whatever. I just want to go to sleep. I have to get up in-..” he cast tempus and a clock face appeared in the air before him showing three-fifty am. “-three hours. Unlike you, there are things I have to do. I can’t be bothered dealing with Ron right now. I don’t have the strength for it. I’ll say he stayed with you to keep you company.   
Don’t untie him. Don’t do anything you think I might not like. Just.. read or whatever.   
Talk to him if you like – he won’t remember it later though so it’ll be wasted breath.” 

Harry turned over and started dragging down the blankets and pulling himself into the bed. She looked at him sadly. 

“Ok Harry” she said, resignedly. It seemed to be all she ever ended up saying since she’d seen him again. 

She got into bed and slept until Ron’s shouting woke her.


	32. Chapter 32

“OI!! Why am I bloody tied up?! HEY!! 

HARRY?!, HERMIONE??! 

SOMEONE?! 

OI!!!!” 

She growled and pulled Harry’s pillow over her face. 

There was sound of movement – Ron was dragging himself over the floor somehow. Bugger. She’d have to get up and deal with it.   
Reluctantly she tossed the covers back and sat up, Ron had already seen her naked so it hardly mattered much now.   
She stomped around the edge of the bed feeling a quiet satisfaction when Ron jerked around to look at her upside down and apparently lost the ability to think coherently. 

“I was sleeping Ron. I’m sorry you’re tied up. I’m not allowed to untie you though. Harry said..” 

Ron nodded distractedly. “I..remember. “ His eyes continued to sweep over her inch by inch. 

She felt a bit self conscious suddenly and stepped around him to go to her wardrobe and pull out a night dress.   
When she turned back to Ron he looked disappointed. 

“I’m cold” he said quietly.   
She wasn’t surprised. Harry hadn’t bothered to dress him last night and the ropes around his body probably were of no use at all, lying on the cold stone floor. She felt pity for him. 

“I’m sorry, Ron.. about what happened. After he stupefied you he was in a bit of a mood and there was nothing I could do. Harry’s not the easiest to reason with these days, in case you didn’t notice.” 

Ron nodded grimly.   
“Yeah.. I saw that. What the bloody hell happened to him? He wasn’t this way before you turned up here. Did you do something to him somehow?!” 

She looked at him offended.. and also slightly guilty. 

“Actually I think he’s been like this long before I came here and just hidden it well. He was like ...that... to me almost as soon as I woke up. When the others were in the room he was nice-as-pie Harry Potter.   
There’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve got no magic to defend myself with and even if I did – he’s really strong and everyone already thinks I’m the antichrist.”   
Ron looked confused. “The what?”   
Hermione shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, Ron. I meant that they all think I’m Voldemort’s pet and probably going to do something to the order or to Harry.” 

Ron frowned. “Hermione. I was AT that initiation. You remember?! When you were going to stab me with a huge knife?!   
I SAW that you’re ...you know who’s.. pet. The way you looked at him. It gave me the creeping willies, it did.   
You looked at him like Bellatrix Lestrange! As if he was the greatest thing ever.” 

Hermione looked away. She was sure she hadn’t. Ron was..wrong... or only saw what he wanted to see or something. 

Ron seemed to remember something. “and Harry thinks so too, doesn’t he – what was all that about with the eyes and the white skin. It looked like he was throwing you know who in your face..   
You didnt.. with..him did you..” He looked suddenly alarmed. 

She looked at him as if to say – don’t be bloody stupid but inside she felt panicked – bloody thick as a plank Ron already got all that?.   
“I think..” she began slowly and it wasn’t altogether a lie “I think that Harry.. might be curious about Voldemort. I think he wanted to know what it might be like to be him..” 

Ron looked sceptical but nodded slowly. 

“You.. you wanna untie me now? I won’t do anything, don’t worry.” 

She looked at him again as if he were retarded. “Ronald.. of course you would. Anyone would. I certainly bloody would if I were you. “ She thought for a moment. “But maybe you should. The order needs to know about Harry and its better if they throw me in Azkaban. Harry wants to take me out of the wards to get Lestrange.”   
She wrapped her sleeves around herself.. she could feel the beginnings of a cramp. Obviously aunty flo would be popping in for an unwelcome visit sometime in the next day or so. 

“Ok.. let me go then. We can find a way out of here and go tell someone.” 

She looked down at him pensively. “We can’t find a way out of here Ron. You have to get someone to come and get us. We’ll never get past Harry’s wards and if we try, he’ll know and he’ll come back here immediately.”   
Ron looked concerned about this. Clearly he didn’t want Harry coming back angry with him either. 

“Well we’ll discuss it after you untie me” he said, slightly desperately – worried that she wasn’t going to now.   
She looked at him indecisively. 

“He told me specifically not to untie you. If we fail-..”   
She swallowed.   
Ron looked at her determinedly. “Untie me – someone HAS to know about this. We can’t just let him go on this way. Maybe there’s something actually wrong with him and they can fix it.” 

Hermione bit her lip and crept over to him and started to fumble with the bands of rope, trying to slide them up his frame. The incarcerous never left any knots. It was one reason why it was so effective to bind people with.   
After nearly an hour of struggling and quite a bit of cursing on Ron’s part she had the ropes down far enough to start dragging them over his feet and then the rest became loose enough to pull down. 

 

“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing” Harry’s irritated voice lashed at them both from the door, making them jump and look up at him guiltily.   
“I told you not to untie him, Hermione” he glared. 

He stepped over Ron’s legs and pulled her up to her feet by her arm. “We’ll talk about this later.” He growled ominously. 

Ron and Hermione looked back at him fearfully, unwilling to say anything to make their situation worse.   
Harry summoned Ron’s shredded clothes from the library, repairing them and tossing them into his face as his bindings vanished.. 

“Get dressed – Draco just contacted me. Apparently Voldemort wants a private meeting with him tonight and he’s worried that he won’t be able to keep him out of his mind. Voldemort’s never wanted a meeting with him like this before. So it means we have to get Lestrange now and then he and Draco will have to stay here and try to get through Voldemort summoning them.   
Draco’s said before that the burning feels faint from inside my wards so I’m not sure how bad the pain he can send through it will be.” 

“He can’t do it forever though. He’ll get tired of it if we just keep them here.” 

Hermione started to panic – “But.. you can’t. I don’t want to! What if he gets me back and then uses-” 

Harry cut her off – “I don’t want to hear it, Hermione. If I don’t get Lestrange, you’ll die. If we don’t go now, then Voldemort might find out and stop me from getting Lestrange.   
You’re mine and i’m not giving you up!” 

Ron looked confused and distraught. “Why might she die? You never mentioned that last night.” 

Harry looked at him impatiently. “It doesn’t matter right now Ron. I’ll tell you when we get back with Lestrange. It’s... it’s a kind of spell he put on her. He has to take it off or she’ll die. If I can get him here then I can make him take it off” 

Hermione looked at the floor. 

“Alright..” Ron said finally, looking between them both uncertainly. “I’ll help. What’s the plan?!” 

Harry looked at Hermione and flicked a hand, transfiguring her nightdress into a plain green robe.   
She smirked inwardly. The old Harry would never have dressed her in green. He’d have picked red or brown or blue before green.   
He started to explain the plan to them both. 

“Its not complicated. Draco is going to come here soon and take Hermione by portkey to a little stone mausoleum I found, on the pretense of handing her over to Lestrange.   
You and I are going to tag along on the port key shift so that we all arrive at the same time. I’ll silence us both and put up some anti apparition wards over the room and some physical wards around the perimeter while Draco keeps him busy  
– then he’ll be trapped.   
You’ll wear my invisibility cloak and I’ll use a charm I found for invisibility and we’ll split off when we get there, and circle around to surround him.” 

“When Draco says ‘Granger’ you start casting stupefies as hard as you can. I’ve got some more heavy duty spells I’m going to use on him and Draco will be doing the same thing.   
If he tries to run, keep firing at him but throw up a shield in case we end up in each other’s crossfire.   
If he’s too much for us or if he somehow gets out of there or one of us gets seriously – and I mean seriously injured, we’ll portkey back out.” 

Ron looked reasonably satisfied. Hermione just felt worried.   
She’d seen Rodolphus with Severus in a standing fight. Severus hadn’t stood a chance, and Rodolphus hadn’t even been considering really attacking him.   
Still.. she reasoned. Severus had gotten the drop on Rodolphus when he hadn’t been expecting a fight. 

She frowned. 

Probably. 

Probably Rodolphus hadn’t known Severus was going to attack him. What good would letting Severus attack him be, she mused, ignoring the discussion of the boys in the background.   
Of course.. Voldemort didn’t seem to have punished him when she saw him at the initiation. He looked quite fit.   
Severus on the other hand had definitely received a good dose of the cruciatus.   
Had Rodolphus actually planned it that way, she wondered. Had he known her so well that he’d expected her to plead for him.. expected the Dark Lord to react that way? 

Hm. There was no way of knowing really. Perhaps if Dracos plan worked she could ask him later.   
She was sure that it wouldn’t be that simple though. 

Admittedly, trapping a vampire in a small building during daylight hours when he’d be, at least theoretically, weaker, was a good idea, but... something felt wrong.. or ..perhaps not wrong but she definitely felt like they were forgetting something. It was important. 

“Hermione!!” Harry yelled at her, finally getting her attention. She turned to him with enquiring eyebrows.   
“Pay attention! This is important. Whatever you do, stay by Draco. He’ll cast his shield around you.   
If you wander away from him then you could get hit by something – or worse – Lestrange could get a hold of you.   
If Draco moves, you move with him. Here – take this.”   
Harry walked over and pinned a bobby pin into the sleeve of her robe.   
“As soon as it starts, stick yourself and port back here. It’s keyed to your blood but It’ll take you to a different entry point this time cause I don’t want Ron’s family pitching a fit – just stay where you land. I’ll be there as soon as i can to bring you back in to the manor.”   
Hermione nodded seriously. 

A polite knock on the door sounded from the next room. They followed Harry out and he made a complicated gesture at the door, rendering it transparent to display a nervous irritable looking Draco Malfoy straightening his robe. 

His blonde hair was lank and he looked a bit peaky, as if he hadn’t been sleeping well. 

Harry restored the door and walked over, letting Draco in by hand.   
Hermione wondered if the ward on the door required his actual physical contact to lower it.

Draco swanned in with typical arrogant disdain. “Potter.” He acknowledged, nodding brusquely. He stopped when he saw Ron.   
“What’s the weasel doing here? I thought you didn’t want anyone to know?” 

He seemed thrown off balance.   
Ron squared his shoulders at him. “Shut it, ferret.” 

Draco’s eyes shot to Hermione for a moment but she was looking at them all with worried preoccupation. 

“I asked Ron to help just in case he’s a bit more than we can handle, Malfoy” Harry said mildly.   
“We’ll follow the same plan but me and Ron will stand in a triangle instead of at a right angle and Ron will just stick to heavy stunners. Ok?”   
Draco hesitated and then nodded finally. 

“Just make sure you know where you’re aiming, Weasley” he sneered. “I hope you’re better with a wand now than you were in school” 

Ron snarled at him but Draco had already turned away.   
“Where are we leaving from?” he asked Harry. 

Harry seemed to think for a second. She got the impression he was listening to something or paying attention to something she couldn’t perceive. 

“The millbank house is empty. We’ll leave from the back garden accessway there” he said. 

Draco nodded and started back toward the door impatiently. 

Harry turned to look at Ron and then looked over to Draco. “Take Hermione there and wait. I want to talk to Ron for a minute, ok?” he said quietly. 

Draco snorted in irritation. “Fine. Come here mu-“ his eyes flicked for a second to Harry and back to her “-uh.. Granger.” 

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him but complied reluctantly.   
Absently, Harry held the door open for them both and closed it after they had passed through. 

 

Hermione walked uncomfortably down the hotel-like corridors with Draco, who kept glancing at her every so often. 

It was unnaturally quiet in the manor, she noticed again.   
A building like this should have people in it – there were so many rooms..so many doors..so many corridors.. but nothing moved here. 

“so.. um.. Malfoy..” she began nervously. “How are you? I never got the chance to thank you for rescuing me.”   
Draco rolled his eyes.   
“Don’t talk to me mudblood.” He snarled quietly. She swallowed and looked away. They walked the rest of the way in silence, passing over a break in the carpet into a more old-fashioned and modest hallway with stained wood panelling on the walls. 

Draco walked her through a door into what looked like an old fashioned scullery. They kept going and exited out a wooden back door onto a porch.   
It was raining outside, wherever they were. The morning was dull with a flat grey drizzle.   
“Great” she thought sarcastically looking down at her bare feet. “-that too.” 

Draco watched her and then summoned some leaves from the stoop and with some degree of concentrated effort, managed to transfigure them into simple brown leather slippers.   
She was impressed. It was a difficult transfiguration with such flimsy wet dead biomatter.   
“Thanks..” she said appreciatively as he dropped them at her feet. He sniffed but didn’t say anything, looking away across the garden instead while she slipped them on. They fit perfectly. 

Sounds from behind her told her that Harry and Ron had joined them now.   
She looked up and noticed Ron had a decisive determined set to his shoulders. He stared at her with a fierce protective expression and moved to stand close to her. 

“Its all going to be ok now Mione” he said very quietly, slightly aside from the other two. 

“Harry and I talked it over. I’ve thought about it and I do want us all to be together. I’m sorry for.. for last night.. I didn’t think..” he trailed off and looked sheepish.   
She felt a cold shiver run up her spine. Turning, she saw Draco was looking at her with an unreadable expression. His face blanked a half second later.   
She blushed and looked at the ground, embarrassed that Draco apparently now knew that she was sleeping with both her best friends. He was certain to make some kind of horrible comment at some point. 

She didn’t have time to obsess over it any further as Draco had strode over to her and grabbed her arm.   
When she looked up Harry and Ron were gone. 

She heard Harry’s voice. “Right.. I’ve got the portkey here.” A long piece of string appeared in the air and Draco took it from him, taking her hand and wrapping it around both their wrists, tucking it then into his fist. 

“Ron, grab Mione and I’ll go behind Draco. Soon as we get there – you go left, right mate?”   
Ron made a grunt of assent and she suddenly felt hands slide around her waist.   
A slight flinch from Draco told her that Harry had just touched him too. She thought about what Harry had said last night and, noting the scandalised scowl and very slight angry blush appearing on Draco’s face, wondered whether Harry might be..um.. copping a feel somehow. 

“My waist is a bit higher, Potter” Draco ground out, confirming it. 

“Oh. Yeah.. sorry” Harry said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. 

Draco’s top lip turned up in disgust and he shook his head angrily, turning to her and snarling. “whatever.. everyone hold on.”   
The portkey activated and she felt her innards gripped and yanked hard, pulling the rest of her after them.


	33. Chapter 33

They landed hard in a pitch dark room and Hermione groaned as a sharp menstrual cramp ripped through her.   
Probably not the best thing to do at the moment, travel like that by portkey with passengers grabbing her round the middle. She curled her body against the sensation automatically.

Almost immediately torches ignited on all four walls. The smallish room was empty.   
Only she and Draco were sprawled on the ground – there was no sign of Harry, Ron or Rodolphus. 

She hoped Ron hadn’t lost his grip around her waist during the transport. 

There were rectangular marks on the ground in the room where she realised some kind of Tombs or barques must have been. Without them the room was just a dim square box.   
The torches didn’t look like they belonged here either. Harry must have prepared the room. 

She suddenly realised that she felt strange. It was a familiar if peculiar feeling in the back of her mind. Like a kind of mild euphoria.. or directionless hunger. Rodolphus. 

She scrabbled for Draco’s hand and hissed.. he’s here somewhere. 

Draco got up quickly, looking all around frantically. “Lestrange?” he said uneasily.   
He grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet, pulling her in front of him, one hand around her and his wand at her throat.   
“Show yourself” he hissed, sounding a bit rattled. “Don’t try anything. I’ll have her head off before you can reach me.”

She could feel Draco uneasily shifting and then there was a faint heaviness and she knew Harry had placed the wards. 

“What is this Draco?!” 

Rodolphus’ voice came from right behind them and Draco swung around looking all around. There was nothing there. 

“Are you trying to trap me, you double crossing little whore” Rodolphus sounded amused. The voice came from the far side of the room now. Draco swung around again and she could actually feel his heart racing. 

“Show yourself” he spat. “Stop fooling around!” 

There was a dull thud and she thought she could see the toe of Ron’s shoe lying on the ground. Suddenly spells were flying everywhere.   
Draco pushed her down to the ground at his feet and cast a shield over them both, firing randomly at everywhere in the room as Harry and Rodolphus obviously did the same thing, moving about in the space trying to locate each other by the source of the last curse. 

Harry suddenly became visible and glared at Draco for the revealing charm that had hit him.   
Draco balked, looking surprised.   
Then Harry’s eyes widened suddenly and he shrank down into his animagus form. Rodolphus shimmered into view next to him and quickly stepped on the neck of the cobra that was now writhing and hissing on the floor. 

He looked up at her with a grin. “That was even easier than I thought it would be” he grinned at her. “Are you ok, pet?” 

A squeak by her side made her look at the small white ferret which was crouched on the floor next to her.   
Her eyes bulged.. “...Draco?! .. you’re a..” she burst out laughing uncontrollably, collapsing into giggles.   
Draco scrabbled over and bit her, hard, and she yelped in pain but went back to giggling in schadenfreude almost immediately. 

Suddenly Rodolphus was at her side, the snake held tightly around its neck while its body whipped around angrily.   
“Pet.. they broke you..” he said sounding sad. “your blood..” he swiped a finger of his wand hand over the dripping bite mark on her ankle, bringing it to his mouth and closing his eyes with a serendipitous expression.   
“It’s not as sweet anymore..” He looked at her again contemplatively. “still..good though.. tastes of..something.. I thought it was innocence.. but its not.. You taste..bright.”   
He pulled his wand again and tossed the arm holding Harry, flinging the snake slightly in the process, as he shook his sleeve back to expose his mark.   
Pressing his wand to the mark he leaned in.. “You’re still mine, pet.” He growled low, exposing his teeth. “Don’t forget. You need to come see me again soon. Tomorrow! I can smell you.. Tomorrow we will have a lot of fun together.”   
She furrowed her brow at him. 

The pops of multiple apparitions sounded suddenly and she looked up to find the serpentine visage of the Dark Lord standing in the centre of the room with several masked death eaters appearing behind him.   
His annoyed expression when he first appeared transformed when he suddenly recognised her into one of almost painful urgency.   
He started toward her but then seemed to snap out of it, realising that he was surrounded by his servants and taking in the scene around her. 

“Rodolphus.. you have re-acquired our young initiate. Well done my most faithful servant” he commended in a pleased breathy silibant voice. “But what is this menagerie?! Why do you have a rather venomous cobra in her face?”   
There was a slight undertone of threat to the last question. 

Rodolphus turned to him with a sly grin of anticipation. “My lord.. it is a gift for you..”   
He added..somewhat reluctantly. “from Draco Malfoy and myself” 

The Dark Lord looked surprised at hearing Draco’s name and a hairless brow arched.   
Rodolphus stood, inspecting the black, green eyed, serpent and walking to the Dark Lord slowly.   
“it is.. not an ordinary snake” He grinned, amused, at the Dark Lords impatient irritated expression.   
“perhaps you might care to see for yourself” 

He proffered the snake, turning its head toward the Dark Lord but keeping tight grip on its neck. 

Lord Voldemort peered at the snake, his red eyes glimmering in the firelight. He tilted his head and hissed at it in parseltongue.   
Hermione smiled faintly at the soothing sound.   
When the snake hissed back the Dark Lords face transformed into a picture of astonishment. 

He looked back at Rodolphus as if to confirm his discovery. 

The snake in Rodolphus hand suddenly started to whip and rage again. Rodolphus grinned at him, nodding and then pointed off toward the back of the room. “The other one is over there, my lord. Stunned. Now you have the whole set.” 

The Dark Lords eyebrows shot up and he seemed to want to sputter in excited disbelief, he looked toward Hermione and smiled widely. She looked back uncertainly. Not sure what to think now.   
She was trying to tell herself that she wasn’t overjoyed to see him again.. that she didn’t in fact want to run to him and throw her arms around him and cry and beg him never to let her out of his sight again.   
She was trying to remind herself of all the reasons she had for not wanting to fall into his hands again.   
They were still there but really.. they didn’t seem so important in the face of seeing him there. 

When the Dark Lord looked at her, his excitement died down slightly and took on a mild edge of concern.   
“Take them back to the base Rodolphus” he said quietly. “The one in the back can go in a high security cell and I’m sure you know where I want the snake placed” 

Hermione looked at Harry whipping around in Rodolphus hand and looked back to Voldemort worriedly.   
He was going to kill him now.   
God.. it was even worse than finding out he was dead. Finding out he was about to be killed and there was nothing she could do about it. 

Rodolphus strode to the back of the room and crouched on the floor, gripping what she knew was Ron under the invisibility cloak and apparating away. He didn’t take it off.   
She realised that he had been very oblique in conversation with the Dark Lord too. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted the death eaters present to know exactly how massive this event was. 

Voldemort had stalked silently over to her and now she looked up at him from his feet. He extended a hand down to her.. 

There was some shuffling behind him of the death eaters but none had the balls to mutter, it seemed. 

She let him pull her to her feet. He then levitated the white ferret at her side to head height, turning and inspecting it critically.   
“And I take it this is..” 

“Yes!” Hermione said quickly, glancing at the masked faces behind him uneasily. “my familiar.”   
The ferret squeaked and hung limply, trembling. 

Voldemort looked at her dubiously and reached out to take the creature by the scruff of its neck gingerly. 

“Indeed..” 

He reached for her arm with his other hand and turned to the death eaters behind him.. “Return to your posts.”   
Half a second later she felt the squeeze of side along apparition as the Dark Lord pulled her back home. 

 

 

They reappeared in her room and she stumbled slightly, crouching against the pang of complaint in her abdomen.   
Her body was expressing its desire to not be mistreated any further today please. 

It was to be disappointed as she was presently snatched up by the Dark Lord and pressed to him tightly.   
She felt his glamour shimmer and fade and Tom was clutching her to him. His unnaturally beautiful face twisted in simultaneous pain and relief. 

There was a squeak from somewhere on the ground to her left that sounded something like a ferret expletive. 

“I... was concerned” the Dark Lord said over her shoulder while he continued to squeeze the air out of her.   
She had embraced him too but now she was beginning to need to breathe and patted his back uncertainly, wondering how to get him to hug her just a tiny bit less painfully.   
Immediately his grip loosened and he started kissing her gently, his warm lips moving over her throat.   
She swallowed and it occurred to her how cataclysmically, apocalyptically angry he was about to be. 

He pulled back suddenly, staring at her with equal parts horror and suspicion. “Why... why am I going to be angry? Why are you afraid?” he hissed aggressively.   
She looked at him helplessly, darting her eyes away. 

He released her , stepping back and pacing away, his hand stroking through his hair in an unconscious gesture of anxiety as he stood staring at the fire, appearing to think.   
Abruptly, he spun on his heel and pointed at the white ferret that was now cowering in the middle of the floor shaking.

“Finite Incantatum” he hissed and the small white furry shape grew and became a terrified, confused Draco Malfoy who immediately dropped to his knees, crouching down and grovelling. 

“My Lord. I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you about the plan because Hermione thought Potter might sense it” 

Hermione blinked at him, astounded   
“What plan?! What are you talking about. The plan was to grab Rodolphus.” 

Draco whimpered and crouched into a tight ball as the Dark Lords face whipped back to him livid with anger.   
“No!. No!!.. My Lord.. wait!!.. she doesn’t remember. I have her memory. Please!!.. “ he whined desperately. 

Voldemort stalked across the floor and loomed over him threateningly, his crimson eyes narrowed.   
Draco fumbled around in his pocket till he found a small white button. He passed it to the Dark Lord with trembling hands. A finite incantatum caused the button to transform into a red potions phial. It looked.. faintly familiar somehow.. she thought. 

The Dark Lord marched to the door to her room and snarled at them both “Come.”   
He threw back the door and strode to the end of the hall, entering another room which she hadn’t seen before. 

It looked, she realised, a little like a home theatre setup except that in the middle of two large, black half circle curved sofas was a very large, shallow pensieve made of some mother of pearl looking material. 

The Dark Lord strode into the centre of the couches and dumped the contents of the phial unceremoniously into the pensieve.   
“Get in here, both of you” he said with impatient ire. They scurried to comply.   
The Dark Lord had seated himself on the sofa and gestured for Hermione to sit beside him. Draco, visibly relieved, lowered himself on her far side. 

They watched the Dark Lord dip a finger in the shallow bowl that had moved closer to them all now. Hermione looked at Draco questioningly and put her finger in as well. 

 

 

The memory swam into focus around her. She could see the Dark Lord standing, beautiful and terrifying, watching her sit in a black velvet overstuffed armchair with big fat scrolled arms while Draco paced the room to the left. 

A second Draco shimmered into existence beside her and looked sheepish. “I’ve seen this show before” he mumbled. 

She examined herself more closely and realised that she was under the imperio. She glared at Draco, who avoided her eyes.   
Then the Draco in the room suddenly started to rant and she realised that the her in the armchair was no longer imperioed. 

When the memory Draco ranted “he damn well marked you” everything suddenly froze and Voldemort rounded on her, incandescent fury on his face. 

“Potter marked you? Show me!!” 

She had flinched back when he suddenly towered over her and now she thrust her wrist out to him in defense.   
“when I first got there. It was just about the first thing he did..” 

Voldemort was peering at her wrist and suddenly she found herself on the sofa and he increased the light several times till it was nearly fluorescently bright and grabbed her arm again, yanking her closer as he stared at it..   
he ran a fingertip over it cautiously and she shivered. 

Rotating her wrist, he noted the way the wavering flames went all the way around and then released her arm gently.   
“Return to the memory” he said in a quiet, disturbed voice.   
She did and found Draco standing in the paused memory with his arms around himself waiting and looking petrified with dread.   
No sooner had the Dark Lord shimmered back into place next to her than the memory resumed and they all stood watching as Draco pitched a fit over how massively screwed he apparently felt that he was. 

When he said that the Dark Lord had even popped up on Lucius in the bathroom she heard Voldemort snort next to her.   
“I recall he actually pissed himself. It was magnificent. And then I cruciated him for his disrespect” 

Draco turned away but she thought he might be smirking faintly. 

When memory Draco refused to take her back to the Dark Lord on the grounds that Voldemort would kill him and went on to say how he just wanted to be able to sleep without being terrified of being tortured or raped she caught Voldemort stiffening angrily by her side and when the blonde in the memory went on to tell her she was worthless and deserved what she’d got, the real boy at her side actually fell to his knees and cowered pitifully. 

They watched impassively as events progressed until they got to the part where Hermione said that she wasn’t sure she could protect Draco from the Dark Lord at all because although Draco might save her, she didn’t think that the Dark Lord was ‘big on gratitude’.   
Unexpectedly, Voldemort paused events there and scoffed, turning to her.

“is that what you think? I can show gratitude, Hermione. I reward the faithful and those who serve me practically incessantly – I weary myself with bestowing generous gifts upon my servants.   
It merely remains to be seen what the balance of young Malfoy’s actions might be. At present I am leaning toward the impression that he is a conniving traitorous whelp. Perhaps that will change.”   
He waved a hand flippantly to resume the memory and turned away. 

He looked extremely thoughtful when memory Hermione started talking about having two marks and whether it might be possible for her to take off a mark if she had her magic back, but said nothing. Only when they got to the part when Hermione implied they should give Harry to the Dark Lord did Voldemort pause the memory and turn to her, his angelic-demonic face painted in an unfamiliar mask of wonder and joy. 

“You... – when the boy said you had planned it – I thought he meant your escape.. I assumed that Potter and Weasley were an unexpected consequence.. ... I could not have dared to imagine you intended to give him to me..”   
He stepped close to her, slowly, cautiously, enfolding her in his arms as if she were a rare and precious treasure that might be broken with too heavy a touch.   
“To think..you... chose me.. over Potter... your friends.. the order..” he breathed, seemingly astounded. 

Hermione felt a small stab of guilt. It hadn’t been like that. Harry was gone, her friends too and the order hated and/or mistrusted her. It wasn’t as if she had really gone home. Nothing was the same.   
She didn’t quite know how to say it to him when he sounded so.. happy. 

He continued to hold her and let the memory play on. Draco looked at them both with barely disguised confusion.   
She noted that he hadn’t even tried to ask about how the Dark Lord had apparently come to look like a handsome young boy. 

They watched the memory unfold. The Dark Lord held her more tightly when the blond boy in the memory put his arm around her to comfort her but the gesture was clearly not a sexual one. Memory Draco looked confused as he offered her his support and then they got to the part about the potions Harry had given her.   
The Dark Lord murmured in her ear. “Potter cruciated you?” She shook her head faintly.   
“I don’t remember. I don’t even know when this is supposed to have happened. I don’t have any missing time, as far as I know. 

The Dark Lord frowned at her while the sounds of memory Draco crashing around outside the room went on.   
“He probably took the entire day” he said quietly. “It’s what I’d do.” She looked at him suspiciously.   
“However i did not, my dear. I would never endanger your mind. I value it highly. I have seen the effects of botched obliviates of that depth.” 

She swallowed. Yes. She was quite sure he had. He hadn’t said he wouldn’t do it.. just that he wouldn’t do it to her.. 

Memory Draco had come back in the meantime and now he was ranting about Harry being in his room when he wasn’t there.   
When Hermione said that Harry had told her the other potion was a contraceptive, the Dark Lords arms tightened on her like a vice and the memory stopped yet again as he turned her to face him, horror on his face. 

She avoided his eyes and ducked her head. 

He took a deep, pained breath and pressed her to his chest, kissing her forehead and saying nothing. 

Draco, by their side blinked at the strange tableau of a hurt and sympathetic dark lord. He tried to make himself as invisible as he could. 

“I’m... so ..sorry, Hermione..” Voldemort murmured against her forehead. He restarted the memory and she felt his arms cramp around her when she described the potion and why Harry had said he wanted her to take it. He wanted to ‘enjoy’ her before she had his children. 

“What kind of potion do you think it might have been” she wondered aloud.   
“Probably a variant of dreamless sleep” the Dark Lord whispered. “Rodolphus couldn’t reach you after that night. Shh now” 

They listened as memory Hermione talked about how Harry had raped her again that morning and then cruciated her because she’d thought about Voldemort. The Dark Lord brought his hand to rub his forehead, an expression of extreme vexation on his face.   
“I was going to kill him anyway but this changes the complexion of things considerably.” 

Draco shifted uncomfortably and stepped away from them, wandering off to the other side of the room.   
They realised why when memory Draco started telling memory Hermione about Lucius giving him to other death eaters from the age of twelve.   
Hermione glanced at the boy in question but he was turned away and seemed to be inspecting the view out of one dark paned window. 

Voldemort did not seem surprised by the information at all. He muttered “Yes.. well.. thats Lucius in a nutshell for you.” 

When they got to the part where Draco said the Dark Lord had even whored him out.. Hermione glared at the black haired boy accusingly. He had the grace to look slightly uncomfortable. 

“As he said.. it wasn’t anything new for him.. and he was so good at it. Draco proved very valuable in persuading some of the European nations to accept my rule of wizarding Britain.”   
He seemed to frown and then he sighed, irritated, and returned his attention to the memory.   
Memory Hermione was saying that if she was ever able to, she would try to prevent anyone hurting Draco.   
Hermione nodded. “I will.” She said determined. Voldemort said nothing, but shifted against her slightly, wrapping his arms around her more snugly.   
He refrained from commenting when the two in the memory hugged, both perceptibly distraught but when memory Draco asked Hermione about the plan.. and continued to ask despite being warned of the danger to him from everyone.. 

Voldemort sighed and seemed conflicted once again. 

 

They watched Draco grab the Gelfthorn liqueur and goblets and tell Hermione about the two precious objects before they went on to discuss the plan.   
When it came out that Harry had “whored Hermione out’ to Draco to get him to help in capturing Lestrange, both Hermione and the Dark Lord gasped a little.. 

“is that true?” She called to Draco in the back of the room, in a distressed tone. “it wasn’t some trick or something..” 

He wandered back listlessly. “You want to see my memory of that day, Granger?!” Draco replied unhappily.   
Voldemort had paused events again.   
“He dragged you to an order meeting, under a well disguised imperio and had you spout a load of rubbish and cry for everyone. You see what you’re wearing there, right? He put you in that and took you in front of your so called friends. When I caught up to you in the corridors and challenged him on it he dropped the ruse immediately and had you climbing all over him panting for him while he sold me on how good a fuck you were.   
He would have been eaten alive in Slytherin with such an obvious gambit.” 

“Not only did he agree immediately to let me have you in return for my assistance, he agreed to let me take you away on the spot, before I’d even done anything for him.” Draco sounded slightly incredulous as he said it.   
Voldemort snarled behind her inarticulately and stalked away, pacing to the window and laying a tense, white knuckled fist on the wall beside it.. 

“When I learned that..Potter.. had you.. I was concerned that you would forget your..feelings.. for me.. but relieved that you would at least likely be safe - The order is not the only enemy I have to contend with.   
I never imagined the savior of the wizarding world might mark, rape, torture and prostitute his supposed best friend.” 

Hermione bit her lip. “Draco.. could you go out of the pensieve please?” she said quietly.   
Draco looked at the Dark Lord to confirm this was acceptable and the black haired boy nodded, waving him away impatiently. 

When he had left Hermione took a breath. “He’s.. he’s not Harry anymore.” She said. 

Voldemort looked at her blankly and then schooled his face into an understanding mien. “Yes.. it might be easier for you to think of it that way. It’s hard to acknowledge a friend could be so cruel.” 

Hermione shook her head frustratedly, babbling. “No.. I mean.. He literally ISNT Harry anymore. He was a horcrux.   
We never knew but I ...I think Dumbledore might have known. When I healed you.. it bound the soul fragment to his, made it stronger.   
He’s not Harry.. he’s like a hybrid of you and Harry. He kind of.. goes back and forth between moments where he seemed more like he used to be and moments where he walks, talks, acts very much like you.   
His chambers look almost identical to yours. His magic feels a bit like yours and he’s a hell of a lot stronger than he ever used to be.” 

“But Its.. its more than that.. At first he was insanely jealous of the very idea of you.. but then.. It was like he wanted to be you. He tortured Ron to get him to take the mark.. he wanted him to be.. to be..Severus.. In bed..   
and he glamoured his eyes and skin to look like you until Ron begged him to stop.. He is literally not Harry anymore..” 

Voldemort looked stunned. “Harry Potter is..or wants to be.. Lord Voldemort?” 

Hermione weighed the idea in her mind.   
“well.. sort of.. No.. it’s more like part of him thinks he IS Lord Voldemort. Or, more accurately...part of him maybe.. actually is.. Tom Riddle. He doesn’t seem to know what’s causing it. He disputed there was anything unusual with him...but I had the feeling he knew there was something wrong but ...liked.. feeling the way he apparently feels now.   
He’s.. a bit frightening actually.   
It’s as if he can just do..whatever he likes. If he wants something he will just use any means necessary to get it.   
Harry was always a bit emotional and impulsive but he..he always had a good moral compass. More than I did anyway. .” She looked down. 

Voldemort walked over to her slowly. “This..bears thinking about.” He said pensively. “but let us finish here first. Surely.. there can’t be much more of this.” 

Hermione frowned. She wanted to know what had happened too but it was horrible to learn like this. It was like having your undergarments exposed without warning. She wanted to know what had happened in advance so that she could field all the reactions the Dark Lord might present her with.   
She nodded however, resigned to the fact that she never got to determine what was going to happen to her anymore. 

They continued watching. It was painful.   
Voldemort had glared at her while memory Hermione told Draco about Severus and then about her own ..relationship (Voldemort had sneered at the word) with him and fumed as Draco was disgusted, and smirked smugly when she had talked about how good looking the Dark Lord was..and Severus too. .. and then things were pretty even right up until she mentioned how Draco had portkeyed her out of the initiation.. and then the Dark Lord lost it. 

“It was HIM?!! THAT LITTLE INBRED TURNCOAT.” 

He shimmered out of view for a second and returned no more than a few seconds later with a dark satisfied expression. 

Hermione gasped. “What did you do?!” she yelped and pulled out of the pensieve.   
Voldemort’s body was sitting with a finger in the pensieve but Draco’s was writhing on the floor screaming. 

She launched herself at Voldemort’s arm, tearing it out of the pensieve. It curled in the process and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap.   
The handsome boy leaned down over her. He was..so.. beautiful.. she realised yet again. He smirked. 

She frowned “Stop it.. stop hurting him! Please.. he saved me! He didn’t know about Harry. He just.. he just didn’t want to be hurt anymore. And he thought that you were probably hurting me like you hurt him. And you’re doing it again! Stop!!” 

Voldemort narrowed his ruby eyes at her. 

After long moments, he glanced at the boy and Draco stopped writhing and screaming and lay sobbing and twitching.   
It wasn’t a great improvement. 

Voldemort snorted. “I suppose you expect me to have him healed too?” 

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself up to hug him. She whispered, and it felt painful to say it out loud, to acknowledge it.   
“I missed you so much. I was scared I’d never see you again.”   
She stilled because what she was really thinking was ‘please please don’t ever go away again.’ 

The Dark Lord leaned back in the chair, still holding her and tilted his head up, glaring at the ceiling. He fumed for a few seconds.   
“Hermione.. He is the reason you were taken from me. He’s responsible for what Potter did to you, what he took from me-from us..   
He ruined..everything!   
Draco will suffer. His father will suffer. If I could, I would resurrect Abraxas and take it out of his hide too.” 

She looked up at him sadly. “Please don’t hurt him, Tom. He saved me. Harry would never have let me go. He was..not stable. He.. you didn’t see him.   
When Draco saw what he was doing, he put his life on the line to get me out. He knew you might kill him. He knew Harry would probably kill him too if he found out.   
He gave you everything you always wanted. Now you have Harry in your possession.. and Ron and me too.   
You know you wouldn’t have Harry if it weren’t for Draco.” 

“And.. and he was nice to me! When he had no reason in the world to be. Please.. please Tom.. don’t hurt him anymore.” 

Voldemort scowled at her and took a deep breath. “...why do you keep calling me Tom.. you know I dislike it” 

She smiled a small secretive smile. “I like it.. I like the word. Do you know.. it sounds dark green in my mind.   
It reminds me of lying in the long grass after you.. after you woke me up. ..I won’t call you it around anyone else.”   
The Dark Lord rolled his head to look pointedly down at the blond boy breathing shallowly on the floor and trying not to twitch and attract his attention.   
“Draco won’t tell anyone. “ she said quietly. 

The red eyed boy let his head fall back onto the sofa and seemed to curse inwardly. He raised his hand and gestured at Draco and the boy levitated, whimpering softly. He put him onto the sofa.   
Draco’s cheeks were wet but his face stayed controlled. Voldemort smirked appreciatively. 

“We’ll see. If it makes you happy, my dear, I will reserve judgement on young Draco until I see all the information. I will-“ his face darkened   
“I will hold off on further discipline until I decide there is no further evidence of relevance. And then I will decide what to do with him.” 

She swallowed. This was probably the most that she could hope for. “Thank you, Master” she said softly.   
He took her hand and threaded his pale slender fingers through hers, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it. 

Hermione, still looking worriedly at Draco saw his eyes widen slightly in disbelief.   
She turned to Voldemort and he was watching her with a soft expression. 

“I missed you too.” He whispered and guided their hands to the lip of the pensieve again. 

 

They had to start from the beginning of the memory but this time, as they knew what was coming, the Dark Lord sat them down in the chair that would remain empty throughout the memory and drew Hermione into his lap.

After watching Draco flip out again for a few seconds Tom turned her head and kissed her. The kiss continued until Draco’s loud exclamation attracted Voldemorts attention. 

“Why in HADES would you want to fuck the Dark Lord?!” 

He pulled away from the kiss reluctantly. “Oh look.. the movie continues. Why do you want to fuck the Dark Lord, Hermione?” he smirked.   
Memory Hermione was saying “He’s not like he is with everyone else to me.. at least.. not really. He’s..almost nice sometimes.” and Voldemort looked at her with his eyebrows raised 

“Nice??!” He said as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth. 

She looked down, worried that he would have to be cruel to her now to prove that he was under no circumstances nice toward her. 

Voldemort looked away from her to the couple on the couch and she turned too. They watched her tell Draco that Harry had told her he’d capture and torture Rodolphus until she took the mark. Voldemort ran his thumb silkily over the mark on her wrist, still watching the action.   
“He can feel it, when I touch it, you know. I hope its driving him mad..” he murmured venomously.   
His eyes hardened slightly as memory Draco implied Hermione was a slut. A moment later the boy looked quite repentant as he muttered that Malfoys don’t apologise. 

They watched the plan develop and Voldemort scowled as memory Hermione said that he couldn’t be told, that Harry had known about some things that nobody else knew about.   
Voldemort flicked his finger and the scene paused. “What did Potter know?” he asked, an unwelcome suspicion growing in his eyes.. 

“He knew about.. what we did. He said he felt it..” she said quietly. 

Voldemort looked mildly alarmed. ‘He couldn’t have.. I didn’t..when he-..”   
He continued..in an uncertain voice. “I want to see it.. You will show me. Later.” Then he pulled her forward and kissed her on her forehead lightly, flicked a finger and the two people on the couch started to move again. 

She blinked at him, hurt. She couldn’t.. he couldn’t make her show him Harry doing that – Harry had used that spell.. he’d made her enjoy it.   
Tom would see her in pleasure under Harry. She didn’t want him to see that. 

...Memory Hermione was talking about animagi. 

When Draco had a minor fit and Hermione laughed, Voldemort looked fascinated. “you called him ‘ferret’ in school.. Its like a bad comedy.”   
Hermione shushed him and he looked at her almost mortified.   
“Look.. we’re missing it” she said shortly. 

When Draco said he wanted to take the memory now, not later, the Dark Lord sighed and pulled her closer.   
“He wants you. As do they all, apparently. I am growing weary of it. It was difficult enough sharing you with Severus.” 

She protested. “You’re seeing things. Draco has always hated me. He’s just.. commiserating. He feels sorry for me.” 

The Dark Lord pointed lazily. “that bottle, if you were paying attention earlier, is winter Gelfthorn liqueur.   
Its priceless - but what does that mean?!.. The plant itself is extremely rare. You could perhaps acquire a regular Gelfthorn liqueur for several tens of millions of Galleons. A winter Gelfthorn...I cannot imagine its price. It is ..priceless.   
Did you notice that he poured your glass first?...He gave you more than he took for himself.   
Generosity is not a Malfoy trait.. I’ve known several of the spoiled brats. Trust me.” 

Hermione didn’t say anything.   
She wished that they were watching the memory in her mind so that she could remember the taste of that strange looking liquid. It felt..important.. to remember it. 

“Do you see how he looks at you?” the Dark Lord murmured and truly she saw that memory Draco was staring at her transfixed as she sipped the strange blue liquid.   
“You are beautiful..” Voldemort breathed against her hair. “but... you are mine. You have just told him that not one quarter of an hour ago. We both heard it. It is not his place to be..looking...at you in that manner.”   
They watched as Draco finally took a sip of the liqueur and crumpled, looking soft and vulnerable. He whimpered, his eyes closed, looking almost pained. 

When memory Hermione started looking at Draco speculatively, a slightly moon-calf expression on her face, Hermione tilted her head quizzically.   
“Perhaps the liqueur has some sort of mild aphrodisiac properties. I’m quite certain I’ve never been at all interested in Draco that way.”   
They both watched the scene unfold before them, preoccupied with their own thoughts. 

Memory Draco was brushing a tear away from her eye and looked wounded. She called him a friend and asked him to obliviate her. They drank.. they told stories.   
Hermione realised that Draco had probably had quite a sad life.. for all his apparent elitist snobbery. He’d been abused and ignored and trained to expect nothing more from others. Even at Hogwarts, the people he had been surrounded with.. at all times.. had been horrible. And there was nothing he could do – he’d been born in that world. It was quite probably all he knew.   
She watched as Draco offered to show her his animagus form. It was probably an immensely brave thing for him.   
She wondered if anyone else at all had known about it before that moment. Somehow she doubted it. 

When he shrank into a small white ferret again she couldn’t help smirking just a little.   
“He’s cute as a ferret. It’s a shame we teased him like that.” 

Voldemort was looking at her with a pensive concerned expression. He didn’t say anything but looked back to where she had begun to stroke the small animal, startling it. She suddenly felt embarrassed. She couldn’t explain exactly why. It just felt..personal. 

“Do you have an animagus form?” she asked Voldemort, to distract herself from the feeling.   
“of course” he answered, distracted. “I am not a ferret though..obviously. Or a kitten or a puppy or a bunny rabbit. Perhaps I’ll show you at some point.” 

She watched in the memory, the small white animal climb cautiously into her own lap and curl up and heard herself promise not to hurt him.   
She looked at Voldemort nervously and was surprised. He looked almost wistful. She realised suddenly that his own childhood had been even colder and harder than Draco’s. At least Draco had resided in what amounted to a palace while it was done to him.   
She turned away from the memory and pulled Vold..pulled Tom’s face to hers, kissing him gently. “I love you” she mumbled against his lips and slid her face down, nestling it into the crook of his neck. She just clung to him and felt his smooth warm skin against her lips.   
It felt like everything that had happened had just been a bad dream. Like she was home. Tom would protect her. He hadn’t even been angry with her when she’d killed Ginny. He forgave her for Rodolphus. She just wanted to stay curled up here, feeling his arms holding her. 

“look..” Tom whispered. She withdrew from his neck and turned.   
In the memory she was holding Draco against her breast like a babe, leaning back against the arm of the sofa and feeding him liqueur on her finger. The little ferret was writhing and squeaking softly.   
The next thing she knew there was a human Draco straddling her in the memory and he leaned down unhesitatingly and kissed her. 

She felt her spine turn icy and looked shocked at Tom, whose red eyes were narrowed, his fingertips digging into her ribs slightly.   
“As I told you..” he growled angrily. His expression only hardened when memory Hermione started talking about how she might be able to persuade him to protect Draco because he’d given him Harry.. and because of Dumbledore.   
This was in essence exactly what she’d done, even though she hadn’t remembered deciding she was going to try to do it back then. 

When they shared the last mouthful of liqueur in Hermione’s goblet and she saw herself actually moan as Draco kissed her deeply for several minutes, she felt real terror that she’d doomed Draco. She suddenly understood what the Dark Lord had meant when he’d commented as Draco had wanted to take the memory of the plan earlier.   
Tom glanced at her “I see you’ve realised now. Perhaps he did not plan this..as such... but I imagine he hoped. He is a Slytherin. We are opportunists. He saw a chance to kiss you. ..and he preferred, for survivals sake, that nobody else, particularly not myself or Rodolphus see him do it.   
Incidentally, remind me to tell you about Draco’s history with Rodolphus sometime. It is quite an amusing story.” 

In the memory, Draco was asking ‘shall we go to bed, granger’ and she was agreeing.   
Tom growled against her ear. “My dear.. perhaps I may have to have.. words.. with you about this later. But I will allow you to replace the memory in your mind first. I want to know exactly what you were thinking just then.”

 

The two young people had wandered away from their visual range and she slipped off Toms lap to follow them as they went into the bedroom. Tom was not far behind.   
They went in and took in the scene. 

Draco was undressing and memory Hermione started shaking uncontrollably. 

Tom put his arms around her and frowned. “I will need to see your memories, Hermione. It will be sufficient if you give me them to take for a pensieve. I will not make you go through them again.” 

When Draco seemed flustered and covered himself and tried to reassure her that he hadn’t been thinking of that, Tom snorted disbelievingly.   
“I doubt that. The boy has been through so much – his scars are not sensitive like your own. He would almost certainly have willingly bedded you had you not been so shellshocked.” 

Draco transformed back into a ferret and bounced to the bed, curling up on the pillow.   
Tom sighed, sounding conflicted and irritated, as memory Hermione stroked the little ferrets head before thanking him and going to sleep.   
The memory blurred as Hermione’s consciousness obviously faded. She was about to pull herself back out of the pensieve when Tom stopped her. “There’s more” he said shortly. 

The space around them pulled back into sharp focus as Draco shook her awake. They saw his panic; he put his wand to her forehead to remove the memory and at that point they were ejected from the pensieve – the memory had finished. 

Tom removed their still linked hands from the misty solution in the bowl and sat, quite still, thinking. He glanced down at the blonde boy lying on the sofa a short distance away and she followed his gaze, looking down at his occasionally twitching body.   
Draco appeared to be sleeping. He looked much changed since his appearance in the pensieve. He looked worn and tired, his hair lifeless, black circles under his eyes. A flood of emotions flowed through her. Gratitude, sympathy, compassion, worry.   
When she turned back, Tom was scrutinizing her carefully. After a while he spoke. 

“I will not kill him. At present I am inclined to view the balance of Draco’s actions as more tilted toward the positive, despite his foolishness.   
This does not mean that he will not be punished for betraying me to the order – I will learn what he has told them.” 

“However.. for removing you from Potter when he saw you under imperius.. for his treatment of you in that room and the risk he willingly accepted in bringing you back to me and delivering to me my enemies.. I believe I will show him...mercy. Stop pretending to be asleep now boy. ” 

Hermione had been looking at Tom with an expression of extreme relief and thankfulness, her eyes shining, but now a thin crack of worry slid through her again. 

Draco opened eyes clouded with pain and looked at Tom fearfully. “My Lord” he acknowledged in a rigidly controlled voice. 

Tom inspected him with an appraising eye. “You endure pain well, Draco. It is a credit to you. Kneel before me and kiss my robe. Show me that you regret betraying me.” 

Hermione looked down before she could catch Tom’s eye and broadcast disapproval unintentionally, but she felt his attention on her. His hand stroked her head once and she couldn’t help but shiver uneasily.   
It reminded her of Harry doing that last.   
He caught the thought and drew his hand away quickly, his eyes flicking over her in concern. 

Draco had managed to crawl to the edge of the sofa and pitch himself onto the floor and now with difficulty he dragged himself along the floor till he was close enough to climb on jittering limbs to his knees and lean forward jerkily to kiss the hem of the Dark Lords black robe.   
During the entire process he did not make a sound. 

Tom smiled down at him. “Very good, Draco. You have pleased me. I will allow Severus to heal you now. We will speak later about your time with the order and I will ..very thoroughly.. inspect your memories of that time, but for now.. It is sufficient.”   
Surprisingly, he leaned down and gently petted the boy’s head. Draco flinched, and then he did whimper from the unexpected clenching of already agonised muscles.   
He looked up at Tom confused and his eyes, dulled with pain, shifted from the angelic features of the Dark Lord who looked barely older than himself, to Hermione’s curled in his lap with his arm around her affectionately.   
He looked down, his brows furrowing. 

Tom smirked. “I do believe he prefers it when you pet him, Hermione. Very well. I will allow it. Pet him and tell him he has done well, my precious.”   
She raised an eyebrow at Tom unnerved, both by the unusual order and the use of such a strange term of endearment. She was sure he had not used it before. It reminded her of Gollum from the lord of the rings. 

Tom chuckled, amused. She stared. Even Draco looked up, startled.   
“I know the book. Precious is a rough translation of a parseltongue word. It is a ..term of endearment.. for snakes.”   
He hissed a strange silibant sound and she felt both pleased, excited and uncomfortably afraid at once. 

Tom lowered his perfect brows at her, puzzled at her reaction. She shifted her eyes away, turning to Draco.   
Leaning forward on Toms lap she stroked Draco’s head very gently, knowing how sensitive he was probably feeling right now.   
He looked up into her eyes, disconcerted. 

“Thank you” she whispered. “Thank you for saving me and bringing me home.” She stroked his head again and he closed his eyes, trying not to lean into her hand.   
“Enough.” Tom said mildly. He drew his wand and drew a now familiar sigil – Severus’ sigil – in the air.

Hermione waited with eager anticipation.   
“He has no idea you are back, my dear. It has all been rather sudden” 

After a moment a pale, drawn older Severus apparated into the room. When he saw her sitting in the Dark Lords lap his face shifted into an almost comical expression of astonishment, relief, pain and need.   
It was as if he couldn’t believe the evidence of his own eyes. 

“Hermione..” he breathed in a tone of desperation. His eyes flicked from her to Tom and back, obviously seeking permission to approach them. Only then did he notice the broken blonde boy kneeling at the Dark Lord’s feet.   
“Draco?!” he muttered, confused. 

“The boy requires a potion Severus. You know well which one, I believe. “ 

Severus nodded shortly and apparated away. After he had left, Tom looked at Draco appraisingly once again.   
“I believe I should like to keep young Malfoy somewhere close by for the moment. Just in case he decides to have a change of heart again.“

Draco looked up with worried grey eyes. “I won’t, my Lord.” He managed to bite out. “My life belongs to you.” 

Tom smiled wanly. “So you say. But then.. you swore your allegiance to me before and it did not prevent you straying. No. You will stay in Hermione’s room. ...She will not be using it in the immediate future.”   
Dracos eyes shot up to her in concern. He seemed to be gauging her reaction. 

In truth she wasn’t sure how she felt.   
A bit leery of the idea of sex with anyone at all.. but she also felt sure somehow that Tom wouldn’t ask that of her right now. But neither was he prepared to let her out of his sight, and she was more than happy with that. She didn’t want him to leave either. 

Severus returned, carrying a small purple potion. He strode over and passed it to Draco without looking at him, never taking his eyes from Hermione.   
Tom demanded his attention imperiously. “Severus. Put Draco in Hermione’s room and take his wand. Have dilly bring him something to eat. You may then join us in my bedroom and i will explain what i have learned so far.” 

Severus nodded and moved to grip Draco’s shoulder lightly. He had already downed the potion thirstily as soon as he laid hands on it. He looked up at them before he rose with difficulty, to leave with Severus.   
“Thank you, my Lord.” He said with emphasis. When he had stood, Severus apparated them. 

 

Tom sighed and urged her against his chest with the hand that curved around her back. With the other he picked up her knees and after a moment he stood from the sofa, his head leaning against hers. She felt a painful squeeze as he apparated them to his room, walking with her to the bed and laying her down carefully. 

He summoned a small portable pensieve and she realised that Harry had had one just like it. 

Laying it down on the bedside table he moved to sit on the bed beside her. “I regret the discomfort that this may cause you” he said quietly. “but I must know. Show me your arrival up to a point after which you had taken his mark.” 

Hermione tried to focus and nodded. The entire process proceeded almost exactly as it had when she had given Harry her memories and he had duplicated and returned them, the only difference being that the Dark Lord essentially wanted all her memories of her time there not spent reading a book, eating a meal or engaging in personal hygiene. For that reason it was quite tiring. 

Severus arrived after they had just pulled the second memory and, realising what they were doing, sat himself down on the bed next to her and waited patiently, looking at her as if she might disappear any second. 

Finally Tom had taken the memory that culminated in his arrival in the mausoleum.   
He turned to Severus. “Yes, you may embrace her.. carefully now. After you are sufficiently calmed we will watch these memories and she will sleep.”   
Hermione opened her mouth to protest but was interrupted.   
“No my dear. You look exhausted and the day has already been stressful enough. Besides – we require this time to comprehend exactly what has happened. This is necessary, not only in order to determine how best to approach Potter later when I visit him-“   
Severus started and opened his mouth to question, a shocked look on his face, but Tom just shook his head and stared into his eyes for a moment, wordlessly communicating something to him.   
He continued without pause “- but also because I have noticed your reactions to ...certain things... and I must know what has occurred if I am to know how best to encourage you to recover.   
So you will sleep. We will remain here and watch over you, but you will rest now.” 

She nodded solemnly. To tell the truth, she was pretty tired, she realised. And.. hungry...thirsty.. She remembered her cramps earlier and reminded herself to ask for something to deal with that.   
Tom tilted his head, thinking and then startled somewhat. “Oh! Oh yes.. certainly. I’ll ...have something for it later when you wake up.” He seemed equal parts relief and discomfort at the notion of female hygiene products.   
“and we will have a meal together.”   
He transfigured a glass from a piece of parchment effortlessly and filled it with water. She drank greedily.   
When it was empty he filled it again and the same thing happened. After the third one she realised she needed to go to the bathroom and looked up at him sheepishly as he smirked back at her knowingly. 

Severus was looking like he was in actual pain from not touching her. He still hadn’t dropped his glamour.   
She remembered vaguely that she’d given him the impression she preferred his older self.   
She climbed up on her knees and was on eye level with the seated dour man with the pained expression. 

“I’ll be right back!” she reassured him seriously. 

His eyes darted over her shoulder to the Dark Lord, pleadingly, who sighed.   
“Severus will go with you. I am not..comfortable.. leaving you alone at present either. Not yet.” 

She gaped, shocked and a little disgusted. “I’m not going to the bathroom with anyone watching me! That's disgusting.”

Severus flinched. Tom just laughed. “Oh Hermione.. you are a delight. Do as I tell you.” 

Her bladder brooked no further delay so she crawled to the edge of the bed and got to her feet, walking swiftly to the bathroom, Severus trailing silently behind.   
She turned around to lift her robe and seat herself and blushed. Severus was standing against the door, looking at her with such need and concern in his eyes. She felt uncomfortable. 

“Um.. could you at least look away.. or close your eyes or something?!” She mumbled, a worried look on her face. 

Severus smiled a wan smile. “It is nothing to concern yourself with, Hermione. Just a necessary function of the body. Your ..modesty.. is quite surprising. How did you imagine you did not starve or become covered in your own wastes in the cell when you decided to take an extended holiday from reality?!”   
She blinked, burning embarrassment rising in her face. 

“Alright! Calm yourself. If it makes you feel more comfortable” he turned to face the door. 

 

After she had relieved herself, she wanted to take a shower and after Severus’ consultation with Tom, who he’d had to drag, fuming from the first pensieve, she was granted permission to take one.

When she began to disrobe, the look on Severus face shifted to something between excitement and agony.. until she slid her arms from her sleeves and he saw the mark on her wrist.   
He captured it and drew it to himself examining it with an uncomprehending look on his face, darting a look up at her every few seconds. He gingerly moved her arm around, not touching it. 

After a minute he released her and she stepped back and entered the steamy shower, without further explanation. 

Severus stood, watching her through the door. She could feel his aching desire to step in with her but she had not invited him and obviously, Tom had been specific about how he was to behave toward her. 

After she had washed her hair and stood, eyes closed, letting the hot water stream over her, there was a faint sound..   
it had sounded a bit like Tom’s voice raised in fury but it was cut off after only a fraction of a second. 

She wrapped her arms around herself, lowering her head and letting the stream beat down onto her face. 

In her peripheral vision she saw Severus, concerned, open the door slightly and startle, then look back at her uncomprehendingly. He closed the door again.   
“Tell me what happened, Hermione” he said softly. “Where were you? Why is Potter here?”

She swallowed and rubbed her hands over her face. “I was with Harry. In his base.”   
She suddenly remembered something.   
“OH!!! OH – my robe – you didnt do anything with it, did you?! I need it. Theres a pin on it. You have to give it to Tom. Be careful – its a blood based portkey!. It’s the only way through Harry’s wards. But it’s keyed to my blood” 

Severus raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Potter has a base? “ he drawled disbelievingly.   
“And he has secured it such that you believe it will exceed the Dark Lords considerable skill in wardbreaking..?   
We are talking about Potter .. are we not?” 

Hermione sighed. “You’ll see in the pensieve. He’s the leader of the order now. He’s changed... he..”   
she broke off and turned away to look at the wall. She couldn’t say it to him. She didn’t want to tell him what Harry had done.   
After a minute she mumbled “Well.. you’ll just see in the pensieve. Can I have a towel please” 

She turned and Severus opened the door, already standing with an unexpectedly sky blue massively-fluffy towel stretched between his arms.   
When she stepped closer he wrapped her in it and drew her close, hugging her and lowering his head to lean against hers. She could feel against her face that his cheek was not rough and lined but smooth and slender. 

“You can drop the glamour” she whispered. “I love the way you look in both your forms.” 

He just held her tighter and she thought it was just her hair dripping down her face until he finally leaned back and she saw both his cheeks were shining with tears. Her arms were pinned inside the towel so she couldn’t put them around him but she looked up at him sadly.   
He put a hand in his pocket to touch his wand and the glamour shimmered and dropped. A young, distressed looking man stood before her, his long inky hair as lank as Draco’s had been. His mouth was downturned unhappily. 

“The Dark Lord seems..upset.. by your memories.” He said very softly, miserably. “He is not..easily drawn into such rage. I am..worried..” 

She looked down uneasily.   
“At least I’m back now” she mumbled and he dragged her against his chest again.   
“Yes!” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “Yes. You are back. I.. I am sorry that i did not do more to protect you. If I had found a way to talk him out of that damned initiation..   
I tried.. but he was unapproachable on it. I should have done more. I should have..” 

She shook her head. “It’s ok Severus. It’s all over. I’m back. you don’t have to worry. I’m not going anywhere now.”   
He looked wracked with guilt and fear and desperate need but nodded once.   
His eyes darted to her lips and she saw that he would not kiss her so she stood up on her toes and kissed him.

As if she’d opened the floodgates he fell upon her, kissing her ravenously, as if he were trying to possess her with his mouth.   
She tried to keep up but eventually he pulled away, breathing hard and looking ashamed of himself.   
“I..I’m sorry.” He said brokenly. 

At that she did fight her arms out of the towel and wrap them around him. “It’s ok Severus. I missed you horribly. I love you!”   
He actually let out a sob and pulled her against him desperately. They stood like that for an age, with her long hair dripping all over his sleeves and the front of his robe. Eventually she pulled away stiffly.   
“Could you dry me please?” she whispered nervously.   
He seemed to flinch and looked at her, seemingly confused. “Of course I can. “ he said slowly.. faint suspicion and horror dawning on his face. It bloomed into a thought and he darted a look at the closed door, worry thick on his face. He looked back at her, scrutinising her and then suddenly, quite unexpectedly, he dropped to his knees before her, removing his arms from around her, not touching her at all, a look of such tortured desperation on his face as he babbled about being sorry.. about how he shouldn’t have. He was sorry, so so sorry. Please forgive him.   
She looked at him, bemused and somewhat concerned. “Severus?” she asked uncertainly. He raised the black mop that he had lowered and his eyes were red and blurry with tears. He snivelled helplessly, flinching away from her. 

“Stop..” she said softly. “It’s ok.. whatever it is.. just calm down.” 

He grimaced at her in abject misery. She looked at him, deeply concerned about this new development.   
“Please get up. Stop crying. Everything’s ok. Whatever you think I’m going to do – I won’t.“   
His face twisted again in pain but he stood slowly, almost numbly, making sure he kept an arm’s length between them. 

He cast a drying charm on her and then stepped to the mirror and fixed his appearance.   
When he looked back at her he looked composed, but for the sharp twist of unhappiness on his face. She was more than worried now and went to him, wrapping her arms around his middle. He stood stiffly at first but then cautiously enfolded his own arms around her as if she were made of spun sugar and might break at the slightest touch.   
She felt his chest rise and fall in a sigh and chanced a look up at him. He looked full of regret and tenderness. 

She gingerly released him and took his hand, leading him to the bathroom door and back out to the bedroom. 

Tom was gone. The pensieve lay on the bedside table still. She felt a sneaking suspicion.   
“um.. can you.. can you call him please.” She said, worried. 

Severus was frowning too and now he pushed his sleeve back and pressed his wand to the mark. 

Tom popped back into the room only seconds after Severus had pressed the mark with a look of worry and alertness on his face. When he looked around and saw that there was no danger and she was neither bleeding nor on fire he narrowed his eyes at Severus, who looked down.   
“She asked me to call you” he said, gulping. 

Tom’s face softened. “I am here, clearly. What do you need, Hermione?” 

She bit her lip. “I.. I don’t need anything really.. I was just.. I just thought..when you were gone.. Please will you stay?”   
His expression hardened in frustrated irritation and then reluctantly softened once more.   
“There are things I need to do, my dear.” 

She looked up at him sadly and he heaved a deep sigh. “but.. I will stay. Since you ask so nicely. Get into bed and I will stay where you can feel me.”   
She gave Severus the towel and climbed nude into bed.   
Both men observed the lack of concern she showed for her own nakedness and shared a pensive glance. 

Tom moved to her side, as she lay in the middle of the bed and climbed up to lie next to her.   
She turned and curled into him. He looked down at her calmly and placed his arm around her.

Severus, who had been standing, moved toward the bed, obviously intending to lie on her other side, but Tom shook his head.   
He summoned the chair from the corner to the side of the bed.   
“I would have you view these memories with me Severus.” 

Her former professors young face showed no trace of his feelings about the matter. 

“I was not finished. I became.. somewhat incensed.. by them.” 

Hermione looked at the black stain on her wrist as it lay on Tom’s abdomen, over his soft lambswool robe. 

“Can a person have more than one mark?” she said, out of the blue.   
Tom’s attention shifted to her speculatively. He seemed to think for a minute. 

“I ..do not know, Hermione. It has never been an issue before.” 

“Whose is the mark?” Severus asked quietly. 

“Potters” came Toms bitter reply and they shared another meaningful look while she glanced between them. 

“Is it merely a passive means of locating you? How is it activated?” Severus wondered aloud. “You have no wand.” 

She turned her face back to Tom’s side. “with a kiss” she muttered into his robe.   
There was silence. She felt Tom’s chest move up and down in a sigh.   
“I cannot remove it” he said finally. Only the caster can remove it. I will have to persuade Potter somehow. But It will be difficult as I cannot risk allowing him use of his magic and he will not be able to remove it without it.” 

Hermione nodded against him.   
“Can I have your mark too please then.” 

Tom scooted down in bed and wrapped both his arms around her gently, his chin on the top of her head. She couldn’t see his expression but her hand on his chest registered his heart beating quite quickly. “Of course.. if you wish it” he murmured above her. She felt his chest resonate with the sound. She nodded again. 

Tom raised a hand and presumably beckoned to Severus to approach because she felt the bed move as he climbed on to lie against her back behind her.   
“It..will hurt, Hermione.” Tom said reluctantly as he moved back from her.   
She felt Severus arms curl carefully around her. His face was at the back of her neck. He kissed her once, lightly and pressed his forehead against her head.   
She looked up at the red eyed boy. “I know. Just do it. Please.” she muttered. “before i change my mind.”

He seemed to deliberate on which arm to select. Her left wrist was already marked but it would be very hard to activate the mark on her right arm if she ever wanted to use a wand to do it.   
He took her left arm in hand, extending it downward between them uncomfortably and gripping it tightly on her forearm above the black tattoo on her wrist.   
He looked into her eyes pensively. 

“I can possibly key it to saliva like the other, if you wish” he said quietly.   
She nodded, after a second. 

He placed the tip of the slender, pale twisted wand onto her skin just below the crook of her elbow.   
She hissed as a massive bloom of pain erupted in her flesh. It felt like being stabbed and burnt at the same time and the feeling seemed to crawl down her very veins. 

“Damn it..” Tom said and withdrew his wand quickly, casting charms on her arm rapidly, one after another, a distressed expression marring his face. She looked down at her arm to see what was wrong and jolted.   
Severus arms tightened around her. “What is it?” he hissed, alert. 

“The marks are.. reacting..” Tom bit out, still casting on her to little effect.   
The black lines of the dark mark had crawled right down her forearm and the flames of Harry’s mark had darted up to meet them and now it looked like the snake’s head was circled by flames as it writhed.   
The flames were growing up the snakes body and it was clear that they would soon encircle the entire mark if something could not be done to prevent them. 

Tom seemed to be physically weakening as he cast frantically.   
“Severus.. help me.. “ he gasped.   
Severus pushed her down on her back and looked at what was happening. 

“Remove it.” he hissed. “Take it off her. It is clear that its leeching energy from you. Do it now.” 

Tom looked petulant and hesitated. He shot off another charm at the intersecting point to no visible effect then roared in frustration and pressed his wand to the skull once more. 

There was a feeling of coldness, as of wind blowing upon her skin and the snake faded, the lines melting away, followed by the dissolution of the skull itself.   
Harry’s flames slid back down her forearm and became quiescent, flickering once more around the shield. 

Tom threw himself onto his back on the mattress, glaring at the ceiling. “I...hate.. that boy.” He ground out through his teeth. “He ruins..everything. I know he felt my failure to mark you. I cannot bear to know he is slithering around feeling triumphant right now.”   
Hermione felt somehow guilty, as if she were to blame for this. She tried half heartedly. 

“If you take off the necklace, maybe I can remove it myself...” 

Tom looked as if he was considering it seriously but eventually shook his head.   
“it is not so important at present.. but I will want to study it. I need to know what else it can do.   
Actively defensive, operates with a kiss..I need to be certain that it does not pose more of a danger should I release your magic.” 

Hermione frowned. “Ron has one too.” She offered. Tom brightened considerably.   
“Excellent. I will perform my tests on his. Now sleep.” 

She frowned and rolled her eyes.   
Severus, who had been sitting up, leaning over her to see the mark now lowered himself on his side to the mattress too and placed his arm over her, wanting to hold her while she slept. 

“Severus...” Tom said low, warningly. 

The long haired boy made a sound under his breath like a grumble and rolled away from her, walking around the bed to take his place in the chair by the bed.   
Tom smirked. He raised one arm and held it above her till she lifted her head for him to wrap it around her. Then he tightened it, pressing her into his side.   
She turned over and wrapped her own arm back over his abdomen, pressing her face into his chest at the crook of his shoulder. 

He smelled familiar. She turned her eyes up and found he was looking down at her with a satisfied smile. She hugged him for a moment and closed her eyes.


	34. Chapter 34

When she awoke the room was dark and still. |  
She could feel two bodies curved around hers and for a moment she felt a surge of panic. 

Harry. 

She could hear him breathing and tried to stay perfectly still as an arm that was slung loosely over her hip, slid up to insert itself between her bare back and the body behind her.   
“You are safe” Tom’s voice murmured from in front of her. 

Overwhelming relief and gratitude flooded through her and she leaned forward into him, whimpering. “Tom..” 

The body behind her stirred and Severus inched closer to bridge the small gap after she’d moved closer to Tom.   
His lean hard tightly buttoned length stretched along her own in the bed. He reapplied his face to the back of her neck and threw his arm across her hip, emitting a grumbly sleepy sound.   
“letting in a draft. Sleep.” 

Tom kissed her forehead feather-lightly. She turned her face up to his and kissed his chin.   
She could almost hear his smirk in the darkness.   
He tilted his face down toward her and she readily pressed her lips to his, kissing him gently and, when he seemed to respond, trying to deepen the kiss, flicking at his upper lip with the point of her tongue.   
After a moment he complied and let her in, surprisingly not seeking to dominate the kiss, as he was wont to do, but allowing her to tease his tongue out into her own mouth and suck on it a little. 

When she tried to kiss him harder, tried to force him to kiss her as he had before, he slowly, almost reluctantly, ended the extended kiss and felt him sigh against her.   
“You should sleep a while longer”   
She made a small discontented sound and ducked below his chin to press her lips to his smooth warm neck, lick the V of skin exposed at his collar. His breath caught.   
She felt Severus stir behind her and stilled. 

After a couple of minutes she carefully, with a minimum of movement started to undo the concealed buttons on Tom’s robe. He allowed her to continue and when she was able, after waiting for another minute just to be sure, she delved her hands underneath, touching his body, her fingertips ghosting over the warm lean muscle, familiarising herself with it. Small points pebbled on his chest.   
She ran her hands over as much of him as she could reach. He wore some kind of satin boxers and she felt his hardening length beneath them as her fingertips skated over them but continued on, exploring his thighs, reaching over him under his robe as he lay on his side and examining the rounds of his buttocks, the small of his straight back. She could almost feel the links of his spine.   
Her hand moved back over his ribs, to brush a palm over his chest again. Then she felt it.. a golden feeling in her mind, faintly.. the merest shimmer.   
He held his magic very closely, she could only feel it barely, travelling from the palm of her hand up her body. It was..wonderful. 

How was it that he could feel this good? When Harry, seemingly the nicest boy in the world, blended with only a small healed part of His soul had become a monster. 

Some part of the back of her mind tried to tell the rest of her brain that it was because He was a monster but her mind wasn’t having any of it. Tom had protected her.. again and again.. he had been gentle with her, had offered her everything she might like, he hadn’t forced her like Harry had, he’d comforted her, saved her when she got lost in herself, prevented her from taking reality apart, avenged perceived wrongs against her.   
What he did outside with the rest of the world was none of her concern. The world wasn’t innocent. Not even the order, the supposed torchbearers of the light side were noble and good.   
Dumbledore certainly hadn’t been.   
The rest of them would have only too happily castigated her and tossed her in a deep dark hole forever.   
Or worse, her mind added. 

She felt Tom’s hand on her back stroke her slowly a few times and then Severus growled. “Well since we’re all up then, turn the bloody lights on. Sleeping in so many layers does not agree with me anyway.”   
He rolled over onto his back irritably, and it sounded like he was fumbling around for his wand. 

The hand at her back moved away for a second and then the candelabras flared into life, initially roaring with long orange flames before settling to a more normal behaviour. 

She blinked in the unaccustomed, but thankfully soft, light, looking up into Tom’s face.   
He was ethereally lovely.   
Every time she was away from him for a second she forgot how lovely he was. 

His eyes were.. a bit..unusual – the way they were shiny and dark like wet blood in this light, but she didnt mind it. It was.. part of him. 

Severus stopped looking and fell back on the bed. She rolled over and looked at him. His puritanical robes were wrinkled and the buttons were pulled all the way over to the left of his chest. His hair was scruffy and oily and he wore an expression of disgruntled exhaustion.   
She smiled and rolled over. 

“If you can’t sleep in clothes, take them off” she said and started in on the dozens of pedantic little buttons he insisted upon.   
He looked comically affronted and his eyes shot to Tom who must have given some kind of assent as he allowed her to continue working on his clothing. 

After she had managed to free the tenth button Tom leaned over, pulled her hand away impatiently and ran his finger down the fastenings, popping them all magically open. He repeated the process with the shirt beneath.   
“We’ll be here all year if you do it that way” he snorted amused. 

Severus was looking at her with something akin to vulnerability on his face. She looked closer and realised it was concern, concern for her apparently.   
He allowed her, however to assist him to remove his robe and shirt and she carried out the same kind of slow investigation of his young body as she had performed on Tom.   
Neither man made a move to touch her while she did so. 

It was rather strange, she thought. As if they were afraid of breaking her or offending her. 

She was just unbuttoning Severus wrinkled trousers, while he watched passively, swallowing, a faint expression of hopeful anticipation in his eyes, when Tom spoke up, causing him to scowl at him poisonously. 

“There are several matters we need to discuss, Hermione.” He said seriously. 

She felt a tense little cramp in her stomach.   
The tension set off quite a different kind of cramp and she reminded herself again..ask Severus. Female hygiene products. He was a head of house for years and he looked after me when I was off in lala land – he MUST be able to cope with this without going all ‘boy’ at me and getting embarrassed. 

Tom snorted. “Oh for Salazars sake – I already had him see to that last night. There are tampons in the cupboard under the vanity. Could you pay attention now?   
As I said last night, Hermione, there are things I must see to – some of which cannot be further delayed.   
Severus too has responsibilities, many of which require his presence at least once daily.   
Now that you are awake I thought we might discuss your protection in the immediate future.” 

“Although we would both, obviously, like nothing more than to remain here with you – in this bed – until the end of time, that is clearly not a viable option. I can not.. no... I will not take you with me to negotiations with foreign ministers of magic. I refuse, until I am certain there are no further security breaches, to take you with me to meetings with Death Eaters, with the exception of a bare handful - and it has already been established that some projects I have Severus working on, I would prefer you not to be informed about”   
“...at least at this point in time” he added, diplomatically. 

“There will thus, realistically, be times when both Severus and myself are required elsewhere.” 

Hermione tried not to show the tension this statement set off in her. She had known it of course but she had hoped.. perhaps they might be able to spend a while longer here before something else happened to ruin everything, as it was almost certain to do.   
Tom continued however in a voice that was indisputably describing how the world was going to be. 

“Therefore I have decided upon a number of precautionary measures. Firstly, I will have a piece of jewellery made for you that should, I believe, function in the same manner as my mark would have. That will take a while – no more than a few days I hope but we shall see, embedding spells to do all I require may pose several problems, hence the need for the second measure – I will allow Rodolphus to guard you when you are not with Severus or myself, until your jewellery is finished.” 

At this Severus started to protest vociferously. Tom silenced him with a wave. He stilled with the utmost reluctance, folding his arms and looking rabid. 

Tom continued, ignoring the incandescent glare he was receiving from the man. “Over the longer term I do require his particular talents elsewhere and I would prefer not to unduly encourage your unsavoury preference for him ...but he is the most formidable and reliable of my Death Eaters, present company excepted, Severus, and after his recent performance with young Malfoy, I am inclined to heed his entreaties and reward him for his service.” 

Tom then finally looked at Severus soberly, gauging his appalled countenance. He continued, looking at the saturnine young man as he spoke.   
“I am certain, Hermione, that Rodolphus would lay down his life to protect you. The few times he has ever disobeyed my orders it has been, or so he verifiably believed, with the intention of protecting you.   
Furthermore he has never tortured you or truly forced himself upon you, such that you appear to feel ‘safe’ around him – something which is very nearly paradoxical when you consider the man. I have known Rodolphus for more than a decade and he is utterly depraved..your newest devotee can attest to that” 

Severus, who had been mortified up to this point now turned a quizzical eye to Hermione. 

“Ah Severus, I quite forgot. You should be sure to go and watch the memory in my viewing room at some point. You will undoubtedly find it illuminating.   
Do not act upon anything you learn without consulting me.” 

Tom turned back to Hermione.   
“Nevertheless.. I am rather paranoid at present when it comes to you, Hermione, so I have devised a third protection for you. I must remember to thank Potter for the idea when I visit him later today.” 

Hermione’s mouth went dry. It was so easy to forget that Harry was here somewhere, in god knows what condition.   
She couldn’t make out if she was more concerned for him or concerned that he’d somehow manage to get out and find her.   
“Blood wards” Voldemort was saying.   
“the pin that Severus brought me last night was very useful. I have set an additional ward on the perimeter in the meantime that will prevent your blood and your blood only from passing through. You are specifically warded against leaving.”   
He smiled, pleased at his own achievement. A moment later his gaze darkened though and she felt a cloud pass over her heart. 

“There is..but one final protection I desire, Hermione” he said quietly and somehow she already knew what he was going to say. It felt like she remembered it, had lain here before like this with them both as he ruined everything with his own personalised thanatophobia. 

“No.” she said immediately. 

He turned to her surprised, opening his mouth and she interrupted him again.   
“No. I won’t make one.” 

At this his eyes flashed and his face twisted in irritation. “Why not?!” he exclaimed petulantly. “I’ve found a spell.. you don’t need to kill anyone.. you don’t even need to divide your soul in half, just shave off a tiny portion that you’ll never miss and I may sleep knowing that you will never be stolen from me by murder or misadventure.   
Surely you wouldn’t begrudge me sleep, my dear?!” 

“No.” Hermione insisted stubbornly. 

He appeared to sulk, turning his head away. After a while he sat up and put his feet on the floor, turning away. He tossed nastily over his shoulder   
“We shall see. I am certain you will find something or someone so important that you will offer this very small thing I ask of you, now that you cannot use my mark as a bargaining chip any longer”   
Hermione’s breath caught. After a second she hit her head back into the pillow beneath her and groaned. 

“You know.. you really are an arse sometimes” 

Tom smirked and turned, climbing onto his knees on the bed straddling and leaning over her.   
“Ah but which one? Who will you try to save this time? Your quite extensive brainwashing at the hands of that lemon- drop-addled puppeteer would have you plead for the boy wonder, no doubt   
– but, honestly – even if I were able to be persuaded to let him live – would you really want that?!   
It’s actually poetic justice in a sense..   
for the first time you can begin to understand the irrational concern that he might... somehow.. find you and harm you.” He smiled cruelly. It suited him. 

Hermione tried not to think about how right he was. His entertainment at her silent assent was obvious.   
At that moment both their trains of thought were interrupted when Severus reached out and trailed his finger down Tom’s chest. Tom bent his head to follow it with his eyes and then looked up at the man with glimmering eyes and a dark smirk. 

“Bored, Severus?” he snorted.   
The surly young man’s lips quirked and he seemed amused.   
“Not exactly how I’d describe it. But you are dangling yourself so attractively that I thought i might at least try to persuade you to do more than tease.” 

Hermione let her own eyes wander over Tom’s body, which, as Severus had pointed out, was suspended conveniently to be pawed over a little.   
She ran both her hands hesitantly up his tight abdomen and slid them around the narrow curve of his sides.   
Tom smiled wider and allowed her to pull him down to lie over her on top of the blankets.   
Severus turned her head with two fingers on her chin and kissed her tentatively, pulling back and looking at her nervously. She smiled and reached out, wrapping her fingers in his hair and yanking him hard against her.   
He moaned at the dominant caress that she knew he loved from Tom.   
They kissed, while Tom, she noted in her peripheral awareness, started to pull the blankets off them both surreptitiously. 

Severus had now wound his hand in her own hair and was playing with it while their mouths worked against each other, tongues rubbing and flicking eagerly.   
Hermione thought she should probably feel uneasy about being close to them both so soon after ..well.. everything with Harry.. but she felt safe around them both, even if Tom was an ass sometimes and Severus had one or two issues.   
She wanted to kiss them both. She wanted to be close to them as she couldn’t be before.   
She wanted to finally have sex with someone because she chose to. 

She flinched all over her body when Tom’s lips suddenly closed gently around her nipple and both men pulled back immediately as if she were on fire.   
She tossed her head back into the pillow groaning ruefully. 

“I’m sorry.. that.. that might happen for a bit if I’m not expecting something. Please don’t stop! I.. this is what I want.. ok?” 

They exchanged a look with one another which to judge by the sharply diverging looks on their faces contained the elements of an argument. Tom seemed to want to back off and Severus to continue.   
In indecision, Tom raked his fingers through his hair tensely and the image suddenly reminded her of Harry doing the same thing.   
She tried to prevent it but she shivered.   
Tom’s eyes were immediately on her and he drew back abruptly, his face rigidly composed, removing himself from the bed and striding into the bathroom, tossing the door closed after him. 

Severus rolled over onto his back with a sigh. He hit the bed weakly with a fisted hand.   
“Shit..” he cursed softly. 

Hermione lay, feeling terrible. She’d ruined everything and now Tom had gone off and Severus was angry too.   
The sound of the shower indicated that Tom would not be returning.   
She felt frustrated.   
This was unacceptable.   
She sat up suddenly and climbed over Severus, striding to the bathroom door. “are you coming?” she tossed back at him flippantly. 

He seemed thrown off balance but started to climb out of bed. She didn’t wait but opened the door and stepped in. 

Tom..looking very different when soaking wet with his thick black hair slicked back over his head, blinked at her, surprised. 

She did not stand and debate but simply threw open the shower door and stepped in, pushing him back against the wall and kissing him hungrily. He returned the gesture with interest, wrapping his arms around her ass and waist and pulling her hard against him. She felt him hardening rapidly against her as his tongue wound around hers.

The sound of the bathroom door closing informed her that Severus had joined them. He took only a few seconds to shed his trousers and boxers before stepping into the shower and closing the door.   
Then he was behind her, the hot water bouncing up off his skin over her as he pressed himself against her and started kissing her neck.   
His hands wandered over her sides, now and then sliding forward to stroke Tom in front of her.   
She started to wind her hips, alternately rubbing her ass against Severus behind her and grinding against Tom’s hard cock in front.   
Tom hissed into her mouth in pleasure but it didn’t sound like parseltongue. He released her mouth for a moment, sliding his hands down to grope her ass.   
It felt amazing, she thought and ground against him again, her hairless mound slipping against his cock in a tantalising pressure.   
Toms hands dropped lower and then he was gripping her thighs, lifting her. He pushed off the wall and turned them, leaning her up against the stone exactly where he had just been standing and wrapping her legs around him.   
Severus barely blinked and now kissed and touched Tom instead of her. 

Toms cock was rubbing against her pussy now, at this new angle; slipping between her folds and sliding through her wetness. He leaned in and captured her mouth once more, his kisses bruising, tongue dominating hers.   
She panted in pleasure; trying to lift her hips and adjust the angle till she could impale herself on him.   
He kept her from doing so and continued to grind his shaft against her, teasing her clit. It was frustrating.

She broke off the kiss, whining “please! Please Tom..”   
He smirked and kissed her, tracing down her jaw and over her neck, sucking then at a place that made her feel like she was melting.   
“oh god.. please??”   
she felt him smiling “please what, Hermione?” He bit her, further down her neck.. it made her feel like little electric jolts were running down her. He repeated the action over and over moving down the column of her throat till he reached a sweet spot where her neck and shoulders met. She groaned in want when he bit her there gently.

”please Tom.. please! Please! “ she begged, babbling mindlessly. 

“What do you want, Hermione?” he growled into her ear. 

“You! Oh god.. I want you. Please” she pulled his head back with both hands and kissed him desperately. He returned the kiss even more roughly before pulling away yet again.   
“You want me to fuck you?” he murmured against her ear in a low seductive tone and blew a cool breath past it in such a way that all her spine tingled with shivers. 

“Yes.. yes. Please.. I need you” she pled. 

She felt his pelvis draw back and then there was a pressure on the entrance of her vagina.   
His cock was slick from rubbing in her juices but the tip of his cock felt huge pressed against her. She swallowed nervously. 

“Ssstill want it?” he asked lowly, leaning back and looking at her. He rocked his pelvis back and forth slightly and it felt like there was no way he could possibly fit into her.   
“Oh it will fit, Hermione..” he smiled darkly.   
He bucked his hips forward suddenly and she gasped as she was forcibly widened, the head of his cock just slipping half inside her. It felt like pressure but it didn’t hurt as such..   
He held there, neither moving forward nor back but leaned in and started kissing and sucking the other side of her neck. 

She began to feel needy again and now there was also a new frustrating feeling. It felt like.. almost pleasure.   
A frustrating emptiness. 

One of his hands that had been under her ass, holding her in place travelled up her body and started to massage her breast.   
She felt another unexpected hand, Severus, she realised, touch her abdomen, move down and stroke her pussy mound.   
His thumb slipped down and he started to play with her clit.   
This was now too much. She groaned in frustration and tried to pull Tom closer with the legs that were around him..   
her hands that had been around his neck stroking his back and playing at his damp locks removed themselves and reached down to tug ineffectually at his waist, trying to pull him closer.   
He laughed against her skin and kissed up to her mouth, gently. The pressure just inside her wavered as he rocked his hips minutely.   
She thrust her tongue into the kiss and in that second he drove up into her hard, seating himself deep inside her. Her yelp of surprise and slight pain was swallowed as he sucked on her tongue.   
He felt enormous inside her. As if she were stretched beyond full capacity. 

When he finally pulled back from the kiss he was panting, a wild raw expression on his face. And then he started to move in her.   
She moaned helplessly, letting her head fall back against the wall. It was amazing.. better than anything else..well.. whether it was better than magic she couldn’t decide.   
He thrust back into her hard and she cried out and yes.. yes it was better than everything. Absolutely everything. He should just stay right here and do that forever.   
He tossed his head and laughed and then leaned in and kissed her some more, starting up a slow rhythm of smooth deep strokes.  
She whimpered and groaned alternately as he played her like an instrument. After only a minute or two she came, crying out in pleasure. 

He slowed slightly after she came down but continued to fuck her and when she started to move her hips and follow him again he picked up the pace, rolling his hips and alternating between short fast phases where he seemed to rub at something inside her that felt..inordinately strange, Like needing to go to the bathroom almost but not quite, and phases where he thrust into her hard and fast, thumping her against the wall. 

She was beyond controlling the sounds of pleasure she was emitting now. He wrung gasps, yelps and moans from her at will.   
She felt herself nearing a second climax and whimpered against his ear as his drilled her into the wall and forced her over the edge, screaming.   
When he continued, she felt momentarily scared. She had never come more than twice before. She felt weak and sensitive all over and he continued to fuck her skillfully with obvious enjoyment and did not seem to be nearing his own end.   
He was nothing whatsoever like Harry and she was so glad.   
he panted and once or twice he groaned as he gyrated his hyps inside her, pulling her tighter still, burrowing into her as deeply as he could, but he did not hiss and he did not tell her how tight she felt or how good it was.   
He just looked at her in such a way that it felt he was devouring her with his unnatural red eyes.   
He just kissed her so deeply and hungrily that it made her heart skip.   
When he held her pressed against his chest, curled tightly around him, her cheek against his as he fucked up into her hard with his arms tight around her back and arse she didn’t believe it but she felt herself climbing up to that climax a third time.   
He seemed to sense it because he moved in such a way that he rubbed up against her clit with every third or fourth stroke. When she finally came it was almost silent, her entire body clamped hard around his as she gasped and whimpered into his ear helplessly over and over that she loved him, calling him by his name. That, of all things, seemed to tip him over the precipice and he fucked her with abandon, losing all art till he finally groaned, sounding as if he was in pain and crushed her to him, driving up into her and emptying himself in her warm wet depths.   
She felt him shaking slightly and he leaned her against the wall, his face buried in her neck. 

After a minute or so in which they both panted and collected themselves, he kissed her neck gently and withdrew his softening member from inside her. She felt a strange sense of loss as he did.   
He looked up and stared into her eyes, examining their depths. For what, she had no idea. He seemed satisfied however and leaned in, kissing her chastely on the lips and lowering her legs to the floor. 

“Are you very tired, my dear?” he enquired.   
She looked at him with trepidation, quite certain that an answer in the negative was going to bring about much more physical activity.   
“Oh well then” he smirked “Severus will just have to live with his blue balls.” She looked around but Severus had obviously left the shower at some point.   
She felt a sudden panicked concern. He was already worried about being abandoned and he had been the one in the beginning who was horny. She hoped he hadn’t left. “is he ..” she broke off her sentence and looked down. A thin trail of blood was sliding down the inside of her leg rapidly.   
She looked up and Tom was standing under the shower spray, his head tilted back and eyes closed with a relaxed self satisfied expression on his face, his hands rubbing over his cock under the streams of water that flowed down his body. 

She could see the red shine of blood washing away. If he’d noticed, it apparently hadn’t bothered him a jot.

She sighed and shrugged inwardly. “Could you scourgify me please?” she asked and he raised a hand, twisting and flicking it without opening his eyes. She felt the charm sweep over and in her. 

“Is he still here?” she asked. 

Tom hesitated and seemed to be thinking.   
“No.. he has gone to.. ..ah.” He snorted amused. “He’s gone to one of the cells on the upper dungeons. It appears he is somewhat frustrated.   
Oh well. I’m quite content at present and you appear to be too tired for a round with your professor right away.   
We will work on your stamina, my dear.” He smirked. “among other things..”   
“You will have to learn to enjoy anal sex eventually.. “ 

She swallowed. She wasn’t that surprised – she had thought about that when she had watched Severus being fucked by Tom, but she was a bit scandalised that he would just come out and say it. Demand it in fact.   
He opened his red eyes and fixed her with a slow even look. “Why mince words?” he asked rhetorically.   
“But you will enjoy it. I will take a lot of care to ensure that you can derive pleasure from it because it is in my interests that you come to desire it as easily as any other thing we do together.”   
He took her hand and drew her to him under the spray. She leaned in and laid her head on his shoulder, feeling him sling his arms around her waist, draping them in the small of her back. 

They stood for a while and then Tom pressed a kiss to her cheek and carefully extracted himself from her arms, exiting the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist. She watched him for a moment as he cast a drying charm and styled his hair in front of the mirror and then when he sauntered out of the bathroom she reached for the shampoo and started to wash her hair.   
When she emerged from the bathroom in her own towel, after having dealt with her period, the bed had been made, Tom was sitting in the chair at the small desk in the corner of the room dressed in charcoal grey robes with palest green embroidery at the hem and pockets and a tray with breakfast sat on the bed.   
She stopped mid stride looking at it uneasily when it reminded her of Harry but told herself not to be so daft and sat down beside it. 

“Will you share some of this?” she asked Tom hopefully but he shook his head distractedly, skimming through the morning papers of several foreign countries. 

“I have a ..business luncheon of sorts.. to attend. I will skip breakfast. I had the elf bring it for you” 

She thanked him absently and ate some of the warm toast with melted butter. It was wonderful. 

When she finished breakfast he laid aside the papers that he had not finished. Clearly he had only been waiting for her. He glamoured himself to appear in his old form, transfigured her towel into a black pair of jeans and a grey sweater, and cast an unfamiliar sigil in the air – she assumed that it was Rodolphus sigil and he nodded. 

“You will spend the day in the lower levels with him. You will not leave his side for any reason. Do you understand?”   
She nodded seriously, She couldn’t help but stare at him in his glamoured form. It was as if she thought of him as a different person when he appeared that way. The dark haired young boy was Tom, while this.. this was Lord Voldemort. 

His serpentine face twisted into a cruel smile. “Exactly, my dear. And that is why I continue to preserve the facade for the rest of the world. This image commands the fear and respect I require to get what I want.”   
She stepped closer tentatively, thinking back to how he had looked as he watched her from his throne on the platform at the initiation. Cold, powerful, untouchable.   
He stepped the final step to meet her and stood, looming over her chillingly . 

How was it possible that he towered so in this form? his actual height couldn’t possibly have changed.   
The inhuman gestalt raised a hand and stroked its forefinger down the side of her face.. His hand stroked over her jaw and slid down to grip her throat loosely.   
“Does it frighten you?” he hissed, in that high breathy voice.   
She felt her heart speeding but it wasn’t quite fear that she felt. The hand at her throat tightened just an inch, just enough to feel slightly uncomfortable. His red eyes glittered speculatively, examining her reactions, the slight blush high on her cheekbones.   
“or does it excite you...” he mused, fascinated.   
He released her throat and threw back his head laughing nastily. “Oh that is delicious.. really. You and I will explore this, Hermione. “ She gulped, her eyes widening. He continued. “but.. not right now. Unfortunately my presence is required elsewhere and I cannot postpone the event. 

He placed a hand over her eyes and leaned down, brushing his lips across hers and then kissing her gently. She could feel his nose and his lips were fuller and softer than those on this white skulled entity. She was kissing Tom. She smiled slightly. At that moment he wrapped his other arm around her back and apparated them both.


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a general warning. There are things in this story you may have found disturbing so far. There are other things to come that you may find disturbing. If i had to enumerate the warnings, we'd be here all day. It's best to proceed in the assumption that something triggering lies ahead.

They reappeared in a dark corridor. Tom/Voldemort uncovered her eyes and continued to kiss her although she swayed dizzily when they appeared. 

A torch flared into life behind him a few metres and exposed the leaning form of Rodolphus, robeless today in black shirt and leather pants with steelcapped boots.   
Tom must have felt him there but made him wait while he snogged the hell out of her. For some reason she felt a tension inside. As if she could sense Rodolphus irritation and frustration at not being able to do anything about it. 

At last the Dark Lord pulled back and scrutinised her, smirking then, apparently satisfied.   
He turned abruptly to the somewhat swarthy man in the pool of the torchlight and demanded “Do not prove my trust in you misguided.”   
With a final, unreadable look back at her he disapparated. 

She looked to Rodolphus and immediately he too vanished.   
Before she could be properly concerned however hands reached around her, startling her and Rodolphus, now behind her, pulled her back against him. “Mine..” he growled angrily. She felt the pinch of disapparition again. 

When they arrived in the round exitless starlit room she felt a sudden spike of fear.   
If Rodolphus noticed, he didn’t concern himself but simply dragged her backward to the enormous mountain of pillows and let them both fall back into them.   
She tried to calm down and control her breathing as jittering jolts of fear shot through her spine.   
Nothing further happened. The large man behind her continued to hold her tightly, his chin on her shoulder and body pressed against hers. He did not speak. He did not move. He did not allow her to move.   
Eventually she started to squirm and wriggled till she could turn around in his iron band arms.   
He lay, looking at her darkly.   
She frowned at him, unsure whether to be scared. 

At that his arms loosened and released her and he, with some difficulty calmed his expression. He gravelled softly.   
“It is difficult to see you touch..kiss.. the Dark Lord when your scent is ..the way it is right now.” He said obliquely.   
“I feel a need to destroy the challenger and claim you.. which is not possible when it is the Dark Lord.”   
He hesitated and lowered his eyes finally. “I would never harm you, pet” 

She swallowed, considering that it might be a vampire thing that he couldn’t help. Tentatively she placed her hand on his chest and leaned her head on his shoulder. His arms slowly came up to wrap around her again.   
After a few minutes of peaceful silence in which Hermione finally relaxed again, Rodolphus said in a low voice:   
“I read the Weasley boy. I know how it was with Potter.”   
She said nothing.   
He continued after a while.   
“I could not find you. You were.. everywhere.. all over the country. I couldn’t find the source so the Dark Lord had every town or suburb that I felt you occupied.. I could not find you in the dream either after I refused Potter’s demand to let myself be taken captive without resisting.” He swallowed and continued, sounding reluctant to reveal the next part. “when Malfoy approached me in private I was.. hasty. I thought he had come back for more of what I used to give him.   
Didn’t much care if he hadn’t. He put himself in my way and I took it out of his skin.   
When he was able to give me the memory and I watched it, it angered me beyond reason to learn he was the one who had taken you from me..   
...and to see him touching you -I really started to take him apart.” He stilled and she looked at him accusingly.   
He scowled. “It is hard to be without you. It was hard to be unable to find you. I... ...regret... my actions with the boy.   
He and I have some bad blood in our past dealings.”   
He seemed to be entreating her silently with his eyes not to be angry. 

She was angry however. “Draco is the reason I am here, instead of... instead of somewhere I don’t want to think about right at this moment.   
It seemed to me at the time that a kiss was the least I could give him for putting his arse on the line just to help me. And..its possible that the liqueur we were drinking may have been a wee bit aphrodisic.   
As for him rescuing me – he thought he was helping me. He thought you all were torturing and raping me the entire time.” 

Rodolphus said nothing for a while. When he spoke, it was with clenched teeth reluctance.   
“What would you have me do to repay my debt to him” 

She didn’t even think, it came out automatically. “Protect him. Don’t let any of the others hurt him anymore. I swore I’d do anything in my power to protect him from harm if he helped me”   
She was suddenly struck with an unpleasant realisation and groaned. Rodolphus looked at her, concerned. 

“I’ve just realised I’m going to have to do something that the Dark Lord wanted which I refused to do. If I did it, he’d pardon Draco completely. It’s within my power to protect him therefore.”   
She clenched her eyes and made a face. “ugh.. and he bloody knew it when he asked it of me too. Arse.” 

Rodolphus twitched and looked at her strangely.   
She smiled weakly.   
“let’s just say.. if you’re immortal, we’re about to be sharing eternity” 

Rodolphus looked unnerved.   
“The potion is finished already?!” he asked. 

She frowned at him. “What potion?”   
He looked away angrily.   
“The one the Dark Lord will hang me by my ankles in a vat of silver nitrate for mentioning to you. Don’t ask any more questions.”   
He hesitated “and don’t think about it again. If you dig around or pump Severus for information, I’ll end up bleeding for it.” His expression shifted and he looked at her slyly. “kiss me, pet” he growled.   
She found herself climbing up him to comply, 

That was all it took really. A kiss became ten, twenty and then he was pulling her clothes off and tossing them away, licking and nipping and sucking down her body. She never noticed at what point along the way he had vanished her tampon but by the time he had worked his way to her pussy she was far too wet for it to be just her natural juices.   
He fell upon her like an animal, licking and sucking at her and forcing her to submit to orgasm after orgasm, subsiding between them to gently lap at her core, dipping his tongue into her to draw out more of the slowly dripping blood.   
He would never quite let her come down completely and his tongue moved so fast against her clit when he brought her off, his fingers deep inside her. He would pull them out and lick them clean with gusto before returning to slow catlike licks of her blood and come. 

Finally, when she begged him not to make her come again, because it was too much..He got up on his knees and muttered a spell to take off his clothes and thrust into her, lifting her legs and throwing them over his shoulders he proceeded to fuck her mercilessly to another three almost painful climaxes before he held her on the brink, her legs now wrapped around him.   
When he bit into her neck brutally, she came even harder than she had when Lucius had used the cruciatus on her and her pussy fluttering and clenching around him brought him off as he swallowed her life’s blood greedily.   
She actually blacked out with the combination of the release and the blood loss. 

When she awoke naturally, presumably some considerable time later, Rodolphus had propped her into a more upright position on the pillows and lay naked between her legs, lapping at her again slowly and contentedly.   
He noticed when she woke and got up, summoning a box from somewhere in the darkness at the edge of the room. She recognised the muggle feminine hygiene product when he held it out and blushed, ridiculously, in light of what he had just been doing. 

“Got these for you pet. I figured you’d probably make a fuss if I tied you down so i could spend the whole day drinking you, but I didn’t want to waste any more while you slept” he grinned incorrigibly. 

She rolled her eyes and took the box from him. While she was opening it and preparing a tampon a small drip apparently escaped her as Rodolphus brushed his finger across her skin there and brought it to his mouth hungrily.   
This only caused him to fall down before her again, wrap his arms around her thighs and bury his face between her legs, sucking at her and thrusting his tongue inside her, making a sound somewhere between a growl and a purr in the back of his throat.   
She just looked at him mildly appalled and wondered if he was going to let her move in the next three days when her period should stop.   
His muffled voice vibrated against her. “Mmm don’t worry pet. It’s only good the first day. I’ll leave you alone tomorrow.”   
She let her head fall back, relieved but perturbed. “Is it going to be like this every month?” she asked peevishly.   
He nodded against her absently and she let out a breath she had been holding. Every month she was supposed to just let him jump her and lick her till she was raw? Submit to this till she got cramp from lying on her back with her legs splayed. Endure as many orgasms as he felt like giving her in the process.   
Hang on a second, her mind cheered – this may not be the worst deal in the world.

She jumped when a pointed fang lightly pricked somewhere far too sensitive. “Mm sorry pet. Excited..” he muttered.   
His eyes were closed in peaceful contentment as he slowly licked. 

“How is it different to regular blood for you?” she asked, curiously.   
He opened his eyes and sat up slightly, seemingly keeping one eye on her pussy so as not to miss anything. 

“its richer, saltier” he said, after some thought. “more concentrated, less water. Its mixed with your come and your arousal juices. I’d drink those even without blood. Everything about you tastes sweet, pet.   
You taste better than other witches.” 

She took in this unusual compliment and felt strangely flattered. She lay back and let him lick her placidly for a while longer.   
It became boring now that she wasn’t struggling against being pushed to come. 

“if this is going to happen again, next time I’m bringing a book” she grumbled. It felt strange when he laughed against her..there.   
He sucked as if he were trying to draw liquid up a straw and then pulled back, his eyes fixed on her pussy with the utmost reluctance and longing. With effort he dragged them up to her face   
“Alright.. alright pet. Fine. I’ve a lot of other work to do today. You can come and help me with that instead.” 

She smiled brightly but it faded quickly and was replaced with suspicion. “Wait. What ..other work.. I don’t want to torture anyone or kill them OR watch you torture or kill them. I’ve decided to just pretend all that doesn’t happen. It makes it much easier to not feel guilty about being happy to be back here.” 

Rodolphus scowled, then snorted and grinned. “You are so difficult all the time pet. You should be more grateful.” He paced away and retrieved their clothing.   
While he was turned she rapidly applied a tampon, watching his back uneasily.   
He tossed her jeans and sweater at her. Voldemort had “forgotten” to give her underwear. 

She held her legs closed at the knee and dressed as quickly as she could, watching the vampire, to his great amusement as he pulled on his own clothing. 

“Alright. No fun. We’ll just do some sorting and checking” he grumbled half to himself as he buttoned his shirt manually. 

She nodded, relieved he had agreed so quickly. He must be in a really good mood she thought to herself.   
He stalked over to her and unceremoniously dragged her against him, disapparating them both immediately.

 

The sound when they reappeared was terrible. A loud chorus of whimpers and shrieks and womens voices shouting things or sobbing desperately.   
She looked around, disorientated. 

They stood on a raised platform above a massive stone room with torches set very high on the walls. 

She looked down and saw.. dozens of people huddled or pressed against the walls or backing away , trying to get behind others and hide. It was terrible. They were all women. 

She looked at Rodolphus in horror and he rolled his eyes at her. “How did you think they get to the cells and the revels. Someone has to sort them when the catchers bring them in, pet. And today you can help me”.   
She shook her head frantically.   
He grinned and caught her around the waist and pulled her against his chest, trembling. He didnt try to kiss her, for which she was endlessly grateful considering where he’d last had his mouth.   
“This is one of the things that I do” he said softly into her ear.   
“Our master requires this of me. And since you forgot to bring a book pet, we should work.” 

She glared at the wall over his shoulder. Bloody petulant bastard teaching her a lesson she realised angrily.   
He chuckled. 

“Maybe. But it has to be done. It’s not good to ignore the realities of your situation. You are strong, you proved that at the initiation. This is just another part of things – feeding the hungers of the animals that choose to serve our lord. Nothing more. Muggles do this to each other too, in case you didn’t know. There are places like this all over the world.”  
The sounds in the room had died down to frightened silence, broken only by soft weeping here and there.   
She turned to look at the room. 

“But it’s wrong” she whined. “Why do you all need this?! Can’t you just-”   
Rodolphus turned her face to look at him.   
“Realities, pet. You’ve met others here. You know your potions master was in a cell upstairs until a short while ago.   
Do you think he was reading bedtime stories to the young man he visited?   
Our lord also partakes occasionally when I come across someone of the highest quality” 

Her eyes widened at him and it felt like he had stabbed her in the chest. Tom.. with some other girl. It was one thing to know Severus was with him but.. just..   
She stopped and swallowed, realising she wasn’t the least concerned with what happened to whoever he was with, just that he was betraying her.   
She thought he probably wouldn’t respond well to her demanding that he didn’t do it ever again.   
The thought of the horcrux wandered across her mind again. Rodolphus tilted his head at her quizzically. 

“What ..what do we do?” she asked grimly and he grinned happily. He pulled his wand and pointed it at the edge of the platform, casting a spell that made steps appear. 

“We go through them. Separate them according to age and..quality.”   
He cast another spell around them, making a blue white visible bubble shimmer around them.   
“so they know not to try to fight” he indicated the shield with his wand. 

He held her hand and walked before her down the stairs slowly. She saw him flicking his wand up and down and the torches brightened to near incandescent levels, exposing every feature in the room.   
The positioning of them seemed to eliminate all shadows. 

The women all started to rush to the other side of the room in panic and there was a wailing and screaming again as when they’d first arrived.   
One brown haired young woman didn’t run with the rest and actually ran toward them, her hands raised in a fighting stance.   
Rodolphus barely turned to look as she bounced off the shield and fell to the floor shaking as if in an epileptic fit. 

“She’ll be fine in a few minutes” he said absently and levitated her over to the mass of other women. 

When they got to the centre of the room he squeezed her hand.   
“Virgins first” he said aside to her, casting some kind of complex spell and firing it at the mass of women.   
She saw a glowing red ball take shape over several of the women’s heads. They looked up, terrified and some of them tried to run away.   
“Right. All those with red spots – out here NOW” Rodolphus yelled in a tone that brooked no argument. “if you don’t move I’ll drag you out by your bloody hair”   
this set off a flurry of squeaks and cries again.   
Finally all the red spotted women stood in a line in front of the others. She looked at them. There were only eight out of the entire large group of women.   
Most of them were in their teens but there were two women who looked to be in their late twenties. They were a bit plain, she thought rather uncharitably. 

One small girl in the line looked like she couldn’t be more than fourteen or fifteen. Rodolphus pointed at her and she disappeared. “She’s more something for the next group” he said abstractly. 

He pointed next at the two older virgins and they too disappeared. “For Snape” he explained shortly.   
She swallowed. Virgin blood was used in some very dark potions and she knew in a general sense that it was more potent, the older the virgin.   
She wondered if Severus collected it..uh.. personally. 

The rest of them Rodolphus looked at discriminatingly.   
He selected one blonde haired quite pretty girl crying her eyes out who looked about her own age. The girl vanished from the line like the others   
“For the next revel. The Dark Lord likes to offer some pretty ones as rewards.” 

He pointed to a black girl with her hair braided who stood sullenly her eyes wet with unshed tears and she went the same way as the blonde.   
The remaining three he banished all at once “Cells on the upper level” he said absently. 

The virgins dispensed with, he turned to the rest of the group, looking at them with a careful eye. He cast another charm and a purple spot appeared above four of the women’s heads. “diseased” he muttered to her and the women were vanished.   
He repeated the process for two pregnant women which apparently went to Severus. Hermione felt sick. 

Remaining were perhaps thirty women who were obviously not virgins, pregnant or sick.   
Rodolphus cast an entirely different looking charm and a number appeared above each woman’s head. 

“LINE UP!” he yelled.   
The women milled around and tried to huddle together. He sent a stinging hex at the brown haired girl who had rushed them before and now had a large black 19 hovering over her head. She screamed in pain. The noise rose again but the women started to arrange themselves on the long wall in order of the numbers above them. Hermione realised quickly that they must be ordered according to age.   
She had a horrible sick feeling in her gut as if she were in some kind of German concentration camp.   
Rodolphus was dragging her along the line at a brisk pace. He pointed to a few women here and there. 

She noticed he sent only two of the young girls but seven of the older girls and all but one of the women. 

The small group left looked around horrified at being the last remaining.   
Rodolphus looked with a judicious eye and vanished one extremely pretty black haired girl wearing red lipstick.   
“She’ll go to Lucius. He’ll see if she can be trained and If she doesn’t perform well she’ll come back to my cells.   
These other ones I’ll keep, pet.” Rodolphus explained to her.   
“Some can go to the upper cells, if they’re any good and if they want to live.” 

“WHO WANTS TO LIVE?” he roared at them and even she flinched. He looked at her with a soft doting expression.   
“Sorry pet” he muttered, amused. 

The perhaps fifteen women, mostly young women in front of them shook and several of them half stepped forward. Rodolphus waved them back.   
“You are whores. You’ll serve men or women alike. Whoever comes to you, you’ll try to please in whatever way they wish. Is it understood?”   
Some of them nodded frantically and others just gaped, shocked with horror on their faces. 

Rodolphus smirked, vanishing the visibly compliant ones first and then snorting at the others. “no?” 

The brown haired number 14 was among this smaller group of five women. She glared at them both poisonously. 

Rodolphus pointed his wand at her and dragged her forward. “You are not pleased with my generous offer?” he asked, grinning.   
The girl bared her teeth and then hauled back and spat. It fizzed and vanished against the shield and Rodolphus laughed.   
“I think I like this one” he grinned at her.   
Hermione looked at the girl. She looked a couple of years older than herself. Straight dark brown hair hung messily around her shoulders.   
Rodolphus flicked his wand and banished the rest of the cowering women to the cells where Hermione presumed they’d probably be killed horribly quite soon. 

She tried to feel horrible about that but found she just felt empty. Yes.. all of those muggle women had had lives, families – it was so wrong. But.. it was the way it was, she realised.   
There was nothing she could do to change the entire nature of the Dark Lord’s organization, especially without her magic. And even with it – she’d probably end up somehow making everything worse.   
If they weren’t sadistic killers maybe they would have been far more successful and taken over the muggle as well as the wizarding world by now through business or something. 

The brown haired girl had taken on a fighting stance again she noticed. 

“You stay the fuck away from me, you bastard. I don’t know what’s going on here or how you’re doing that but you just better not fucking touch me” the girl snarled. 

Rodolphus squeezed Hermione’s hand.. “It could be fun to break her pet.. you said no play.. but.. she’s just begging you.. look at her.”   
He spun her in front of him, putting her back to his front and wrapping his arms around her. She felt his mouth slide down her throat teasingly. It made her shiver in a pleasant way. 

The girl was looking at her in disgust. 

Rodolphus nipped at her slightly and she flinched a little as he bit her harder, knowing she was bleeding by the way he licked and sucked at the place.   
It felt.. satisfying.. when he drank from her, she realised. She liked it.   
He sucked harder as if he’d heard the thought, which he probably had. It hurt a little when he sucked hard but the feeling of his mouth on her.. his tongue.. was so so soothing. 

She looked at the girl in front of them again who was staring in abject horror at this new development.   
Rodolphus licked across the wound and lifted his head to murmur in her ear.   
“Tell you what.. I’ll put her in a cell and keep her fresh and we can play with her soon. If you say you’ll join in like a good pet.. I’ll keep her nice and safe.. I won’t touch her. I won’t let anyone else touch her.”   
He returned to her neck, licking up a small drip that had formed. He felt so placid and gentle when he was drinking from her. 

Hermione looked at the girl. “What’s your name?” she asked reluctantly. The girl glared at her and said nothing. Rodolphus flicked off another stinging hex and the girl jumped, yelping. “Fuck!.. Katie! Damnit. Don’t do that! Why do you care?!”   
Rodolphus snorted near her ear. “I told you.. muggles. They’re all called Sarah and Marie and Kate and Sandra. Name her something else if you want”   
Hermione rolled her eyes and glared at the upper left as he sucked her a final time and raised his wand to heal the wound. She looked at the girl and considered his offer. She didn’t know whether she could..do that.. hurt a person she didn’t even know.   
She hadn’t even really hurt Ron and she had lots of reason to be angry with him. OH! The knife!!   
she realised with a spike of remorse that it was still in Harry’s library. She’d never get it back now! She felt sad. It was hers and now it was gone. 

Rodolphus chuckled and stroked a finger down her cheek. “Awww.. poor pet. I’ll teach you how to use a real one. Just say yes.” His eyes were eager, alight. She swallowed.   
The girl in front of them was standing there uncomfortably, her eyes were darting around the room looking for some way out. Hermione was certain that there was none. 

“Look... um.. Katie?” she said, uncomfortably.   
The girl narrowed her eyes at her but held her tongue.   
“You’re in a really bad place. I mean.. REALLY bad..”

“no shit” the girl interrupted with false bravado. 

Hermione frowned and continued. “-and you’ve got a choice. It’s a choice between bad and worse really but it’s still a choice and I’m giving it to you.   
If you want – you can go to a quiet cell and wait and quite soon some man or woman will come in and hurt you.. a lot.. and probably rape you and then in all likelihood kill you.”   
the girls eyes widened to the size of teacups. Hermione continued.   
“or.. you can go to a nicer cell – with a bed” she shot a hard look at Rodolphus. “and at some point we’ll come to you and .. and we’ll probably hurt you..” she swallowed   
“..a bit.. and I don’t know what else.. but.. at the end we’ll heal you and you’ll live.”   
She looked at the girl slightly queasily. What did one say to a prospective victim?! 

The girl looked like she was actually considering her options. When she spoke, she sounded like a much more contrite girl. “I... my family has money..” she stammered. “or or..I can help you.. work for you somehow.. whatever you like.. I’ll help you catch other girls.. if you promise you’ll let me go. I won’t tell..” 

Rodolphus sniggered. “isn’t she sweet, pet? Say yes and we’ll keep her.” 

The girl dropped to her knees and a few tears fell from her eyes. “please..please let me go! I’m sorry. I’ll never go out to a club again without telling my parents. I didn’t mean it. I want my mum!”   
Hermione felt sorry for the girl. Her pleas reminded her of how she felt when she woke up in the cell and how it had been when her own parents had been killed. She’d just wanted nothing more than to go home and have everything be normal. 

“You... you could obliviate her” she whispered. 

Rodolphus groaned, irritated and flicked a silencing charm at the crying girl. “Pet, you’re quite ruining my mood. Say you’ll play and we can get back to work. Or refuse and I can send this one to the deep cells with the others. I’ve already wasted half the day when this little task should have taken little more than fifteen minutes. The muggle was interesting while she was mouthing off.. but she’s beginning to bore me now.” 

The girl on her knees was nodding frantically, obviously having recognised that the terrible choice she’d been given was the only one she was going to be getting.   
Hermione whispered, reluctantly, “Ok. keep her safe” and Rodolphus brightened. 

“Very good pet!..”   
He swept her close and flicked his wand at the girl, banishing her to a cell – presumably one with a bed she hoped.   
He apparated them and when she recovered, Hermione groaned. They were in an identical room except it was full of men. She glared at Rodolphus who grinned nastily.   
“I hope we can get through this a bit faster” he gravelled. 

There were only about twenty men in the room. He cast the shield and she thought it looked a bit darker this time. When they descended the stairs, immediately several men charged them furiously. They all collapsed immediately. The others that had been coming stopped and backed off, uncomprehending. 

She heard someone mutter something about aliens and someone else corrected them saying they were probably Americans and Hermione smirked slightly. 

Rodolphus enervated the collapsed and had the men all line up immediately. When he cast the charm for virginity most of the men had red spots over their heads. A couple of them batted at them fearfully.   
He had the five who didn’t have one step forward.   
After examination he sent to Lucius a delicate-boned brown haired teenager and two quite attractive men in their early twenties who were holding hands fearfully.   
A surly looking boy with dirty blond gelled hair he looked at speculatively. 

“Someone raped you, boy?” he asked baldly. 

The boy blushed and wrapped his arms around himself, looking away. “no.” he muttered. “don’t know what you’re fucking talking about, prick.”   
Rodolphus smiled darkly. “I’ll have that one.” He growled and banished the boy somewhere. 

The last non red spotted man looked to be in his late thirties. A rather effeminite fellow, she thought. Rodolphus banished him to the deeper cells.   
It took him only a minute to pick through the remaining men and separate five out for the revel and divide the others between the upper and lower cells.   
He turned to her expectantly, wanting to disapparate them again. She was looking at him with a pissed off expression. 

“What are you going to do with that boy?” she asked in a low tense voice.   
He rolled his eyes annoyed. “I’m going to talk to him about all his troubles and teach him the value of good manners and hard work – what does it fucking matter?!   
The fact that I may have a soft spot for you, pet, does not make me a nice man.” 

She swallowed and turned away.   
He stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and disapparating them. 

The vista when she could see straight again was even worse than it had been when he brought her to the first room. It was a small room and more than a dozen children stood around or sat on the floor. Most were crying. One group of three huddled together.   
She looked down at her feet a few metres away where a tiny boy in jean dungarees sat on the floor with his hands over his face crying at full lung capacity. 

“Oh my God..” she muttered, distraught. 

Rodolphus didn’t bother with trying to organise the children. He cast the spell for age and then just levitated the wriggling panicking bodies into order against the wall, dropping them an inch or so above the floor.   
He hadn’t bothered with the shield here.   
Hermione followed anxiously as he paced closer to the lined children. 

The youngest little girl was only three. A brown haired chubby girl in a white dress.   
The oldest child in the room, was a boy of fourteen. He was small, olive skinned with large green eyes. She had to think of Draco suddenly. 

“This is disgusting” she exclaimed. “How can you do this?!” 

Rodolphus turned and glared at her short temperedly.   
“It’s not really my taste either. But needs must.” he responded blandly and turned back. 

He sent most of the children away for the revel but left a terrified blue eyed red haired girl of about six or seven, a slightly older Indian girl, a pale brown haired boy standing next to her and the green eyed boy at the end of the line.   
He looked at them sceptically. 

“Would you consider these ‘pretty’ children?” 

Hermione gaped at him. 

He shrugged and banished them all.   
“Lucius” he explained. He takes a few, but if they aren’t ‘pretty’ he’ll send them back to me and then I have to deal with them.” He looked uncomfortable. “Small children are annoying.”   
Hermione paled. 

“We should do a check now” he muttered. 

She just stood there emptily and nodded. He walked to her and embraced her.   
“I’d normally apparate but you look a bit green, pet. Maybe we’ll walk it?” 

She didn’t bother responding but put her arms around him and her head on his shoulder. He held her tightly and looked at her uncertainly before he apparated them to a corridor like the one Tom had left them in.   
When he flicked his wand torches lit along the length of it. It was a long corridor. He let her go and marched to the closest cell door at the side, she saw when he opened it that the torch was already burning inside.   
He peered in briefly and closed the door again, moving to the next. She walked slowly after him. 

If she stayed a few paces behind then she couldn’t see in the rooms. She was fine not seeing in the rooms right now. 

Rodolphus went into the next room however and she went to the door to find him on one knee next to the blood drenched naked body of a pretty long haired blonde woman on the floor. He was casting diagnostic spells over her – although the massive wound across her chest seemed clear enough to Hermione. 

“Dolohov” he snarled. He stood up and stepped back. “A waste.” He muttered and banished the woman and the blood, striding past her to the door and closing it after she exited. A moment later the door faded into a blank stone wall and then it seemed that the entire corridor rushed toward them slightly and there was no longer any gap in the seamless regular line of doors.   
Hermione swallowed and, as he’d already walked on to the next door, trailed after him. 

 

After they had finished that floor they travelled down the stairs to the one below, where Rodolphus had to enter several rooms to clean up messes or repair injured or cursed inhabitants – she noticed he was an excellent healer.   
She hadn’t really thought about it when he had patched morel up in minutes but now, it was clear that he was probably as capable as the average healer at St Mungos in repairing the effects of spell damage and wounds. 

He pressed a kiss to the side of her forehead as he passed her in the door, leaving the cell where a small black girl now lay unconscious on her back after he had removed what had looked like sharp stones embedded deep in her flesh all over her body.   
He hadn’t even left any scars. 

They continued to the end of the corridor. Hermione’s feet were starting to protest. The thin satin slippers the Dark Lord had put on her were not designed for extended marches through stone corridors.   
Rodolphus hesitated at the stairwell. 

“You know the next floor are prisoners. Do you want to see the orange haired boy?” 

She made a face. On the one hand she did. She wanted to make sure Ron was ok.. but on the other hand.. she remembered how she’d felt when Ginny had started screaming at her in the cell and she didn’t want to feel that way again.. especially after everything she’d seen...and done.. today.   
Oh how are you, Ron – fine, just hanging around mione. How about you? What did you get up to today?   
Not much. Woke up, fucked the Dark Lord in the shower, oh.. and then a vampire who apparently loves menstrual blood made me come more times than I thought was physically possible and then I watched muggles be condemned to death, rape and torture for an hour or so, saw a couple of dead bodies, got a really good look at the effects of some quite rare dark curses and now I thought I’d pop in and see you. She grimaced. 

Rodolphus was grinning widely. “Your mind is... entertaining.. pet. And I can make you come a lot more than that..but you begged so nicely for me to stop that I thought I’d oblige you” 

She blushed.   
He swaggered over and pulled her against him. “We could go back to my chamber and I’ll show you how much is..physically possible..”   
She shook her head panicked. She didn’t think she could handle any more of that today. 

He continued to smile in that dark hungry way and backed her up slowly till she was pressed against the wall.   
When he started to kiss her, his fingers stroking down her throat and over the front of her body, making her shiver delightedly she actually wavered for a moment and felt the corners of his mouth twist into a smile through the kiss.   
He broke it off and looked at her, his midnight blue eyes raw and alight. 

She took a shaky breath. “I’d like to see.. Ron.. if you’ll take me” she said, hoping he wouldn’t be angry. 

He looked at her with a faux pout and shook his head smirking   
“Come on then.”   
He was already clattering halfway down the spiral stair and she rushed to catch up. 

The corridor fell to complete blackness the moment her foot touched the stair and she hurried even more, almost falling into Rodolphus arms at the next landing. He lifted her and put her on the ground in the well lit corridor.   
“Third door” he said. 

She looked back at him as she walked. “Is ..uh..” 

He shook his head “No.. Potter is somewhere else. Last I checked he was in a glass terrarium in a more secure cell. The Dark Lord might be with him by now though” 

She startled.   
“I want to go there” she said immediately. 

Rodolphus looked at her as if she was insane. “No pet. If he wanted you there, you’d be there.” 

She looked at him desperately, trying to think of something to say to get him to take her there before Tom killed Harry.   
“Ask him! Please.. ask him, ok? “   
She felt a bit fevered.   
So she was afraid of Harry, she was afraid of Lucius too and she could live with him continuing to walk around.   
He hadn’t known what was happening to him and it was in a sense Tom’s influence that had made him that way and.. 

Her mind fabricated more and more reasons why she shouldn’t just stand back and let Tom kill him 

“Please, Rodolphus!!” she begged urgently.   
Harry could be dead by now. 

Rodolphus scowled blackly, unbuttoning the left sleeve of his shirt slowly.   
“He’ll punish me for this, pet.. perhaps I’ll punish you for it later too..”   
She paled but continued to entreat him with her eyes. “please..” 

Rodolphus pushed his sleeve up and pressed his wand to the mark on his arm, concentrating.   
After a couple of minutes he appeared to flinch and pulled his sleeve down again. 

“He is angry with me. ...but I’m to bring you to him” he growled, looking down. 

She ran to him, relieved and happy but he raised his head and snarled at her.   
“You were to be mine today for much longer, pet.” He grabbed her and drove her against the wall hard, she puffed as the breath was knocked out of her somewhat. He was already pressed against her, his mouth bruising, tongue forcing its way into her unresisting mouth.   
He growled threateningly and she shuddered, giving herself over to him, kissing and sucking as she wrapped her arms around his neck.   
“Mmmm” he purred through the kiss and pulled back, his mouth moving down her jaw, sharp teeth nipping lightly. 

She knew what he wanted and pulled his face to her throat where he bit down without hesitation, grinding into her as he lapped.   
She wondered how it was even possible that she was still upright after everything he’d taken today already. He mumbled something through his sucking and licking but she didnt catch it.   
She felt a bit dizzy, although the way he was rubbing up against her, as she was pressed to the wall was quite interesting.. if he did it a bit more.. and harder..   
and then he did press harder. He kept going, She felt him healing her just as a small orgasm burst in her nervous system. 

“Blood replenishing potion earlier pet, he panted, the area around his mouth bloody. And now you need more.”   
He pulled her boneless body to him roughly and apparated them to his round chamber, summoning the bottle from the darkness around the pillows and passing it to her.   
“One mouthful. No more” he warned.   
She complied weakly and felt almost immediately a hundred times better. 

Rodolphus scourgified them both and put his arm around her. She leaned in and curled against him and he stepped back away from her somewhat.   
“Pet.. our lord may have no illusions about what we’ve been doing but..there’s no call to provoke him to punish me more than he is going to.” 

She gulped and stepped to his side, taking his arm in a polite manner. “sorry” she murmured. 

His hard expression softened somewhat and he turned, cupping her face in his hand for a moment.   
He pulled her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her gently. 

Just before he disapparated them she heard his voice low and soft by her ear. 

“Mine..”


	36. Chapter 36

The room they apparated into was not dissimilar to the one they had just left.   
A round room entirely lacking doors and windows, but this one also lacking an illusory night sky ceiling. 

Torches, each surrounded by a blue glow of shielding were mounted on the walls at regular intervals. 

There was a further, deeply blue shield around a glass terrarium in which a cobra was reared up balanced on its coils.   
In a black overstuffed leather armchair, pale serpentine Lord Voldemort sat, apparently having a conversation in parseltongue with it. 

Both the snake and he turned when she and Rodolphus appeared in a close embrace and she could almost feel the atmosphere crackle with frost. 

Rodolphus released her and stepped away, lowering himself to one knee and bowing his head to the Dark Lord.   
“My Lord. I beg your mercy” he said in a low growl.   
Lord Voldemort narrowed his eyes at him.   
Hermione looked between the three. 

The snake-Harry started throwing itself against the glass top of the terrarium trying to shift it and get out.   
She gulped and darted a look between Rodolphus and the visibly irritated Lord Voldemort and quickly stepped the five paces to his feet and dropped to her knees before him, pressing his hem to her lips and then sitting back on her heels, her head respectfully bowed. 

She saw in her peripheral vision that he waved Rodolphus away and heard the crack of his disapparition. 

There was wild hissing coming from the terrarium.   
Lord Voldemort chuckled above her nastily. “Harry thinks I’ve done something to you, my dear” he translated.   
He leaned forward and raised her head with a finger under her chin. 

She looked up at him with confused conflicted eyes.   
The red jewelled gaze in the pale flat face studied her as Lord Voldemort sat back in the chair. His eyes travelled to the snake in the terrarium and he hissed something long and quite snide sounding, if parseltongue could be said to convey such emotions. The snake responded and she could hear something that sounded like slithering – coiling. 

“Come here, Hermione” he said softly, and held out his hand. 

She kept her face resolutely facing away from the terrarium and took his hand, allowing him to assist her to her feet and pull her down upon his lap.   
Another frenzied burst of hissing and thunking from the terrarium made her flinch. She kept her face turned to the Dark Lord to avoid seeing Harry going wild. 

The Dark Lord wrapped his arm around her, supporting her, a look of such sublime dark satisfaction on his face that it was almost difficult to look at. He played his hand in her hair absently and looked at her thoughtfully. 

“Harry was just telling me before you arrived, my dear, that I am to be pitied because I do not know love”   
He turned to glance at the snake, continuing “but I beg to differ, because I do know love. I know her love, Harry.”   
He looked at her and tilted his head.   
“I am loved by the one person in the world that you most desperately desire. Life is cruel, isn’t it?!”   
His face twisted into a parody of sympathy. 

The snake hissed and Lord Voldemort turned to her. “He doesn’t believe me, Hermione. He thinks you are only here to save him.”   
His face was mirthful but his eyes were like diamond bit drills boring into her.   
She forced herself not to swallow although her mouth had gone dry. She technically had come here hoping to save him from being killed, even if she simultaneously didn’t want him to be released. 

“I love you, my lord” she whispered, honestly, and leaned in to kiss him.   
He smirked quickly at the snake going mad behind her and met her, kissing her teasingly, his tongue barely entering her mouth but drawing her own into his mouth with little flicks and twists. She could feel his nose against her face and his skin felt soft and warm.   
‘Tom’.. her mind sang happily. He nipped her bottom lip gently in warning.   
She let the kiss fade and burrowed down against the slender, lean muscled frame beneath the grey and green robes, placing her head on his shoulder and her hand over his heart.   
Above her he hissed something triumphantly to the writhing furiously hissing snake. 

“Would you like to speak with your..friend.. again, my dear?” he murmured against her forehead. 

She felt her entire body tense and sat up panicked, shaking her head and looking into the Dark Lord’s face with horror.   
Her mind was reeling and gibbering ‘no! no! don’t let him change back! he’ll escape. I know he will. He’s too strong. You don’t know how strong he is. Please Tom.. don’t.. he’ll kill you. He’ll take me. Please don’t do it. Keep him as a snake forever. You like snakes.’ 

He stroked her back slowly.   
“Calm down.. calm down, Hermione.. Shhhhh..I won’t allow him to hurt you” he said comfortingly.   
In the cage the snake was hissing violently again, its body roiling.   
She shook her head desperately, wide eyed. 

“She is afraid of you Potter. You see that, I’m sure.”   
Without warning the Dark Lord shot off a red flare from the wand she had never even seen him take out, bathing the terrarium in a red glow. He stood and guided her down upon the armchair. “Stay there” he instructed sternly.   
Approaching the cage slowly, from less than a metre away he fired off another three intensely bright flares – stupefy’s she assumed from the way the snake was now quiescent on the bottom of the cage rather than reared up watching them.   
After a moment he cast a diagnostic spell and when he was content, he slid the top of the cage open and gingerly picked up the snake by the neck.   
The table and terrarium slid to the wall out of the way and he placed the snake stretched out along the floor, stroking its length with a finger. 

“He does make rather a fine serpent. I am tempted to keep him.. however he is extremely poisonous and I believe he will be less trouble in human form.   
You were the inspiration for it, Hermione, the necklace I created to bind you. I have created a similar one for him.. with some added protections. He will not be able to physically attack my person.. or yours.   
I will not have you afraid that he might somehow strangle or beat you.“ 

Hermione felt horribly, sickeningly afraid that something was going to go wrong but when the Dark Lord cast the spell and the snake grew and elongated into Harry’s robed body, he was able to crouch and fasten a necklace with a black bead around his neck without any problem.   
He returned to the armchair and indicated that she should get up, drawing her back down upon his lap once more when she had let him take his seat. He then immediately cast a shield spell across the centre of the room which faded to invisibility.   
“Wait!” she said urgently before he could enervate Harry again.   
He looked at her with a mix of curiosity and mild irritation. 

“I’m sorry about Rodolphus, please don’t punish him. I asked about Harry.”   
He frowned as if he had just remembered his ire when they had apparated in.   
“and I asked him to hold me for the apparition too. I’m sorry. Please don’t punish him. He was patient and kind all day. And.. and I helped him sort some ...muggles. We did a check of all the cells too.” 

Voldemort looked pleasantly surprised. His eyebrow quirked. “You? You sorted muggles for my upcoming revel?”   
He seemed incredulous. “The champion of house elves, saviour of the weak and downtrodden everywhere.. my mudblood queen helped to determine who is to live and die?!” 

She looked down and grimaced.   
“and Rodolphus said I could save a girl called Katie from the deep cells if I ..if I promised to.. if we..   
he said he would teach me how to use a knife” she fumbled for ideas that would please him. 

Glancing up at him, Voldemort looked almost jubilant. He crushed her to him and kissed her hard.   
“Hermione.. you please me more and more each time I see you. I will not punish Rodolphus.. in fact I may reward him.   
He has apparently been quite useful in promoting a desirable attitude in you right from the start.” 

She swallowed, relieved.   
“what are you going to do with Draco?” she asked uneasily. 

He smirked. “I plan on interrogating him later tonight. I was intending to visit him before i came to Potter but.. I found it difficult to postpone my pleasure. Why? Have you decided that there is something you might offer to protect him, after all?”   
She scowled at the red eyes glittering in mock innocent enquiry. In a low, blatantly reluctant voice she intoned.   
“if you promise not to punish him at all for it, no matter what you might learn, and if you promise not to have him tortured or force him to have sex with anyone - I may be willing to do what you wanted me to do.” She scowled.   
“And yes.. I do see how irritatingly similar this request is to the one I made about Ginny” she continued “But you see this time i’m not asking you to prevent anyone else from hurting him I’m just asking that YOU promise not to, or to order anyone else to. If he pisses me off I will still be able to punch him in the nose.” 

The Dark Lord nodded understandingly.   
“Yes.. I see. And I’m sure young Draco, should he indeed prove untrustworthy, will lay down his wand and bare his face to your ..fist of righteous indignation, out of a sense of honour.” He smirked.   
“if you agree to make the horcrux I will agree to the first part. Malfoy will be pardoned for all events prior to this date. This is already a considerable concession. I will not agree on the second part as I too can see myself in a possible future position where he may tempt me to desire some equivalent of ramming a fist into his arrogantly hoisted proboscis. However I will not require him to...dispense sexual favours to others.. any longer.   
I regret the loss – he was a convincing little honey trap. He was very useful both in persuading foreign dignitaries to correctly interpret my generous offers to them, and in obtaining evidence to coerce them into compliance when their attitude was implacable.   
I am unsure whether it will be possible to replace him. He was very skilled in deceit.   
...and in fucking, of course. But that is really a given. Are we agreed on these terms?” 

She thought about it but.. really – it was sufficient. She had not really thought that Tom would relinquish all right to punish Draco in the future. She had protected him from the repercussions of saving her and now he wouldn’t be abused any more either. She nodded solemnly. The Dark Lord smiled, pleased.   
“Excellent, my dear. We will do it tomorrow.   
It will bring me great relief when I know that death is not hovering at our shoulders waiting to steal you from me”

She furrowed her brow and peered at him. If one didn’t know him, it would almost sound like he cared.   
He looked at her sceptically. 

“Of course I care, Hermione. I protect what is mine.” 

She rolled her eyes. There it was again. Why did every bloody person she knew somehow want to own her?! Wasn’t it sufficient to allow her to be her own person and just want to be around her. It was ridiculous. 

The arms embracing her pulled her closer and she felt a kiss placed on her forehead. “You are your own person.   
Irritatingly so, my dear. And you are also mine. I will never allow anyone or anything to take you from me again.”   
She felt warm and cold at the words simultaneously.   
There was a part of her that believed – actually believed – that Tom cared about her.. cared for her.. felt actual emotions at the thought of her loss in more than the way he would feel at the loss of a possession.   
But the rest of her heard words like mine and never let and just heard the sound of cages slamming.

She was afraid because she really did love him. She didn’t think she would have the will to leave the cage if things went on much longer. The way he touched her made her feel safe, warm, like she was where she was supposed to be.   
The idea of not being around him hurt like a physical wound. 

She forced her arms around his chest and hugged him as hard as she could. “I love you, Tom” she whispered into his robe inaudibly.   
His hand settled feather light on her hair and stroked her a couple of times before his arm enfolded her and pressed her to him just as hard as she was clamping onto his ribs.. She felt his hand move behind her, apparently casting the enervate spell and faint sounds of movement coming from Harry’s body on the floor. 

Harry groaned “Ohhhh.. Did you really have to stupefy me so many times? My head is killing me.” He sat up and then looked muzzily over toward them.   
The next second he was on his feet and charging toward them.. and a half second latter he was on his back skidding across the floor after having bounced off the shield the Dark Lord had set. 

He sat up almost immediately and raced back feeling with his hands ahead of him for the shield.   
“MIONE!!” he yelled. “LET GO OF HER YOU BASTARD!!” 

She flinched and, steeling herself, turned to look at Harry.   
He stood in the middle of the room, fingertips pressed up against the invisible wall in front of him. His green eyes were wide and pain filled. He looked desperate. 

Voldemort/Tom turned her head to look at him with a finger under her chin. “Are you alright?” he asked, apparently concerned. She hesitated and then nodded.   
He smiled and then drew out her left hand from around his chest and lifted it, inspecting the mark there. 

Harry smiled triumphantly and beat a fist hollowly against the transparent shield “She’s mine Voldemort! You can’t have her. She’s Mine Forever. I’ll never take it off.   
Mione.. tell him how you gave yourself to me.” 

Voldemort smiled wanly and lifted her wrist to his mouth. He kissed the mark gently and Harry took two steps back.   
“Stop that!” he said alarmed. Voldemort smiled viciously and trailed the tip of his tongue around the edge of the shield.   
Harry backed away even further, clamping his hands onto his head. 

“STOP IT! I can feel it when you do that. Don’t touch her that way..” 

The man she was curled against laughed low and cruel. “Yes.. that is one of the effects of your mark. I’m sure you will learn to live with it. I shall be sure to suck it whenever I bring her off. I will instruct Rodolphus that he is to draw her blood from the veins beneath it.   
I will make sure you are very aware of what she is experiencing Harry, for as long as you live. After you die, of course, it will evaporate.“

Harry looked violently triumphant again. He stomped forward again. “it won’t. She took MY mark first. I took her virgin blood. After she fell asleep I cast a blood binding spell, one of the many parselspels I used on her that night.   
Our lives are linked now. If I die, she’ll come with me.” His face was terrible in its dark satisfaction.   
Walking forward and placing his hands on the shield again he sneered at the Dark Lord   
“She screamed when she came at my command, Voldemort. She’s mine. Forever. Now get your fucking hands off her!” 

The cold fury emanating from the man beneath her was shockingly tangible. His hand had tensed around her and for a moment he looked unsure.   
Hermione stared at Harry, numb inside at the thought that she would never.. ever.. be free of him. 

“Why would you do that to me, Harry. How could you..” she asked brokenly.   
The boy looked at her with burning green eyes. 

“Because I love you, Mione” he said forcefully. “I told you.. I can’t lose you” 

She felt like she’d been kicked. So much of what Harry said sounded like the things that Tom had said. But Tom never said he loved her – he probably never would, and yet she felt safe and warm and protected and cared for.. while Harry told her over and over how much he loved her as he hurt her and abused her and made her mind curl up in horror.   
She looked up at Voldemort helplessly.   
Seeing her faltering on the edge of panic he waved his hand impatiently and dropped the glamour, his young beautiful real face suddenly appearing. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him just as she felt herself cracking.

“Shhh.. its ok” he whispered into her hair. “I will not allow him to hurt you again”   
She sobbed quietly into his robe at his neck and clung to him, pulling her knees up tighter. 

Harry growled loudly in frustration. “Let her go, damn it” 

She wiped at her eyes with her fingers and peered at him through the teary blur. He was staring at them both but his eyes kept flicking to Tom with an unreadable expression.   
“Why thank you Harry, I’m so flattered you think so” Tom said dryly and Harry abruptly coloured. 

Hermione looked at Tom questioningly. 

“Don’t.” Harry said in a low voice, looking at Tom.   
Tom narrowed his eyes at him. 

“You have yet again ruined my plans, Harry. You have no idea how tired I am of seeing your face, hearing your name. If I could.. and perhaps I can...I would like nothing more than to erase you utterly from the world.   
Until I am able to find a way to kill you, your existence will be worse than death.”   
Turning and scrutinizing Hermione, he cast a stinging hex at Harry, who jumped, gasping slightly but biting off a yelp. 

Seemingly satisfied that no effects were shared by Hermione he turned back to Harry and muttered with satisfaction “crucio.”   
The boy crashed to the ground, whimpering faintly, rolling and shaking and bucking to try to relieve the unbearable pain. His hands scrabbled frantically at the stone floor. Cramping and extending helplessly, after a couple of minutes he finally began to wail in agony. 

Tom released the curse and Harry collapsed into panting whimpers again. 

After only a half a minute in which Hermione watched fascinated while he twitched and spasmed, Voldemort cast the crucio on him again.   
Harry started screaming almost immediately this time and when it was taken off a couple of minutes later he fell to sobbing quietly, disconsolately. Tom smiled coldly. 

She felt somehow pleased while watching him hurt Harry. That wasn’t right, surely? But she did. It was good to see someone else have power over Harry like this.   
Tom had him writhing and screeching under the crucio again. 

Hermione spoke quietly. Harry probably couldn’t hear over his own screams. “I’m glad I gave you to Tom, Harry. It was me, you know. My plan. I’m not sorry at all. You deserve this.”   
Tom pressed her close and kissed her just in front of her ear. “Perhaps Severus might like to join us, my precious?” he said softly, as if asking her permission. 

She smiled and nodded. “I think Severus has been dying to curse Harry for years actually” 

Tom dropped the crucio again, leaving Harry sobbing and crying out still when cramps forced him to move and jangled his damaged nerves.   
Tom tossed stinging hexes at him, forcing him to jump and make every sensation worse. He smirked and conjured a cloud of dots around Harry, dropping them upon him.   
“what is that?” she asked.   
“Fire ants” Tom replied with a smirk. “less effort than continually recasting the stinging hex.” 

Harry was screaming at full lung as Tom drew Severus’ sigil. The man himself appeared a few moments later in the guise of professor Snape, looking alert and worried.   
He seemed relieved when he saw them both sitting there together and realised Tom wasn’t in any danger, immediately turning to the source of the screams, a boy writhing and screaming, covered in ants that he was too cramped and broken to prevent from crawling inside his robes, into his nose, his ears, his wide screaming mouth.   
Severus tilted his head and admired the view. 

“You know... I have spent seven years wishing to see exactly that. Thank you my Lord” he said with a note of soul-deep relief in his voice. 

Tom filled him in on what had transpired in the room before he had started to curse Harry.   
When he had finished Severus vanished the ants and began casting curse after curse of the darkest nature, a twisted expression of loathing on his face.   
Tom put his arms around Hermione and held her close and they simply watched. 

After perhaps an hour of this, Tom summoned a healer to repair Harry from the more permanent effects of the curses that lacked full counter-curses. As soon as the man finished Severus returned to flinging hexes at the prone boy. It seemed that Severus was going methodically through every single horrible curse he knew, and he appeared to be extremely broadly versed in dark arts curses.   
Harry could barely scream now.. he heched voicelessly with wide stretched mouth and clenched eyes.

When Severus finally started to tire, after some discussion between the three and a mild frown from Tom as he reapplied the Lord Voldemort glamour, Rodolphus was summoned back. 

The vampire appeared wary and somewhat full of trepidation to be summoned back so soon but quickly took in the situation.   
Severus had enlarged the chair upon which Tom and Hermione sat and now leaned back, relaxed on a black overstuffed sofa with the two of them, massaging Hermione’s feet with relish while he watched the boy-who-lived-to-be-hated-by-all panting on the floor.   
Tom summoned the healer back to patch Harry up again while he explained to Rodolphus exactly what Harry had done. 

Rodolphus, like Severus, shifted immediately into inconsolable rage and requested leave to go and retrieve some ‘tools’ to properly express how upset he was to the boy. After he had left, Severus too asked permission to fetch a supply of potions and apparated away as soon as Tom acquiesced. 

Then they sat alone again, tightly embraced while Harry lay, bonelessly, physically repaired by the healer but utterly exhausted.   
It was all he could do to turn his head toward them both. 

Tom kissed her forehead. “I can hear him” he said quietly. “He is still crowing that you are his”   
Hermione shivered.   
“You’re wrong” she said out loud to Harry. “I’m not yours. I’ll never be yours.”   
Tom sighed by her ear. “I will find a way to solve this problem, Hermione” he assured her. 

After a few minutes he whispered very softly “I am glad that you persuaded Rodolphus to contact me. If he had not brought you here and I had killed the boy..   
Remind me to reward him generously.”   
At that moment Severus returned, followed shortly by Rodolphus. Each man held a small box which they enlarged to inspect their respective ‘tools’. Severus sat back down on the sofa next to them both. 

Hermione looked inside the wooden box where inside the lid, row upon row of small bottles were held magically. Inside the box larger phials and jars could be found. Severus selected two of these and closed the box, laying it on the floor beside his feet.   
Rodolphus had transfigured a table from the terrarium and was laying various horrible looking metal objects upon it.   
It looked like something out of a metalwork classroom or the Spanish inquisition.   
While he unrolled a leather strip full of different knives, Severus had dropped the shield and stalked over to Harry, kneeling on one knee beside him. He held his nose till the boy opened his mouth and then jammed the first potion phial in it, tipping it all down his throat and then holding mouth and nose shut till he swallowed. 

“That’s for your throat Potter. I’d hate for Lestrange to miss out on all your screams”   
He showed him a dark red potion. “and this one is one of my creations. It’s quite tricky to make but it will give you sufficient energy to thrash about and scream your lungs out for the next few hours – and in addition it will prevent you from losing consciousness, regardless what is done to you.   
No. you will remain present and aware for the whole performance.” 

Harry clamped his mouth shut, eyes wide and angry. Severus smirked down at him evily and blocked his nose again. 

“If you refuse to comply, I am sure that Lestrange has something over there that we can use to pry your jaw open with. A crowbar perhaps?” Rodolphus strolled over.   
“No.. that usually breaks the jaw. It’s easier to fix the head in place, cut the lips off and break out the front teeth with a hammer. No problem to pour it in then and the wizard can still talk.” 

Harry opened his mouth and allowed Severus to pour the potion in. He swallowed docilely.   
Rodolphus looked somewhere between amused and disappointed. 

Hermione watched him, fascinated. She knew he had always been quite careful around her before and had moderated himself in order to reassure her.   
She had a feeling he was not going to moderate himself now. 

Rodolphus leaned down and picked up one of Harry’s forearms, dragging him upright as if he were made of air.   
Harry cried out as his muscles twanged and jangled from the cruciatus. Rodolphus shook him a little like a rag doll, grinning when Harry feebly tried to punch at him with his other arm.   
He cast at the stone ceiling and the familiar manacles fell down from it, jangling.   
It was the work of a minute to attach Harry and drop him to dangle, screaming, his toes scraping against the ground. 

Tom frowned and turned to Severus. “Cruciatus potion. I want to be able to tell what he is screaming at.”   
Severus complied wordlessly.   
This potion Harry opened his mouth for eagerly, sucking at it and swallowing it as if dying of thirst. Severus returned to the sofa, sitting close against Tom and putting Hermione’s legs in his lap so that he could stroke her calves. He conjured a footrest and leaned back to relax as if about to watch a movie. 

Rodolphus had selected a long thin bladed knife and was walking back toward Harry with his shoulders set and a disturbing smile on his face.   
Hermione bit her lip anxiously, looking at him. He looked dangerous, not that he normally looked harmless, but she was glad he wasn’t looking at her like that. 

Harry’s eyes were huge, following the movement of the silver object in his hand. “Stop..” he said hollowly.   
“Mione.. help..” he turned large scared green eyes on her pleadingly and she felt a clutching inside her at her heart.   
He looked like Harry, confused scared Harry.   
As if he’d woken up from some kind of terrible dream and found himself hanging here in front of them.

“You’ve gone and stolen something that didn’t belong to you, Potter” Rodolphus growled lowly. “It’s no good pleading with her, I won’t listen if she begs me to stop.” 

“It isn’t enough that you broke her sweetness, that you..harmed her...now I find she could be taken away permanently because our Lord needs to rid the world of your ugly hide   
– I am not happy Potter.   
I would not kill you now even if I could. But you are going to beg me to. You will see.   
We will make your body a parchment for me to write my anger upon. I will show you exactly how much suffering the body can withstand without dying. You understand, I’ve experimented a lot in this area.” 

“You can beg if you like.. you will scream – but it will not save you. If I have to take you apart piece by piece and reassemble you to do it again, you will think of a way to fix what you have done.” 

Innocent-Harry smiled, still staring into Hermione’s eyes. “No. I won’t. I love you Mione.” He whispered harshly, his eyes filling with tears. She felt that uncomfortable clench of pain around her heart again. 

Rodolphus snarled and raised his hands to Harry’s dangling arm. He cut across the back of his wrist and seemed to dig into.. under.. the cut. Harry remained still and silent but his face pinched in pain.   
Rodolphus sliced two lines of red down the back of his arm and then..as Hermione’s stomach turned, he started to peel back the skin, flaying Harry. 

She turned away, grimacing, her eyes darting uncomfortably as Harry keened and moaned in pain. She put her chin on Tom’s shoulder, seeing his slow dark smirk in her peripheral vision. He was visibly enjoying this.   
A small self self-preservational part in the back of her mind informed her that if Rodolphus were doing this to her, Harry would probably be finding it exciting too.   
What was wrong with all these people?! God... this was sick. Far far worse than cursing him - even if some of the effects had been horrible, like when he’d coughed his lungs out of his body.   
She squeezed her eyes shut hearing Harry tell her in her mind over and over in that soft, determined scared voice that he loved her. 

Tom seemed to realise that she was conflicted. He stroked her back gently, leaning his head against hers as Harry finally started to scream again and she turned to find his entire arm up to the shoulder showing slick red exposed muscle while blood ran down his body in constant screams to a puddle on the floor.  
Curls of what looked like red shiny rubber lay discarded and she thought that now she really would throw up.   
She started to panic, drawing her legs up closer to her body and clutching onto Tom tightly with her fingertips, whimpering slightly. 

Tom turned to her, cupping her face in both hands and examining her state. His red eyes staring deep into her own wide distressed ones. He sighed. 

“I need to take her away from here for this” he said to the room at large. 

Rodolphus stopped working at the skin on Harry’s ribs where a red mowing strip of bare muscle and shiny faint bone beneath was exposed. “You alright, pet?” he said, sounding concerned and taking a step toward her, his dripping knife in hand.   
Tom’s voice was wry. “Just because you have persuaded her to work with you on some muggle flesh, does not mean that she will be able to handle doing so, my servant.” 

He sighed and pulled her close and she felt his hand stroke over the back of her head in a vaguely protective comforting manner. A third hand pressed on her shoulder soothingly and Severus asked, hopefully “Do you want me to stay with her, my Lord?” 

Harry, who had stopped screaming when Rodolphus had stopped tugging his flesh down, cried out at this in a slightly hysterical, desperate voice. “No.! Don’t leave me Mione. I need you here. I.. I can do this if you’re here with me. Don’t go!” 

“Silence!” Severus snarled poisonously back at him and cast silencio on him.   
She felt rather than heard a movement in front of the Dark Lord and turned only for a moment to see what it was before looking away from Harry again.   
Rodolphus had knelt before Tom and asked in a restrained, tense voice. “My Lord. May I see her before you take her away?”   
Tom looked at her questioningly and she blinked, far beyond the ability to contribute meaningfully to the decisionmaking process. She just wanted to leave. 

Tom sighed. “Briefly. Because you have pleased me today”   
She heard Severus emit a pissed off snort. Tom hadn’t answered him as to whether he could stay with her and now he was sitting up and passing her to Rodolphus, who wrapped large arms around her back and under her knees and stood, pacing away to the edge of the round room behind the sofas.   
She wrapped her arms around his neck. 

He smelled of blood – but then.. that was somehow normal on him. It was normally her blood so It didn’t bother her to smell it on him as it might have if it had been Tom or Severus.   
He darted a look over his shoulder and then bowed his head and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.   
“I won’t let him take you from me, pet” he breathed. 

Hermione wasn’t sure if he was talking about Harry or the Dark Lord. She held onto him, pulling herself closer and burying her face in his warm scratchy neck.   
He seemed to sway slowly, rocking her and it was very calming. 

Tom appeared at their side suddenly and growled “Enough. Give her back now”   
Rodolphus hesitated for a moment and Tom’s eyes in the serpentine face flashed.   
“Do not make me regret rewarding you” he hissed and took her quickly from the strong arms encircling her. 

She looked at them both. Tom looked threatening, possessive. Rodolphus face had hardened although his eyes were lowered deferentially. He bowed shortly and withdrew and Tom focused his attention on her again from the mild implicit threat of insurrection that had briefly stood before him. “Severus. Her room. Come.” Tom called imperiously.   
She caught the tableau briefly before Tom disapparated them. Harry was still yelling out at her silently even though Rodolphus had returned to peeling his skin away with a dark forbidding mien. Severus had risen to his feet and wore a relieved expression on his face. 

She felt herself compressed into a tiny point.


	37. Chapter 37

They popped back into existence in her room. 

She turned her head toward the sudden movement that was Draco leaping up from one of the chairs by the fire and throwing himself to his knees, bowing low.   
The book he had been reading had flown in the air and was now open and face down on the hearth, its pages only inches from the fire.   
She struggled and pushed Tom to release her, dashing to the end of the room and dragging the book away just as the flames started to catch it, shaking it in the air to put out the tiny tongue of orange that had licked up the leather edge of the back cover. She frowned. All the pages were creased from being so ill treated and dumped in this manner.   
It was a potions text. She smoothed out the pages and closed it protectively, laying it on the table. 

Draco hadn’t seen any of this because his face was an inch from the ground and his eyes were firmly screwed down on the floor. 

Severus apparated into the room near the door. 

Tom ignored Draco completely and strode over to her. “I will find a way to sever his ties to you” he said roughly through gritted teeth. “I refuse to accept the choice between losing you or keeping Harry Potter alive.” 

Severus hurried over, alarmed, “surely there is no choice, my Lord?! We can find a way to keep Potter restrained. Entomb him or entrap him in some object perhaps. There is no need to ..” 

“NO!” Tom responded incensed. “He must die. His continued existence is a threat. Find me a way, Severus. I need to go back. He has proven.. difficult.. to legilimise. His occlumency walls are too strong. I require a way to lower them. Veritaserum will be wasted on him, obviously.” 

Severus looked at Hermione helplessly. “but I..”   
Tom glared at him and he lowered his eyes. “Yes master” he said miserably. 

“Draco” Tom threw at the prostrated boy. “Get up. I require you to watch over her. She is somewhat distressed at present. I have seen how.. comforting.. you have been in other upsetting circumstances.” 

Severus looked at the boy suspiciously, obviously he had not yet viewed her memory in the viewing room. 

Draco was climbing unsteadily to his feet, looking like he expected to be cruciated again. 

“See that I have no reason to punish you. If anything..ANYTHING.. even slightly unusual or of concern happens here – You will inform me immediately.”   
He drew a wand out of the pocket of his robe and tossed it in front of the boy then stepped closer to Hermione again and pulled her, almost tenderly, to his chest, brushing a soft kiss across her lips.   
She responded distractedly, her face fixed in conflicted worry. “Tom.. maybe..”   
She knew he could tell she was thinking about asking him to stop Rodolphus from torturing Harry any further. He kissed her again, silencing her, stroking his tongue slowly, feather light across the underside of her top lip. 

When he drew back, his face was stern and heavy with thought and he turned abruptly, stalking off and disapparating mid step. 

Severus stood indecisively for about two seconds after Tom had disapparated before he rushed across the room and swept Hermione up in his arms.   
Draco stood by with an unreadable expression on his face.   
Severus seemed unwilling to let her go again, he simply clutched her, crushed to him with his eyes closed. 

“need. To.. breathe.” Hermione finally choked out and he eased off somewhat.   
“I’m sorry about this morning” she said sadly. “I didn’t realise and then you were gone” 

The man waved it off. “I was childish. Jealous. I don’t know who of. I wanted you both. Perhaps it was foolish to leave. You seemed to need..time together.”   
She kissed him tentatively. He kissed her back but there was a bittersweet neediness behind his kiss.   
A sense that he knew he could not have what he wanted. 

“I must go. He is right. We need to find a way to free you from this binding.” 

Hermione raised a dubious eyebrow. “Free me of this necklace and I’ll do it myself somehow”   
Severus clutched her more tightly.   
“You know I cannot. And if I could..” 

She groaned in irritation. “whatever. You’re probably right. It doesn’t matter. Do what you need to do then.”   
She felt tense.. as if there were a weight upon her back. It felt like she could almost hear Harry screaming in that room wherever it was. Now that she could not see what was happening, her mind seemed to play on it, invent even worse things that Rodolphus might be doing to the boy who was.. at least in a small part.. her friend. Even if he was a psychopath now. 

“Do you really think what Rodolphus is doing to Harry will help you get what you want?” she asked sceptically.   
“I can’t stand it..” she trailed off uncertainly. “I don’t know how much of him is left. For a moment in there.. the way he looked at me.. it was Harry.” 

Severus’ face hardened. “Yes. I think it is necessary. What the boy is suffering is extremely deserved” he growled.   
“Have you forgotten so quickly what he did..?” She shook her head unhappily. 

“No.. no. I’m sorry.. it.. it bothers me though. It’s not his fault. I did this.” 

The sable haired man holding her looked at her with near horror. “Don’t be ridiculous, Hermione. You are not to blame for any of this! Least of all what he did to you.” 

She made a face and shot a sidelong look at Draco then cupped her hand and whispered in Severus’ ear. “I am. I didn’t know that Harry was a horcrux. Nobody did. Well.. maybe Dumbledore. I don’t know. But when I healed Tom.. Harry..   
It’s not a complex, how he’s behaving. He blended with a fragment of Tom’s soul that was re-growing at the time.   
Now.. he’s... um. like Tom.. in some ways.   
His magic feels similar, for a start. And he thinks like him.“ She stopped whispering and pulled back to look at his face. 

Severus had stiffened and looked a bit pale. “..That.. complicates things further..” he said weakly. 

Hermione snuck a glance at Draco, who was standing with his arms folded, leaning back on one leg looking irritable at the Chinese whispers and kissyface going on around him. Severus flinched.   
“He is summoning me” he said urgently, looking at her with wide eyes, and thrust her back gently but firmly, turning on the spot and disapparating.

 

“Well.. that was fun” Draco sniped.   
He turned around and skulked back to the chair by the fire. 

She trudged over and sat in the other chair. They both stared into the flames, slouching in the wingbacks and avoiding each others eyes.   
After a few minutes she said, biting her lip, “Thanks. For saving me I mean. Thank you.” 

His eyes slid over to her and looked her up and down critically then drifted back to the fire. “Don’t mention it.”   
“ ...no really. Don’t. Don’t even talk about it. I must have been insane to actually beg the Dark Lord to interrogate and punish me. He’ll probably kill me when he discovers everything I told the order.   
I sold him out completely. Everything I knew I gave them.   
I’m finished.   
But I’m so glad that you’re back in bed with my godfather and the Dark Lord.   
Silly me to think he might be grateful enough to get you back and have Potter in his claws that he’d reward me. Or at least forget about me.   
I’m so screwed.” Draco wiped a hand down his face in disgust. 

She pursed her lips, irritated that he was right and indecisive about telling him about her deal.   
After consideration she decided it didn’t matter anyway now since Tom probably couldn’t go through with his part and thus had no need to uphold what he’d promised her.   
She sighed. “I..almost had you saved” she muttered. 

“I made a deal with..the Dark Lord.. and he agreed not to punish you, no matter what he learned. He also said he wouldn’t use you anymore.. for.. um.. with the foreign emissaries.. you know” 

Draco looked at her evenly. “whoring you mean?” he smirked faintly at her discomfort. 

“Uh.. yeah. That. He said he wouldn’t do it again.   
But now.. Harry just told everyone something else and what I promised him..well he probably can’t use it anymore” 

Draco looked at her with curious speculation. “What did you promise him, Granger?!   
Not that I’m not pleased that you’d try to help me after you already got what you wanted – but I’m curious.   
What would it have cost to have gotten a pardon and a boon on top of it from Him. I doubt he’d do it out of the kindness of his heart. I doubt he has a heart, actually. What did he want?   
A child, like you said Potter seemed to expect? Or marriage or something – as ridiculous as that still seems. The mark?” 

“...But you already bartered for that and since you just mentioned him to my godfather, I’m guessing Lestrange is in the pink of health – thanks for that, by the way. Your memory really went down a treat with him. I’m lucky to still be breathing.” Draco narrowed his eyes and glared at the fire. 

“I’m sorry..” she said softly. “How could I know you’d kiss me?! After we’d drunk that liqueur It really didn’t occur to me to think of the memory you were going to take anymore and in the morning it was all I could do to get the memory ends straight for you to extract it. I didn’t think...” She stilled.. the fire crackled in the quiet. 

“I’m sorry that Rodolphus hurt you. He apologised to me for it this morning.” 

Draco looked at her sceptically. 

“He said he regretted it.. Not that that helps.” She paused a moment and then said guiltily “if I’d known.. I would probably still have asked you to take the whole memory. I want it back. The memory. I would hate to know I’d forgotten that... forgotten you. I don’t regret it.”   
Draco looked at her, off balance, his eyes widened slightly.   
“It would be better if you forgot. I know I’m trying to. It was just the drink. Whatever we did. It was just the effect of that damn blue goop, messing with our heads. It was nothing! “ He wrapped his arms around himself and slouched away somewhat, avoiding her eyes. 

“Oh..” she said softly. “yes. Of course. Sorry.” She sighed and leaned her head against the wing of the armchair. 

After another few minutes of heavy silence Draco grumbled irritably. “So what was it then? Your agreement with the Dark Lord. What did he want? Is it so bad you can’t face saying it out loud?” 

She mused on the question. Is it so bad.. Yes.. yes technically it was, she thought. If someone had suggested to her a year ago that she might like to make a horcrux at Lord Voldemort’s request she would have laughed and told them to have their head examined.   
She’d spent months and months in the rain and the cold, starving and being chased, cruciated, beaten and burned at every turn in order to destroy the blasted horcruxes that Tom had made. Making her own was pure insanity.

She let her gaze drift over to Draco. He was staring at her pointedly. She decided it didn’t matter if she told him – he almost certainly wouldn’t know what it was anyway. 

“He wanted me to make a horcrux” she murmured softly, looking back to the fire pensively. 

“What?!” Draco’s startled voice drew her eye back. He was sitting forward in the chair and looking at her with a disturbed panicked expression. “Did you just say a horcrux? You were going to make a horcrux for the Dark Lord until potty did whatever he did and prevented it?!   
You offered to kill someone and split your soul to save me?!” He was aghast.   
“are you fucking INSANE?! WHY would you do that?! You don’t even like me! As you said.. there was a chance he wouldn’t kill me anyway since I saved you - have you NO sense of proportion? What made that seem like a good idea to you?!” 

She rolled her eyes and didn’t look at him. 

“Look.. He would have made me do it anyway. YOU should know that more than anyone..When he wants something - he just finds a way to get you in a position where it becomes the path of least resistance. I figured if I was going to do it anyway I might as well use it to save you.   
I did promise I’d do anything in my power to save you after all.   
It was in my power. If I hadn’t made the agreement I’d have reneged on my promise. It really doesn’t matter anyway either way since he probably can’t go through with it now. Harry.. bound me to himself with some blood ritual. I didn’t know.   
Now he says our lives are connected. If Tom.. um.. if the Dark Lord gets me to make a horcrux, I don’t know how that will affect Harry. Maybe he’ll be protected from death too. He said that if the Dark Lord killed him, I’d die too.” 

Draco was gaping at her. He reeled his jaw in and spat at her “Do you have any idea how flippant you sound when you’re talking about one of the darkest of dark arts spells ever created?   
At this point i think I could kiss Potter for being snake enough to blood bind you secretly.” 

Hermione smirked at the idle thought that Harry would probably love that. The way he’d treated Draco when they were going to meet Rodolphus, Harry would likely be only too keen for Draco to show his appreciation in a physical way. 

“Granger!” Draco snapped. “what?” she said distractedly. 

“Stop smiling like that. Whatever it is probably isn’t funny.” He grumped. 

 

They sat in silence for another brief eternity. Hermione felt her stomach rumble.   
“Do any elves come when you call?” she asked, curiously. 

“Of course they do – what do you want one for?” he asked suspiciously. 

“I’m hungry. Could you call one? They don’t come for me anymore”   
Draco grinned snidely.   
“Scared you’ll give them clothes probably” he snorted. “Gappo!” With a pop a tall brownish elf appeared in a white toga made from a towel with a Malfoy crest on it. “Master” the elf said solemnly.   
“Bring us ..” he hesitated. “What do you want then?” he asked peevishly. 

She shrugged, uncaring. Draco rolled his eyes. 

“What did my father have for lunch today?” he asked the elf. ‘Gappo’ pulled a rather constipated face for a house elf and responded. “Duck foie gras mousse with Amontillado, spelt, braised duck leg, baby leek, summer truffles and salad nathalia” 

Hermione blinked blankly, mildly appalled.   
“well.. I have heard of some of those foods. I’m not eating anything that’s been stuffed down a duck though.” 

Draco smirked. “Two, gappo – one without foie gras, and we’ll have a Jouet Belle Epoque Cuvée 1985”   
The elf bowed and popped away. 

Hermione bit her lip, feeling slightly out of her depth with the blonde sybarite.   
“Do you like champagne?” Draco asked, looking worried suddenly. “It’s.. - I ordered it mainly for the interplay with the foie gras.. and you aren’t having any.. I should have asked.”   
Hermione shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t know. I haven’t tried any before. I suppose...um.. I should probably thank you again.”   
He shook his head and continued to look worried. “I.. Granger.. I’m sorry. I should have asked you what you wanted. I’ll tell Gappo to get something else.” He looked uncomfortable 

“No! Its ok.” she said quickly. “Thank you Draco. I didn’t mean it that way. I was just.. a bit.. intimidated I suppose.   
But..I really don’t know what I’d want if you asked me so its fine. Its good! Thanks.”   
She looked at him quickly and looked away.. then looked back. Was he blushing?!   
Draco was actually blushing?   
He stood up and turned away, walking to the other end of the room swiftly.   
She leaned out of her chair curiously and saw him levitating the small table and chairs closer to the window to get more of the light. 

It was a cloud dappled day outside she could see from here. She rose and went to where he stood staring out of the window.   
If he had been blushing, it was gone now. He looked apprehensive. 

She moved past him and knelt on the window seat, staring out at the view. 

The thick dark grey clouds were casting shadows that moved over the lake and forests. It was a rather moody oppressive kind of weather she thought idly.   
In the distance she could see someone walking along a path near the woods. They were too far off to make out any detail.   
Wind rippled the surface of the lake.   
Faint mist appeared on the window glass from her breath. 

“You know.. my room here is tiny.” Draco said out of the blue.   
“Smaller than the head boy’s room at Hogwarts. 

She turned, surprised “you were head boy?” she said, smiling. She had left at the beginning of her final year. She would have been head girl if she had stayed.   
The badge had arrived in the mail to Grimmauld place where she had listed herself after things started to get bad. 

“Yeah” Draco said dully. “Gwyniss Ascot” was head girl after you left with Potty and Weasel. 

“Thats great, Draco!” she said, pleased for him. He grimaced distractedly. 

“Thanks. But, what I meant was – in this place.. what you have.. what the Dark Lord gives you.. denotes how important you are. I.. looked around a bit while you were..away.   
You have an interesting, and rare, library. A view, The finest clothes, Your bathroom alone must have taken someone quite a while to enchant.   
You live inside the Dark Lord’s chambers, Granger.” 

“I know you’re ..kind of attractive..” he looked uncomfortable and avoided her eyes “and everyone knows you’re intelligent   
..ok.. very intelligent. but.. it just doesn’t make sense, no matter how much I think about it. The Dark Lord is not a romantic. He isn’t the type to have just fallen in love with you somehow , I’ve heard him make comments about how dangerous and pointless love is – that it makes you weak and vulnerable– and even if he somehow fell in undying lust with you - I doubt you’ve been meeting him for tea and biscuits over the year you were gone.   
And you’re a mu- uh.. muggleborn.   
He’s expressed his views on that topic at length, you know.” 

“I asked you about this before but now I’m here and I see how he acts around you it just doesn’t add up.   
Even if your magic were compatible with his, as you say – so what?!   
That’s not that rare a phenomenon and he could put you anywhere in this place and still visit you when he felt like it.   
How come he’s put you IN his private rooms?! How come he looks at you like my father looked at that damned liqueur my whole life? as if he were worried someone would break it, steal it or drink it the moment he took his eye off it.” 

“How come Potter looked at you like that, for that matter?   
He was your friend for years and then you come back from this place and he bloody marks you, rapes you and binds you apparently – this guy won’t even take the last bread roll at the table. It doesn’t make any sense!   
What IS it with you that is making everyone crazy?! Why does Severus cling to you like he’s drowning.   
And Lestrange?!   
That evil bastard has never done a kind thing for.. well.. anyone as long as i’ve known of him. He’s been fucking me up every chance he got since I was a kid. And now he’s apparently dotty on you?   
The guy was with my aunt and I know you remember what a charming person she was.”

“Then there’s the weasel – from his body language that last day I would have guessed that Potty wanted to invite him into your idyllic paradise of love too and he somehow fucked it up with you..or him I suppose. He seemed terrified of Potter and apologetic toward you.”

And not to mention.. my bloody father! He went on and on about you.   
And when he showed me that brand and he was talking about visiting you as if you were some little secret he’d been enjoying - The man killed a hairdresser once for accidentally nicking his ear!! He is not a forgiving man. And..and..” Draco petered out, looking distressed. 

After a minute he continued unhappily, looking defeated. “And..I can’t stop thinking about you either. What the fuck did you do?! Make it stop!” 

Hermione stared, alarmed. She hadn’t really thought about it like that before but..really, just about.. no actually every male she knew in her current dramatically reduced world seemed to have been attracted to her.   
That was not par for her life before all this started.   
She hadn’t thought so much about it.. the Dark Lord.. well.. she didn’t want to speculate on whether he only wanted to possess her because she had power. It was definitely why he had sought to acquire her, but he seemed to look at her with so much affection now.   
And Severus.. according to him he’d been interested in her for years.   
Rodolphus seemed to think she tasted or smelled good.. or better than other people somehow. She wondered if that might have something to do with her ability.   
Lucius.. well god only knew why Lucius wanted her. Probably because he was an evil asshole and he liked that she was afraid of him? Or maybe he knew Severus liked her and was jealous in some way. Tom had said that they had a kind of history together. 

Harry.. she didnt know what to think about Harry. Had he maybe liked her a bit before all this mess with the soul blending? He’d never really done anything to give her that impression.   
Even if he had – was it maybe just Tom’s soul piece influencing him?   
She thought Ron probably liked her mainly because she was always around.. and possibly a bit because she’d suddenly become a girl one year when he hadn’t been looking and when she went to the ball with Krum he realised that other boys liked her.   
Famous boys, she thought uncharitably. 

She couldn’t explain for the life of her why Draco would want her though. He’d always made it abundantly clear that he couldn’t stand her, thought she was unfit to carry a wand and deserving of extermination. 

And now she had no idea what to say to him, now that he’d announced that she was on his mind.   
She swallowed and tried to think of something that wouldn’t offend him. 

There was a pop and the house elf returned, levitating two plates, and a bottle of champagne. He snapped his fingers and the table gained a cloth, cutlery and two champagne flutes. He levitated the meals to their places and opened the champagne, placing it in stasis in a silver container on the table.   
She looked at it, simply in order to have something else to look at. A bead of chilled moisture was frozen halfway down the slide toward the base of the bottle. 

The elf was about to leave when Draco called to it “Orange juice also”   
It snapped its fingers and a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice appeared on the table. 

She hesitated but thankfully Draco had already moved to the table. He pulled out a chair and she moved to the opposite one to sit down.   
He frowned and shook his head slightly, following her and pulling out the other chair and helping her into it.   
He poured some champagne into her glass and stood, seemingly nervously. “Try it..” he said softly.   
“If you don’t like it, I’ll add some juice and it will be sweeter.” 

She smiled uncertainly, unfamiliar with this attentive chivalrous version from the boy who’d tormented her and made her feel worthless the entire time she was at school. She sipped at the yellow white fizzing liquid.   
It was quite bitter and sour, she discovered. It made her nose tickle slightly also.   
She raised an eyebrow unsure whether she liked it and took another sip. Definitely an unpleasant taste at first, although it seemed to leave a reasonably nice taste when she swallowed it. 

Draco breathed out suddenly and she looked up at him startled. He looked a bit pale. “You don’t like it..” he said softly.   
“It’s ok.. It’s an acquired taste, they say. I’m sorry. Here. Try this.” He raised the orange juice and she lowered her flute for him to pour it in.   
When she tried the resulting mix she found that it tasted wonderful. Far better than plain orange juice and definitely miles better than champagne apparently tasted. She smiled. “thanks!”   
He seemed relieved. He poured his own flute with champagne and seated himself, looking at her with a strange expression while she inspected the strange items on her plate.

She felt uneasy after a while and blanched, asking paranoid - “What? Is there some custom i’m not observing? Some wizarding version of grace or a toast or a tradition that says we should stare at each other till someone blinks?” 

he shook his head faintly and looked down, picking up his knife and fork and beginning to eat.   
She followed a short while later. 

After a minute, Draco started up a conversation about the potions book he had been reading and, as it was not one she had read but did bear similarities to other less dark texts she’d red, she found it very interesting. they debated on the nature of the dark arts in potions theory , whether it was intent or use that determined how dark a potion was or whether a potion could be intrinsically dark irrespective of whether it was used for a nefarious purpose or not.   
Draco was, astoundingly, a stimulating conversationalist and able to view an issue from multiple perspectives simultaneously.   
The meal itself was delicious -everything tasted wonderful with the exception of the leeks. She discovered that leeks were not a vegetable she believed she could befriend herself with in the future . 

 

When they were done, Draco summoned the elf and had their plates removed and another bottle of champagne brought. She had no idea how they had finished the wine so suddenly, she knew he had not refilled her glass.   
She looked at the half full glass suspiciously.   
It had been replenishing itself obviously. She hadn’t noticed that it never got any lower. No wonder she felt quite warm and talkative.   
Draco’s glass was only a quarter full. It seemed when the bottle ran out, the glasses could not fill to the desired level. 

She gazed out the window at the play of dappled light over the dark green spikes of the forest and wondered, not for the first time whether the view was real or enchanted. If she were to somehow find her way to an outside door here would she be able to walk down to that lake?   
She had not seen a view from any other window here – she had not seen any other window here.   
She looked back at Draco. He was staring at her again with that unreadable expression. 

She raised an eyebrow and he shook his head as if to say ‘nothing’ and turned away to look at the view she had previously been musing on.   
“I have no window in my room” he said quietly. “My father’s chambers look out upon mountains. I have no idea whether his window, your window or both are enchanted or whether his room simply faces another direction.   
I’ve never been outside in this place. You..apparate in.. apparate out. Real physical space around it starts to become meaningless. Its just the place the Dark Lord keeps you.” 

He indicated her champagne flute to her. “Finish your glass, I want you to try a different champagne – this one is much sweeter. More something for dessert.”   
She smirked at him. “are you trying to get me drunk?!” 

He looked at her with a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth expression of innocence and said incredulously.   
“I’m just trying to broaden your horizons, Granger, are you always this suspicious of others intentions?!”

She giggled at his unconvincing act and then put her hand over her mouth, appalled at herself for making such a..a.. lav lav sound.   
“I really shouldn’t. I’m not used to alcohol. I’ve apparently already lost the ability to prevent myself from sounding like my brain is full of air and divination classes.” 

He grinned in a mercenary manner “I’ve got a great idea..” he said slowly.


	38. Chapter 38

When he explained the idea the first time she laughed and said “No no.. I don’t think so.” 

He nodded and smiled and changed the subject immediately, talking about the benefits of using two single sided wards over one double sided axiopolic one. He gave many examples of how the variable space could be utilized between them and claimed the extra energy required to cast two wards relative to one more complex ward was negligible and only an issue under time pressure.   
She found it fascinating and the ensuing discussion wandered through wards to curses and cursebreaking, to Gringotts and Bill Weasley, who had been a cursebreaker there the last Hermione had heard, before the Dark Lord had taken over the ministry of magic.   
From there the conversation wandered to the Weaseleys in general. 

Hermione steered it away from that area, thinking about Ginny uneasily, her eye darting momentarily to the middle of the room where an entirely spotless and unassuming area of stone still held a faint shade in her mind of the redhead’s body. 

Draco jumped amiably aboard the new conversational icefloe of old wizarding families and inter-linkings and gave her a formidable rendition of his family tree, which turned out to be linked with most of the families in the wizarding world.   
Rodolphus was actually a distant cousin, she learned. 

While they talked, she sipped contentedly at her champagne flute. After she had finished her orange and champagne mix he had quietly filled her glass with the new, and indeed far sweeter, champagne, without missing a beat in the conversation and she had happily rattled on about genes, explaining the basic theory and then launching into a debate about transgenic animal species.   
Although Draco didn’t seem to really understand much about genes he was still able to discuss the ethics of creating and releasing new species by relating it to the ministry of magic’s department of magical creatures regulations on chimera creation and the reasoning behind it. 

She was enchanted by his rather dry deadpan humor at several points. Draco was quite funny.   
He seemed to be having fun too. 

When he reminded her of his idea a second time, she really considered for a second and it actually seemed like a good idea now.   
But she felt like it was probably something she shouldn’t do so she shook her head, smiling and excused herself to use the bathroom. 

While she was in there, she thought again about his idea and decided that she..probably.. wouldn’t get into – or get him into – all too much trouble at the moment since Tom was pretty preoccupied with Harry and he possibly needed someone to watch her since Severus and Rodolphus were a bit busy and Lucius couldn’t be trusted. 

And that was how she came to agree to take a bath. 

When she returned to the table and said she’d changed her mind, he smiled like he’d just caught the snitch and leapt up saying he’d prepare one.   
He was out of the room before she could think twice and soon she could hear the faint sound of water flowing. 

She picked up her champagne and went and sat on the window seat and looked out the window again.   
Champagne was strange, she decided. It must affect the palate somehow as it tasted better and better the more you drank of it.   
She smiled and realised she was probably drunk. She wasn’t sure. She’d only been drunk a couple of times in her life so far.   
She just felt..pretty good.. about everything. It was all.. fine.   
And if it wasn’t, well then it would be eventually one way or another. 

Far below the wind was blowing through some tall grass at the edge of the lake. The sun was a low hanging pale lemon yellow shape behind a cloud.   
It was turning wintry outside in the world, she observed. She smiled again. It was late afternoon and she was drunk.   
What would her mother say?! She would never have done anything like this when the world was rational and whole.   
She would have thought about all the things she needed to do for her future. She had to get her newts.   
Had to get a job so that she could make a life. 

She supposed.. being the..whatever she was.. of the leader of the british wizarding world, probably obviated the need for financial security. She could probably work in whatever she wanted now.   
Assuming of course that Tom ever let her out of this room again. 

Perhaps she should study potions. She could apprentice under Severus.   
As a potions mistress she could probably feasibly stay in a small set of rooms and still get something meaningful done.   
She sighed and sipped at the sweet fizzy white yellow liquid. 

Draco was returning from the bathroom looking like it was Christmas morning. Although.. she wondered to herself.. possibly Draco’s Christmases weren’t anything to write home about.   
To judge by what he had revealed already, it was likely a chilly affair with house elves serving something unpronounceable while snooty distantly related people discussed money and issues of blood rights. 

Draco stood beside her and held out his hand to her. She took it and let him help her to her feet, where she swayed ever so slightly.   
He grinned.   
“Balance problems there, Granger?” 

She sniffed and walked unsteadily to the table, firmly putting down her glass and making for the bathroom as gracefully as she was able.   
Which probably wasn’t very. 

Draco picked up both of their perpetually half full flutes and took them into the bathroom after her. 

She had stopped in front of the huge bath. 

There were candles.. 

Her mind tried to process this from several angles to find one that didn’t seem problematic.   
The bathroom smelled of... something.. something she didnt recognise by name but it was heavenly. Creamy, sweet, slightly spicy.   
The surface of the water was coated with a layer of very small bubbles that glittered like opals, rendering it opaque.   
Here and there small glass vessels floated in the water bearing flattened round candles while tall fat white candles of various heights lined the square outer perimeter of the bath.   
It was lovely..   
It was..um.. romantic in fact. She felt vague worry course through her. 

Draco had closed the door behind him gently and walked past her, placing their flutes on the flat edge of the bath.   
He started to unbutton his shirt. 

She took a step away, swallowing. 

He looked at her, raising an eyebrow and stopped unbuttoning midway down his chest. “No?” he asked, looking at her carefully. She bit her lip and shook her head uncomfortably.   
He sighed in a long suffering kind of way and nodded. 

“Alright.. But you can still take a bath. I won’t look while you get undressed. And when you’re in the water I won’t be able to see anything. I’ll just sit here and talk to you while you relax, ok?” 

She thought about it for a while and nodded, relieved. Draco turned away and made a big show of putting his hands over his eyes.   
She watched him as she undressed nervously and after looking, to be sure he hadn’t moved, she turned and stepped over the lip of the bath onto the steps, climbing down into the wonderfully hot water and immersing herself up to the neck. She paddled to the edge of the bath and put her folded arms on the shelf, standing close to the wall, just to be sure he couldn’t see her.   
He hadn’t moved. She felt unbelievably reassured by that. He hadn’t tried to peek.   
He’d said he wouldn’t look and he hadn’t.

“Ok..” she said. 

Draco removed his hands from his eyes and turned around, looking down at her and smiling a small pleased smile. 

“Good?” he asked. She nodded. “Wonderful” she said with a sigh, letting herself sink down a bit lower in the deep area where she floated.   
He perched himself on the shelf edge of the bath next to the wall and leaned up against it, one knee propped up in front of him.   
Taking up his champagne flute again and sipping slowly from it, he watched her with contented half lidded eyes, his head tilted back against the wall. 

“What is this scent?” she asked. “- it’s amazing, will you show me what you used to make it?” 

He smiled faintly. “Sorry Granger. I didn’t know what any of the taps on your bath were for and didn’t want to mess around, so I had a house elf simply transport water from my own bathroom.   
This mix contains Peruvian pink salt, Illipe butter, Murumuru butter, a small amount of pure champa, johoba oil and gold dust. The bubbles are just enchanted..for modesty.. so they won’t melt away or stick to you.”

She was amazed. That was unexpectedly thoughtful.. although.. he had been kind of thoughtful since she got here.   
And last time she’d seen him he’d been extremely considerate also.   
She pondered on whether she might have to review her stereotype of Draco permanently. 

He leaned forward and handed her the champagne flute he was holding. She pulled herself a bit closer and accepted it from him.   
For some entirely illogical reason, it appeared champagne tasted at least ten times better when in a hot bath.   
She practically purred in enjoyment. 

Draco suddenly asked.. as if her bliss was not yet complete “Shall I read to you?” 

She blinked at him. 

He smirked, amused and left the bathroom. When he returned a few minutes later she had moved to the underwater platform that she and Severus had lain upon when they were last in here and placed her champagne on the side.. She lay on her stomach on it, her head resting on her arms.   
Her body, to the tops of her shoulderblades was above the surface of the water and her hair hung thick down her back, floating out behind her. 

She looked up happily when Draco walked in carrying three books. He retrieved his own flute and shifted to sit against the wall closest to her new position, placing the glass down beside hers. 

“You have a choice..” he looked at the books in his hands. “Harmonic theory in arithmancy, the diary of Morgana Le Fay or Poetry Across the Divide: Wizarding Poets in the Muggle Realm.”   
He looked at her with polite inquiry and picked his champagne up to drink while he waited for her answer. 

She was actually interested in all three topics. However, probably arithmancy would not read well since it helped to be able to see the thread diagrams. Morgana Le Fey was a great dark witch. Her diary was extremely rare and absolutely universally banned throughout the world due to the way she’d also record spells and observations of a dangerous nature as they occurred to her. Her diary was really more of an informal spellbook, potions recipe directory and herbology reader. If Draco read out something interesting she knew she’d want to try it and she had no magic. Which would be frustrating.   
The third book sounded interesting too. Wizarding poets who were also famous in the muggle world.   
So essentially – muggle poets she might know. 

It would be.. entertaining to listen to Draco Malfoy read muggle poetry to her while she lay in the bath.   
In fact she wished there were someone she could tell about it who would appreciate the irony without smacking her upside the head for bathing in Draco’s presence. 

“The poetry one please” she said softly. 

He smirked in a cat-with-cream manner again and she poked her tongue out at him, closing her eyes and resting her head on her arms again in contentment.   
Draco opened the book seemingly at random and read out the name of the poet and poem. 

“Jonus Keates – John Keats - Bright star, Would I were steadfast as thou art”   
She smiled in surprise. She had never known that Keats was a wizard – she had read a couple of his poems a long time ago and quite liked them. She hadn’t heard of this one however.   
Draco began to read. 

“Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art.   
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,   
And watching, with eternal lids apart,   
Like nature's patient sleepless eremite,   
The moving waters at their priestlike task   
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,   
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask   
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors; 

No yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,   
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,   
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,   
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,   
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,   
And so live ever or else swoon to death.” 

He read slowly, in a low expressive voice that seemed to yearn. It was lovely.   
She told him so and he preened slightly, brushing his shoulder length hair back with one hand.   
In candlelight it looked less white than golden yellow. A rich buttery tone that shimmered like gold.

He flipped through the book and read another poem by Keats – la belle dame sans merci ; the final verse seemed to shake him and looked troubled as he read it emotionally 

“...I saw pale kings, and princes too,   
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;   
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci -Hath thee in thrall!"   
I saw their starv'd lips in the gloam,   
With horrid warning gaped wide,   
And I awoke, and found me here   
On the cold hill side.   
And this is why I sojourn here,   
Alone and palely loitering,   
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,   
And no birds sing.” 

He sounded quite stricken and saddened when he reached the end and leaned against the wall, his head tilted, looking at her, his thumb in the book on his thigh.   
“It reminds me of you” he muttered quietly. 

She frowned at him. “Oh thank you very much. I don’t remember wooing you away to an elfin kingdom and all your world turning to winter and death while you lay dreaming” 

He smiled wanly. “No? I suppose you’re right. ...I’ll read a different one”   
his hand reached out, as if of its own accord while she looked up at him distracted by the notion that she might have dragged Draco out of some happy world.   
She flinched when his fingers touched her shoulder and gasped, about to move away but then his thumb was massaging her muscles on the back of her shoulder and it felt.. good. Very relaxing. 

Knowing she really should move away or at least tell him to stop she nevertheless brought her head down to rest on her arms.   
A moment later she heard him shift on the edge of the bath, pulling himself further down the wide side shelf and then a second hand met her other shoulder feather light and started to gently massage. 

“Mmmm” she purred softly. 

“More?” Draco's voice was soft and hesitant, as if he expected her to tell him to stop. 

She nodded against her arms, arching her neck. His hands shifted to stroke and rub it and the top of her spine immediately. It was..amazing.. 

“That’s so good” she mumbled against her arms. 

“If you let me come in the bath with you, I’ll massage the rest of your back.” he said, his voice neutral. To demonstrate what a fabulous idea this would be he started to massage lower on her back. digging his thumbs into her shoulderblades and fingers into her sides in circular motions in a most interesting way. She groaned under her breath. 

“Okay..” she said distractedly. 

He took his hands away and must have vanished his clothes because seconds later she heard the faint splishing sound of him descending the steps on the other side of the large bath. He swam over to her and stood by the platform, not touching her.   
“Shall I continue?” he said and she had the feeling that he was asking permission to touch her again.   
It was comforting. She felt like she could trust Draco not to do anything she didn’t want him to do.   
If she told him to stop, he would stop. If she wanted him to leave, he would go. 

She looked up at him from the corner of her eye. He stood to just above his waist in the water here. His body was quite tanned and impeccably toned.   
She presumed it had to be if he was to serve the Dark Lord from time to time in the manner he did.   
His bones were angular though,   
he looked, despite his strong frame, strangely fragile, like a bird or a wild animal. 

Cautiously, feather light, Draco swept her hair up and rolled it, curling it up and over her shoulder out of his way.   
She felt his fingertips graze her shoulders again and settle, sinking in and moving smoothly over her muscles in circular patterns.   
It was even better this time. He probably had better leverage from this angle, she thought.   
His hands were skillful. He used them with absolute confidence, knowing just where to push hard and where to only trace light teasing rings on her skin. It was luxury. 

“I can see why the rest of the world has given him what he wanted if this is how you persuaded them” She mumbled. 

Draco stepped closer, leaning over and saying very softly. “This isn’t how I persuaded them, Granger. But you lack some anatomical prerequisites for me to show you that. He only sent me to men.” 

She felt her cheeks redden slightly and he snickered. 

“Although.. you know... there are spells that..” 

she snorted. “No. It’s ok.. I don’t need to know that badly” 

Draco chuckled softly, his hands moving lower down her back, under the water now. 

“Mmmm” she groaned as he found a particularly sweet spot.   
“Polyjuice would work just as well” Draco mused, seemingly to himself. “Assuming you were ever... curious..” 

She lifted her head and looked up at him, bemused at his continuation of the theme   
“You really wish I had a..a penis.. that badly huh?” 

He looked at her with a strange expression. “Not exactly..”   
she raised an eyebrow and he looked uncomfortable and focused on her back. She turned her head and lay back down. After a minute or so he spoke, peevishly. 

“I like girls. It’s not that I wish you were a guy – it’s just...   
Well... It’s just..I know I’m good with men. I’ve been told at length just how good I feel.. how skilled I am. I really know my way around a guy’s body. Little tricks that can make it even better, you know?   
I...haven’t had as much experience with girls. And most of the girls I’ve slept with were pretty slavish.”   
“Take Parkinson for instance. She would have told me i had a 24 carat dick if I’d just laid her down and smacked her in the face with it for an hour.” His hands were in the small of her back now, thumbs kneading, making her feel like she wanted to arch her back and raise her buttocks in a catlike stretch. 

“well this feels good” she mumbled against her arm, sublimely relaxed “and the issue of male or female is moot since I’m not sleeping with you” 

He said nothing but his hands moved an inch further down toward her buttocks. 

After a minute she asked curiously. “Whose hair would you want me to use, anyway?!”   
Draco didn’t respond. She crooked an eyebrow without opening her eyes.   
“I don’t know” he said softly. “I suppose I could go and track down some attractive muggle that would do. Or I could give you my hair.” 

At that she threw her eyes open and stared at him, smirking widely. “You do remember what happened to narcissus, right? Don’t you think you might start developing complexes if you were sleeping with yourself?   
And incidentally – what would be the point in my taking polyjuice to be a male. I have no idea how the male anatomy works. I barely know how to operate it second hand”   
She knew she was lying somewhat but she did have very little experience with the sex act itself. Two of her partners had been extremely dominant and one utterly inept and she hadn’t really had a chance to experiment much yet.

“I’d teach you” Draco said quietly.   
Sliding his hands down over her buttocks under the water and off her he moved down toward her feet.   
“Trust me.. you’d love it.” 

She looked at him incredulously. “Oh my God.. you’re really serious about this, aren’t you? If I said yes you’d probably run off now and fetch some polyjuice potion” 

He frowned at her as if she was daft. “Don’t be ridiculous.”   
“I’d have the elf bring it.”   
Picking up her foot he began to massage it. 

“Ohhhhh!!” she groaned, her head flopping down onto her arms as her entire body turned to jelly. “Ohh... that should be illegal. Where did you learn to do that..” 

He sniggered softly. “I had an excellent private tutor.”   
He massaged one foot till she felt like her entire body was vibrating and then he switched to the next and she just about writhed wantonly at how good it felt. It seemed like it made the rest of her body feel even more sensitive somehow.   
She knew that there were pressure points in the feet but she’d never actually had anyone manipulate them and this was an astounding surprise. 

When Draco started to move up her calves and then to the backs of her knees she moaned softly, suddenly aware that she actually wanted more than a massage in the meantime. This was dangerous. She should stop him right now.   
This was probably the one thing that could get him killed now.   
And then he started to speak, very softly.   
At first she was confused, then she realised it was a poem. She listened, enthralled, as his cunning fingers crept up the back of her thighs, pressing and kneading and easing her legs apart subtly. 

“Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death,   
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,   
To take into the air my quiet breath;   
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,   
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,   
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad ..In such an ecstasy!   
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain-  
-To thy high requiem become a sod....” 

His fingertips had reached the lower curve of her buttocks and, stroking her inner thighs, his thumbs delved gently into the soft folds between her legs. She gasped and moved. Thinking to move away but finding herself instead moving against him, rubbing herself against his questing thumbs, trying to scratch an itch that he’d ignited in her.   
She half turned, looking around at him with fearful eyes. 

He was watching her calmly, a look of fascination and wonder faintly on his face. 

“We have to stop.” She hissed. 

He quirked his brows. “I’m not holding you down, Granger. Tell me you want me to stop touching you and I will.”   
His thumb delved deeper. Running up her slit and pressing over her clit. She whined softly and rubbed herself against it. 

“I will. In a minute.. “ she said in a tight needy voice. 

He snorted softly and rubbed her a little harder. She moaned. His other thumb played lightly over the entrance of her vagina. Not entering, just teasing it slightly.   
“ohh..” she moaned softly, wanting to press herself back onto it. 

“Do you want.. more than my hands” he asked so softly she barely heard him. 

She thought NO! and she thought YES! And she didnt have the balls to say either.   
So she whimpered and let him tease her with his fingers.   
The thumb probing at her vagina vanished and she felt its loss.   
Then it seemed to return but no.. it was his fingers. He eased a finger inside her, working it gently in and out.   
The water did not make a good lubricant she thought. 

He must have thought the same thing because he reached for his wand on the edge of the bath and cast a charm and she felt a strange change inside her. He laid it back and reapplied his finger slowly and it felt slick and warm and oily. 

“Waterproof lubrication charm. Don’t ask.” He muttered. 

She didnt care. It felt awesome. His finger was exploring inside her, turning and angling.   
He took it out and slipped two fingers in. It felt tighter. Better. She pressed back against him, wanting.   
Suddenly he removed his hands.   
An aching pang of need assaulted her and part of her mind screeched at her for allowing him to stop doing what was feeling soooo good. She turned, a questioning bereft look on her face. 

Draco had moved back and was floating, up to his neck in the deeper water the ends of his hair just touching the opalescent bubbles on the surface. His expression was one of challenge.   
“You said you’d tell me to stop in a minute.” He said thickly. “I thought I’d save myself from having to hear you send me away.” 

The aching feeling inside pricked her again and she found herself sliding off the smooth bench into the deeper water; swimming over to him.   
He floated back slightly, just out of reach.   
She followed him till they were in the far corner of the bath. He smirked at her.   
“Going to have your way with me now, Granger?” 

She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, floating closer to him. “Well you’re probably going to be boiled for a lamb already now.. want to try for being shot for a fox?”   
Draco’s eyes widened slightly. 

“He really will kill me if I fuck you like this” he said seriously. 

She sighed and pouted, moving back slightly. “I know. ...Sorry.” She swam back a bit..   
“We should get out now. There’s too much... nakedness.. I..” she bit her lip “I really want you right now.” 

Draco swam forward and his hands captured her waist. “I said he’d kill me if I fucked you like this.   
One more reason I thought it would be easier if you were a guy. You could fuck me and I think he’d be slightly more forgiving. I wouldn’t be doing anything at all to your body that way.”   
He pulled her against him and her legs came up and wrapped around his thighs automatically, forcing them both to paddle with their hands slightly to remain afloat.   
she could feel his smooth long slender cock moving in the water and brushing against her every so often. 

It was tantalizing. She had the worst need to just reach down and ..   
...but that would be a very bad idea. Draco was right. He was probably already in shit of such depth that it required submersibles to plumb it..but there was no need to cement his death in solid inevitability. 

“Whose hair would we use? I’m not using yours.. that just feels.. weird.” 

Draco thought for a moment. “I can immediately lay hands on Severus’ and Lucius’ hair but not even a world class imperius and the threat of death by cruciatus could make me fuck either of them.” 

Hermione thought this was for the best – Draco didn’t seem to have any idea of his godfathers new youthful state and Severus hair used by her now would not produce the potions master Draco would expect. 

“I don’t know anyone else that I could get hair from right now and would be willing to sleep with. You’ll have to use mine. Its not as if you’ll see yourself.” 

“No.” she said firmly. “It feels like incestuous twins.”   
She swallowed.   
“There might be one or two of Tom’s hairs in bed..” she said slowly. 

Draco looked at her panicked. “Oh..great plan Granger. If he’ll be pissed at me for fucking you.. he’ll be over the moon at you fucking me in his body!!” 

She smirked. “Still. Its the best solution. And you have to admit.. he’s hot..” 

Draco put his hand to his face. “I don’t!! I have a paranoid feeling that if I even hint at it, he’ll appear and do something awful to me. The man uses the cruciatus like other people say ‘morning. Nice weather we’re having’”   
Hermione couldn’t prevent a small grin. “Yes.. well.. he can be a bit..um..” 

“Cruelly sadistic and unpredictable?” Draco finished in a ‘duh’ tone. 

She snickered. “He’s usually just drop dead sexy at me. I can only count one or two times he’s been angry.. and he probably could have been a hell of a lot worse.” 

Draco shook his head ruefully. 

She smiled. “Still.. admit it! he does look incredibly..unfairly..gorgeous! Wouldn’t you like to know what it would be like with him if he weren’t about to hurt you? Cause I’d never hurt you... you know that, right?” 

Draco looked as if she’d given him a kiss. “...maybe..” he said uncertainly. 

She considered. “If you have enough polyjuice – we could try it first and if you’re really creeped out we’ll use your hair instead.”   
Draco seemed content with that.   
He swam to the edge of the bath, with her following behind, and summoned a different elf. “Wigger!” 

A tiny greenish elf appeared wearing a blue and white striped tea towel around its waist as if it had just come from the bathroom. Hermione knew that it hadn’t but it was comically cute anyway.   
“Yes Master Malfoy?” it said in a squeaky little voice. 

Hermione realised that the Malfoy elves seemed to speak differently than the other elves she’d come across. She wondered if they were trained to and, if so, whether they were punished for falling back into more typical elf patterns of speech. 

Draco looked down at the tiny figure.   
“Go to my potions chest in my wardrobe and get me the jar with P written on the label. And then when you come back please go to the other bedrooms in these chambers and collect all the hairs on the bed and bring them with you.” 

Wigger cut a quick bow.   
“and warm this water up three degrees celcius before you go...please” He said to the tiny elf, stopping it before it popped away.   
He looked like the ‘please’ almost caused him physical pain. 

The wee creature snapped its fingers and the water they were in instantly became toasty and steaming again.   
A tiny pop indicated that it had departed. 

Draco turned to her, sliding closer and holding her around her waist again.   
“Can i kiss you?” he asked as solemnly as if he’d asked her to marry him. She smiled, her eyes softening, forgetting his imperious manner with the house elf.   
“What if it would cost you a crucio?” she asked.   
He sneered at her. “Granger.. It WILL cost me a crucio. Probably a long one. Possibly more than one. Can I kiss you?” 

She nodded and leaned in, tilting her head and pressing her lips against Draco’s.   
He closed his eyes, sliding his hands up from her waist and wrapping them around her. They both parted their lips at the same moment, their questing tongues meeting at the midpoint and swirling around each other, teasing, tasting. 

A pop signified that the house elf had returned. “Master Malfoy. I has –have the jar and hair for you” the squeaky little voice announced.   
Draco reluctantly broke the kiss and pulled away, moving to the edge to take the items from the elf.   
It had brought the hairs in a small bowl. There were quite a few – most black with some brown wavy ones that were obviously hers. 

“Thank you Wigger.” He said shortly. “I need a glass beaker too ..please” 

The little elf’s ears stood up and it looked surprised but happy. “Yes Master Malfoy. Right away”   
It clicked its fingers and a small glass beaker stood on the edge of the bath. 

“That’s all” Draco said and the little elf bowed happily and popped away again. 

Draco eyed the items on the edge of the bath. “moment of truth, Granger.. Still up for it?” 

She raised an eyebrow. In the meantime she didn’t feel quite so aroused but she had somehow warmed to the idea.. all in the spirit of intellectual inquiry of course.   
She was about to know for the first time what it was like to be a boy. The magical world was brilliant. 

“Seems like it” she said obliquely. 

Draco grinned and his eyes looked excited.   
“Have you ever done this before?” she asked curiously. “been with a polyjuiced girl I mean.” 

Draco looked sheepish. “Well.. not with one polyjuiced as a man” he admitted.   
“Pansy played a few other girls in our year for me from time to time if I decided I wanted them. She thought it was better than me going and chatting them up.”   
Hermione nodded thoughtfully. It wasn’t that bad a plan actually if you were with a guy who had a tendency to sow his oats wherever he wanted. Except for the horrible violation of the girls in question of course. 

“It wasn’t that great” Draco complained. “No matter who she was wearing she’d always act the same way. In the end i got bored of it”   
he was pouring the thick vile gloop into the beaker now. He filled it with about a finger’s depth of polyjuice.   
“this should give us a little over an hour” he said.   
He turned to the bowl. 

“Granger.. which one’s the Dark Lord?” 

She came close and peered into the bowl.   
“How would I know?! One of the straight black ones obviously. Just pick one.” 

He peered closer. “Some of the black ones are curly you know..”   
She smirked. “Yes well.. just pick a hair Draco.” 

He raised an eyebrow and pulled out a short curly black hair. “As you wish” he said and dropped the pubic hair into the polyjuice.   
She frowned at him irritatedly but she was actually mostly amused. He handed her the beaker.   
“tasty..” he remarked sardonically. “Make sure you savour the thick sludgy lumps right next to that pube” 

She scowled for real now and blocked her nose with one hand tossing the liquid down her throat with the other.   
Or.. trying to.   
The viscous stewlike mixture slithered slowly down the glass side of the beaker and into her mouth piecemeal, so that she had to wait for a very long time till it was all in there before she could swallow the huge mouthful.   
Draco was sniggering, thoroughly entertained. 

Hermione wanted to snap at him but then a massive cramp hit her and she stopped paddling and immediately dropped below the surface of the water. Draco’s hands were immediately on her, pulling her back up and dragging her to the steps through her shuddering and conniptions as the polyjuice altered the very structure of her body on the most fundamental level.   
She curled herself into a ball sitting on the step while he patted her back as if to soothe her.   
When it finally stopped she felt... weird. Just.. weird. Wrong. As if her shoes were on the wrong feet.   
Except she was naked. 

There were pressings where there shouldn’t be.. a feeling of skin against skin down on the top of her thighs and a lack of skin pressing against skin on her chest where her breasts should be pressed together if she were curled like this.   
Also her hair felt strange.   
It clung to her body like silk rather than wool. 

She raised her head and looked at Draco. He was gaping at her.   
She felt with her arms over her body. It felt hard.. firm.. strong. It was smooth but not in the same way her own skin was. She ran a hand down her abdomen, pleased by the feeling and then she found her penis.   
Touching it made her jolt slightly – the feeling was entirely bizarre. As if someone had taken her clitoris and rolled it out really thin and then wrapped it around a sausage.   
It felt.. somewhat like having an extremely large, abnormally sensitive clitoris.   
And the feeling of emptiness that should be just below it was just.. gone. There was.. nothing. 

“Who the hell are you?” Draco blurted, obviously shocked. 

She smirked.. and it felt different on this face.   
Draco’s face paled and she realised he’d recognised her now that expression was on her face. 

“Severus!” he hissed. 

She climbed down the stairs and stood in the water, stretching her arms and exploring the feeling of moving in this new body. It felt..   
it felt amazing actually – really pleasant.   
She put her hands behind her back and felt up her own arse. Severus had a fantastic arse. 

“This is brilliant!” she gushed in her own voice. 

“Oh Merlin.. Don’t do that! Stop talking Granger. Being in the bath naked with my godfather is bad enough without hearing your voice coming out of his mouth.. Why do you look like you’re in your early twenties?!”   
She looked at him pointedly.   
“Ok. talk” he said finally. 

“The Dark Lord did it. He brought him back to the age he thought he was most beautiful.” she said.   
There that was fine. She didn’t explain how and Draco wouldn’t ask. If Tom did it then it didn’t matter how. 

Draco was looking at her speculatively. “You’re right. He did look alright when he was younger. You’re not staying in that body though. I’ll get you another shot.”   
He backed off toward the polyjuice and she leapt after him.   
This body was so strong. She’d have to compliment Severus on it later.   
She caught Draco around the waist and dragged him back, wrapping her arms around him. 

“Oh come on.. he looks more than alright. He’s entirely shaggable. When Tom grabs him by the hair he makes this delicious little sound too.. he’s so ...wanton.. I love it.” 

Draco was struggling and she let him go.   
He shivered.   
“Granger.. leave it. You’re touching me with a man who looked after me since I was a toddler. Even if he’s younger - I don’t want to think of him like that. Severus was more of a father to me than my father was.” 

She blushed, ashamed of herself.   
“Sorry. I was just enjoying how it felt and got a bit carried away. Didn’t think of it that way. He’s a different person for me.   
I’ll stay back ok?!” 

Draco nodded warily and shuddered. 

He scourgified and refilled the beaker; picked through the hairs for a while and dropped one in before bringing it to her near the steps.   
“Sit down this time” he said. 

She swallowed the foul brew with some difficulty and wrapped her arms around her knees, curling into herself when the cramps started.   
It really felt awful when it was working, even if it was an amazing potion.   
When it stopped she gingerly unfolded herself to find Draco two and a half paces away awaiting her movement with trepidation.   
She ran her hands over her body. It felt different. Not weaker.. but differently muscled. Leaner. Narrower.   
Her abs felt tighter and she had muscles on her sides too.   
She ran her hands up to her face, feeling the shape of it. Her hair had shortened and only brushed her ears now. 

“Ok.. “ she said, certain she was Tom now. She stood. “How do I look” she asked him. 

He was looking at her fearfully.   
“You look like...like the Dark Lord looks now. Except your eyes are blue.” 

She frowned. Her skin was pale unnatural marble white still... why were her eyes not red?   
She had vaguely wondered how he saw the world through them. It must be something to do with his soul she figured. Well.. she wouldn’t be able to heal that ever again now without making Harry even more of a Tom-twin. 

She moved slowly through the water toward Draco. “is it..ok?” she asked tentatively.   
She looked down at herself.. admiring Tom’s gorgeous body and ran her hand over her own chest, down her abs, over her pubic hair.   
She gripped her cock in her hand, feeling a strange surreal sense of standing behind herself. It was so bizarre to touch a penis from this angle. And to feel it.. Just weird. 

Draco took a half step toward her. “I just.. have to try to stop feeling like you’re about to do something incredibly painful to me.” He swallowed weakly.   
She smiled. “Not in a million years” she said softly. She reached out and ran her fingertips down the side of Draco’s face.   
His eyes widened and he gulped again. He took another step closer.   
“Tell me I’m hot..” she said in a whisper. When she whispered, her voice didn't sound so female.

Draco slid all the way up to her, his abdomen touching hers. He looked down, looking over her..Tom’s.. body.   
“you’re fucking gorgeous” he murmured and looked back up into her eyes.   
She let her hands slide around his hips and up to the small of his back, pressing him harder against her. 

The brushing of his cock in the water against her own felt very..strange. it was like an increasing sense of heaviness.. pressure.. there. 

She let her hands slide up his back one of them going around him and the other sliding up to the back of his neck.   
Pulling him forward suddenly she crushed her mouth to his, kissing him hard.   
Draco froze for a fraction of a second, apparently shocked, but then he responded, kissing her back ravenously, thrusting his tongue into her mouth as if he wanted to stick it down her throat.   
She sucked on it, pulling it deeper and he moaned into her mouth then pulled back.   
“Fuck Granger..do you know how to do that for real?” 

She smiled darkly and he jerked back against her arms, afraid 

She stopped, smiling sheepishly now. “Sorry. I forgot that you don’t find that smile a turn-on on him.”   
Draco smiled a bit nervously.   
She pulled him close again and kissed him, tenderly this time, encouragingly.   
“I won’t hurt you” she whispered between kisses. “I promise, Draco.”   
He softened finally. 

“I know. If it were someone else i wouldn’t mind if you did. I ..like it a bit rougher... but.. not that rough.. if you know what I mean.   
There are stories about the Dark Lord.. that he’s more than brutal...  
that sex with him is nobody’s idea of fun – not even something you’d wish on your enemy.” 

Hermione tilted her head trying to unify this idea with her image of him.   
“Well when he fucked me in the shower this morning he was absolutely phenomenal! Breathtaking! Outstanding!   
Deserving of some kind of award or prize by some international body for sex.   
I could write sonnets about how bloody amazing he made me feel if it weren’t beyond the capacity of literary description.   
I have no idea what he’s like when I’m not around, but he’s a dark sex god whenever I meet him.” 

She was getting tired of talking now. Her cock felt somehow uncomfortable.   
She jumped when she felt Draco’s hand on it, lightly, stroking down her length. It felt..oh.. it felt really really good.   
“Mmm do that more!” she demanded. He smirked and closed his hand around her.   
It made the sensation so much better. He moved his hand up and down and she clutched him breathlessly. 

“It’s so different” she muttered. 

“How is it different?” he asked curiously. 

“it’s so.. immediate” she fumbled out as he was making her mind unravel with that gentle rhythmic movement. She bucked her hips in his hand helplessly.   
He snickered. “You’re putty in my hands Granger.. I’m going to play you like a violin..   
Come on. We’re getting out of here. I want us to be able to see each other.   
And I don’t want to drown when you refuse to let me take your cock out of my throat because it feels too good.” 

She laughed and turned, making her way to the steps and climbing out. When she looked back she saw Draco was obviously checking her out. “Coming?” she threw back. 

“Oh.. you’ll know when I’m coming, Granger, don’t worry” he snorted and followed her up the steps. 

She got them both thick fluffy black towels. At first she wrapped hers around herself at the level of her underarms and Draco fell apart laughing his arse off at her.   
She unfolded the towel again, glaring at him and wrapped it around her waist.   
“I feel half naked like this..” she complained.   
He walked up to her and fisted his hand in her hair, kissing her hungrily. “You are half naked.” He muttered smiling.   
“Come on.” 

They went back out into her room and she saw that the sun had set while they were in the bathroom. Draco went back into the bathroom and got his wand. He summoned all the tall candles from around the bath and they floated into her room, distributing themselves around the window, the table, the bedside tables.   
The candelabras flickered to life. Soon the entire room was lit with a soft burnished yellow glow. 

Draco cast a charm on them both and she felt a strange sensation inside her. It felt as if she had something fizzing through her for a second. “Scourgifying colonic” Draco explained and approached her slowly, backing her up toward the bed. 

“Do you have any idea how strange it is to see the Dark Lord backing away from me like a nervous virgin?!” he asked in a low voice.   
She smirked. “Yeah.. well.. don’t push me or I’ll start imitating his Voldemort expressions and you’ll widdle yourself” 

Draco rolled his eyes. “Let’s see how well you can do that when you’re moaning and begging me to let you come”   
he put his hands on her chest and pushed her onto the bed hard, at the same time whipping away the towel she had had wrapped around her waist.   
She oofed at the unexpected impact. Draco had dropped his own towel and was climbing onto the bed.

“Move up” he directed in a low voice. 

She pulled herself further up the bed on her elbows till her head was almost touching the opposite edge. It was a massive bed. It had fit Tom, herself and Severus comfortably.   
Draco was forcing apart her legs with his knee, lifting her leg and tossing it wide so that he could kneel between her legs, his own splayed slightly.   
She admired his body as he knelt over her. He was like a young sun worshipper. Tanned and blonde with a body that still looked young and fresh and innocent – even though she knew without a shadow of a doubt that it had not been innocent in a very long time.   
He seemed to be doing the same thing – feasting his eyes on her body.   
He ran his hands over her and she shivered in pleasure. 

When he leaned over her and kissed her gently then licked his way down to her chest and sucked her nipples she marvelled again at how different it felt.   
She told him. “On my body that feels much more intense.. as if its connected to my clitoris somehow. This is.. different..”   
He nipped her nipple slightly and she gasped. “mmm.. do that” she whispered, incensed.   
He complied and sucked hard.   
“ohhhh..” she breathed. 

He smiled and continued down her body, nipping her and sucking at the bites. It was.. making her want to rub her hips against him. So she did.   
She felt his hand slide between them and grip her, stroking slowly and she tipped her head back, moaning.

The sensations there were so much more intense and compelling than anything in her body. She felt like if he stopped doing ..that... she would literally die. 

Draco took his hand away and lifted his body slightly while still kissing and sucking his way down her.   
She groaned in dismay and bucked at air.   
He sniggered.   
“beg!” he demanded in a low voice. 

She snorted. There was no way she was going to beg him to touch her. He was dreaming. She put her hands behind her head, interlacing the fingers and laying back as if she wasn’t in a state of dire lust, trying to ignore the incredibly imperative needy demands of her body to do whatever the hell it took to make him keep touching her there. 

Draco raised his eyebrows at her. “No? We’ll see.”   
He knelt up again on his heels, his own cock hanging heavy and hard out from his body with the spring of youth.   
He reached a hand forward and brushed it over her balls lightly. She puffed her breath out, the sensation overwhelming. 

When he leaned down and she felt his hot wet tongue start to lick them she was unable to prevent herself from groaning loudly and, moving her hips to shift her balls against his tongue.   
She cried out helplessly when he took first one, then the other and then both into his wide mouth. She felt like she couldn’t move when he held them in that hot tight wet cavern and let his tongue slip over them soft and flat.   
It was..beyond anything she had a concept for.   
Not comparable with the feeling of having her pussy licked at all.   
When he started to suck her cock she came almost immediately, unable to restrain the urgent sensation; the simple ability to let go of his head was beyond her as she tensed, thrusting herself deep into his welcoming throat and empting her balls. 

The sensation was unlike peeing. It was..she felt.. somewhat like the unstoppable spasmic feeling of throwing up.. only in an entirely appealing way. It was delicious, wonderful. It had the rush of an orgasm, the relief of peeing when you’d been holding it for a long time...   
it was entirely different to her own climaxes.   
She was utterly weak when it finished and watched Draco, panting, as he licked his lips and smirked at her deviously. 

“How was it?” he asked curiously. 

“Uhhh” she groaned and rolled her eyes back in her head to convey what words failed to capture. 

He laughed and climbed up her body, kissing her. She could taste very faintly.. a slight bitter taste but it was not unpleasant.   
Draco seemed to not be able to get enough of her mouth now, he snogged the living daylights out of her. 

“This is so going to get me killed” he said, when he finally came up for air. She nodded weakly, smirking.   
He seemed to remember something and got up exiting out of her peripheral vision. When he came back he held the beaker with polyjuice. 

“Time for another dose” he said with visible schadenfreude. “unless you want to be me now for a while.”   
She shook her head. He didn’t seem disappointed in the slightest.   
“I found a hair that looked exactly the same as the last one. Hopefully you’ll only have to take one dose this time..   
I poured a bit more in. Should last longer. Perhaps a couple of hours.”

She nodded and sat up. 

Draco stood, unabashed in his nakedness, his cock half stiff against his thigh, and held out the beaker for her.   
There was a truly inexcusably repulsive mass of sludge in the bottom. She balked and tried to think – stew stew. Its just stew. Drink it down. Good for you.   
It went down a lot more unpleasantly than the last two doses. Fortunately there was almost no cramp following her taking it. She just experienced a mild full body shiver and then she felt fine. 

Draco retrieved the beaker from her and put it on the bedside table then he turned and climbed back onto the bed, pushing her down and crawling over her, burying his face in her neck and immediately latching onto places that made her shiver in pleasure and wrap her arms around him to urge him on..   
The nature of polyjuice was that it was absorbed into the cells quickly. As such, the horrible taste would disappear after only a minute or so.   
Draco seemed to know exactly how long he needed to wait and pounced upon her lips almost immediately the taste cleared, scouring her mouth with his tongue and reaching for her hands, pulling them out and pinning them to the bed beside her head. 

The power of the position seemed to drive him wild.   
He nipped at her tongue and rubbed his cock against hers. She could feel that heavy sensitive feeling that told her she was getting hard again already. He pulled back and looked down between their bodies.   
“Mm Granger.. look’s like you want more already. Too bad.. it’s my turn.” 

He sat up and threw himself onto the pillows perpendicular to her orientation, laying his legs on top of hers. 

She did want more. She wanted to shove her cock in Dracos mouth again, but fair was fair she thought.   
She pulled herself out from under him and crawled between his legs.   
The blow job she delivered was apparently quite astounding to Draco to judge by the number of expletives he let out when she deep throated him into an explosive climax.   
He had been far more gentle than Voldemort or Harry and hadn’t held her head at all, bucking only with his hips.   
As a result she found she really wanted to take him as deep as she could possibly go, suck him as hard as she could, tease him with her tongue as she dragged herself up and down his length.   
She had cupped his balls for a while, juggling them in her fingers, but he finally lost it when she dipped an exploratory finger down further and ran it around his rosette stroking his anus gently. 

After he was done panting and looking at her in amazement he got up and kissed her again, more softly this time.   
“I’ll teach you how you fuck a man now” he murmured, looking wonderfully flushed.   
She felt nervous.   
“Don’t worry.. I’m not going to fuck you.. you’re going to fuck me. It won’t hurt at all.   
But I’ll show you how you prepare a guy before you can slip your cock into him.   
As Severus said in potions – adequate preparation is absolutely imperative, Granger.”

He pushed her slowly till she lay on her back. Her hair fell in her face and she brushed it to the side like she saw Tom do all the time.   
Draco had pushed her legs wide and now he leaned forward and started to lick her cock again. He sucked her a little and she started to fuck his mouth but he pulled away, disappointingly and licked down over her balls and further, raising her legs and pushing them up till her hips were curled and her knees almost up by her shoulders.   
Draco lay down and started to kiss and lick her arse. 

It felt positively peculiar. 

She wasn’t sure whether she liked it or wanted him to stop.   
The thought that Draco Malfoy was kissing her arse did amuse her on some level.   
Realising she was going to have to do this to him soon sobered her however. 

His licks and kisses drew closer and closer to her rosette and she started to feel a kind of nervous tension.   
Anticipation.   
When he finally drew his tongue over the pink wrinkled ring she whimpered slightly, clenching against him.   
He chuckled and kept licking her there, tracing little circles around it and teasing the hole in the centre with his tongue till he was actually thrusting his tongue inside her and it felt.. surprisingly good actually.   
Very very weird but not at all unpleasant.   
She felt something hard prod at her and clenched again.   
It felt greasy, slick. She realised it was his finger and experienced discomfort as he pressed it to the centre of her rosette and pushed. She felt it slide into her, felt each knuckle. He kissed her buttock. “Relax..” he cajoled her.   
“If you relax it will feel better soon. She whimpered and nodded. 

He was pushing his finger in and out of her now curving it and angling it toward the edges. She recognised at once that he had done the same thing to her pussy in the beginning.   
She felt somehow strangely sad. He hadn’t lied. He really wasn’t sure of how to be with a woman. He was used to being with men only. 

She shivered now. She could feel his tongue probing around her rosette around the finger he had inserted to the last knuckle.   
He pulled it out and inserted his tongue again, thrusting it in and out quickly. She moaned softly and he lifted a hand to stroke her cock a little while he did it again.   
She rolled her hips a little, unable to resist the feelings.   
He withdrew his tongue and a larger obstruction started to force its way slowly into her body. It hurt a wee bit.   
She winced and the movement slowed to a crawl.   
Eventually he had two fingers inside her and started to pump them in and out at a sedate pace and scissor them slightly to widen her. When he inserted a third finger and the pressure became sharply, uncomfortably painful he crawled up on his knees, his fingers still buried in her and put her cock in his mouth, pumping in time with his sucks, She moaned, writhing against the twin axes of his hot slick mouth and his hard thrusting fingers.   
She wondered how it would feel if his cock were in there instead of his fingers. She realised she wanted to know. 

Reluctantly he stopped sucking her off and withdrew his fingers gently. “That’s all there is.. If you wanted.. I could put my cock in you now and it wouldn’t hurt..as much.   
She looked at him hopefully. “Will you?” she asked. 

“If you...want me to” 

She nodded eagerly. He didn’t require extensive persuasion. He reached for his wand and cast the lubrication charm on his cock, then, tossing it aside he reached for her legs and put them on his shoulders, leaning forward and lining up the head of his cock with her anus.   
When he first started pushing she yelped, whining. It hurt..a lot more than his fingers had.   
He Shhhed her soothingly and told her to relax. “It’ll be better when its all the way in, granger” he mumbled, looking down at the point where the head of his penis was forcing her wide open.   
She hissed and tried to relax.   
It hurt but eventually his head was in all the way and then he pushed and it seemed like he kept going in forever. Deeper and deeper till he was all the way in and she felt his blond curls tickle her butt. Then he stayed still for a moment. 

Her bottom felt like it was rhythmically clenching and trying to force this foreign invasion out. It felt a lot like needing to go to the bathroom urgently. It felt a bit like being midway through going to the bathroom actually.   
Eventually Draco must have felt that she was ready because he pulled back smoothly till he was almost all the way out and then he thrust into her, slapping into her softly.   
“Oh!” she exclaimed, surprised. “That feels.. um..”   
He grinned and did it again a bit harder.   
“do that more.. and uh.. a bit..” she didn’t finish what she was going to say because he leaned down over her and fucked her hard and the angle somehow brushed over something inside her that felt really good.   
She growled and pulled her own legs down, bucking up at him this time when he thrust into her hard. 

He gasped and leaned down, starting to kiss her as he set up a smooth fast rhythm, rubbing incessantly over that sensitive part inside her while his tongue rubbed against her own in the most appealing way.   
Just when she thought it could not get any better than this he wrapped his hand around her cock and started to stroke her in time with his thrusts.   
The overall sensation was peculiar, as if she was fucking herself somehow. She moaned loudly into his mouth and he groaned in response, fucking her harder.   
She was on the brink of her climax when a crack sounded in the room and Draco froze, a terrified look coming over his face. 

He sat up slowly, starting to shake terribly and glanced behind him. “It’s been gr-great knowing you Granger” he murmured 

 

Tom stalked slowly, predatorily over to the bed. 

His voice, when he spoke was dangerous in its tone of innocent enquiry.   
“Hermione... can you explain why I am watching myself be fucked in the arse by Draco Malfoy right now? I had felt sure I was in the potions lab, talking with Severus about possible ways of freeing you from a blood bond – but it appears I was mistaken. Care to elucidate?” 

She felt her erection wilt completely and looked at it, frowning. “Damn... You broke it.” She let her head fall back onto the bed huffing her...Tom’s... hair out of her eyes with a scowl, and lowering her legs from the somewhat exposed position she had been in.   
Turned her..his.. head she looked up at him. 

Draco was actually doing a truly worldshakingly successful impression of being invisible right now. He had ceased moving altogether and his cock had softened and slipped out of her almost moments after he felt his mark tingle and realised who had just apparated into the room. 

Tom tilted his head and looked ..himself.. in the eye. Himself with blue eyes. 

“On the floor, Draco” He hissed.   
The naked blond boy fell over himself to comply. “Yes Master” he responded breathlessly. 

Draco out of the way Tom paced to the bed and climbed up, crawling over Hermione till he straddled her naked...   
\- straddled his own naked body.   
He smirked down at her darkly.   
“Oh my twisted little Gryffindor.. You somehow manage to continue to surprise me every time I see you. I never know what to expect. Are you enjoying wearing my body?” 

She stretched beneath him rubbing herself against him incidentally in the process. “There is nobody I’d rather be. There is nobody more beautiful than you.”   
His dark smile widened. “What a Slytherin thing to say, little one. I do believe you are learning.”   
She reached up with his hand and stroked his face. “Kiss me?” she suggested.   
He grimaced. “After Malfoy’s been there? He raised a perfect brow, his red eyes flashing and she felt her mouth suddenly flushed with a mint taste. He leaned down and roughly kissed..himself. 

A crack sounded..


	39. Chapter 39

The scene for Severus when he apparated in must have appeared like something out of a strange surrealist painting. 

A beautiful naked boy on a bed with innocent blue eyes hungrily kissed his beautiful fully clothed twin with demonic red eyes while a naked blonde seraphim on the floor bowed and worshipped the act. 

Severus stopped stock still and stared at the man he loved as he snogged the hell out of himself.   
It took all of half a minute before he was stripping. He flicked off the glamour and tossed his long hair, striding toward the bed.   
“Draco” he acknowledged in passing, ambivalent about the boy’s presence, divining at once what must have occurred as the beaker on the bedside table held the residue of a large amount of polyjuice potion. 

Tom turned as he climbed onto the bed, his red eyes alight with pleasure. “Delightful, is it not, Severus? As much as I feel I should severely punish the boy, I cannot quite manage to work up anger when his actions have led to this rather unexpected gift.” 

Hermione reached up and tugged at his neck, urging him to kiss her some more. Tom waved an impatient hand and his clothing melted away, leaving two absolutely identical hardened cocks side by side.   
Hermione looked down at Draco, who looked fundamentally conflicted with the situation before him. 

The other two followed her gaze and Severus tilted his head as if in inner debate.   
Tom turned to him. “Decide.”   
The young long haired boy’s serious face frowned and he finally turned to Tom. “It is acceptable if you wish it my Lord” Draco now looked petrified. 

“Come here, boy” Tom demanded in a soft voice. 

Hermione propped herself up on her elbows and Draco looked between their faces in terror.   
“Oh stop” she said. “You’re ok.” she looked up at Tom and raised a perfect eyebrow on his mirrored face seeking confirmation.   
The Dark Lord smirked again. “I believe I will not harm him at present.” 

Draco inched closer. “My Lord?” he whispered. 

“He’s not comfortable with Severus naked” Hermione explained. “we accidentally tried that first when we mixed the hair up.”   
Both men looked piqued by the idea of two Severus..(Severuses? Severi?) too.   
It seemed Severus was not averse to snogging himself either. She remembered Draco had been quite happy to do so in the beginning too. 

The Dark Lord laughed. “Wonderful. Yes.. you do look quite uncomfortable, don’t you, Draco” he reached out and gripped the boy’s jaw gently, stroking his thumb along it for a moment.   
“Well that will be a suitable punishment I think.   
If you want me to allow Hermione to fuck you, you will suck your..” 

“Tom!” Hermione interjected. “harm?! That does include psychological harm you know. – don’t ask him to do that.“ Severus looked somewhat startled too, she noticed. 

Tom appeared to sulk for a moment – if it were at all possible that a dark lord would do such a thing.   
“well.. he would be more enjoyable if he weren’t so hung up. It limits the configurations possible. I merely thought I’d assist him to develop a new perspective.   
After all, his godfather is now to all extents and purposes only a few years older than him...and by far the greatest cocksucker I have ever known – although your performance, my dear, considering it was your first time was also quite phenomenal.” 

“Draco?” she asked him quietly. “Do you want to stay or go? You can leave if you like.” 

Tom looked infuriated that she would unilaterally declare what he would or wouldn’t be prepared to do but he, astoundingly, said nothing and simply rolled his eyes, turning back to the dark haired boy opposite him and staring deep into his eyes, sharing some kind of message.   
Severus broke the contact first, looking down and blushing. Hermione wondered what had been said.

Draco stood, even in this peculiar situation, quite content to be unclothed, and looked at them all in turn, his forehead furrowed in worry.   
He ended up looking at Hermione.. or.. Tom/Hermione and swallowed, looking at her with a longing expression.   
“I’ll stay” he said tersely.   
Tom looked so pleased he practically clapped his hands in glee. He accio’ed the polyjuice and a knock from the bathroom door informed him of its location. He waved the door open and the polyjuice sailed out to them. He filled the beaker with an hour’s measure of polyjuice and then leaned forward tearing a hair from Severus long locks. The potions master frowned and looked away, folding his arms. 

Draco, who thought that this beaker was intended for Hermione, looked on with wide horrified eyes.   
When Tom instead passed the beaker in his direction and commanded him to drink he gaped. 

Severus meanwhile had crawled over to Hermione/tom and was kneeling beside her with wide splayed knees, baring his balls for her to lick. (S)he complied without any compunction. 

Draco held the beaker in his hand and watched them with an expression somewhere between envy and revulsion. In the end envy won because he tipped the beaker back and downed it, sinking to his knees as the cramps took over. 

Tom enlarged the bed to truly Olympic proportions. 

When Draco finally pulled himself back up to look queasily at them all from his knees he was Severus.   
He tugged unfamiliarly at the long black hair falling down below his shoulders. Standing up, he performed the same initial experimentation as Hermione had done, tensing muscles, feeling his own face.   
He looked and examined his godfather apparently more objectively than before, as the latter slid his hard cock gently in and out of Hermione/Tom’s lips. Tom, meanwhile stared at him with glittering red eyes. 

“Very good, Draco. Come here now.” 

Draco flinched and climbed on the bed, nearing the Dark Lord. When he was close enough Tom reached out and buried his hand in Draco/Severus’ hair, dragging him forward and kissing him hard.   
Draco gasped at the tongue forcing its way into his mouth. It was.. the same mouth he’d been kissing for the last hour and a half but it was at the same time completely different. Its owner was absolutely familiar with his body and he kissed in an entirely different way.   
Draco found himself moaning softly as Tom manipulated him down onto his back. The Dark Lord cast the scourgifying colonic charm and the three other persons on the bed each flinched slightly at the unexpected invasion. It was followed by the internal lubrication charm. All three asses became slick.   
Severus was groaning in pleasure. He had inverted himself to straddle Hermione/tom’s face and was now fucking down into her/his throat from above while he slowly stroked her cock. 

Tom pulled Draco/Severus legs up and held them in the air. He didn’t bother with preparation but was generous enough to cast an extra lubrication charm on his own cock before he forced his way into Draco’s passage.   
The boy whimpered, tossing his head slightly at the discomfort till the Dark Lord had seated himself. Tom pushed Draco’s legs down against his own shoulders then, looking at the place where their bodies were joined.   
Severus, as if incited by the image of his lover balls deep in a twin of himself pulled himself from Hermione’s mouth and moved, dragging her/him by the legs till he could position her next to Draco.   
He prodded Tom and the latter, now merrily slapping into Draco absently gestured at Severus, lubricating his cock. 

Severus was more gentle with Hermione and took his time getting himself inside her, particularly due to his girth, which was larger than Draco’s. He leaned down when he was in and kissed her as he began to move gently inside her.   
She moaned softly and mumbled something like..”love you... good.. mmm.. more..”   
He gasped slightly, his eyebrows knitting in consternation at the unfamiliar but so long desired words coming from the man he loved.   
Lowering himself to her chest he kissed her deeply and fucked her a bit harder, though nothing like the hard slams that Tom was laying into Draco/Severus.   
The boy in question was panting and looked like he was thoroughly enjoying it, his eyes half lidded in lust and toes pointing as he bucked up against the Dark Lord at each thrust.   
His face was turned and watching Severus and Hermione/Tom kissing and fucking lovingly with something like curiosity. 

“Tom suddenly leaned down, mirroring the behaviour of Severus, wrapping his arms around Draco and kissing him slowly and deeply while he ground his cock into him. Draco gasped and groaned.   
Tom growled seductively into his ear. “still revolted by your godfather?” He punctuated the question with a thrust that made Draco mewl in pleasure.   
Draco looked up at the Dark Lord confused.   
Tom just smirked and pushed Draco’s legs down to wrap around his hips. He started licking and nipping his neck..even more effectively than Draco had with Hermione.   
With his head turned, Draco could see that Severus had mirrored the Dark Lord and was thumping into Hermione/Tom and devouring her neck even as Tom was his.   
Tom reached out then, sliding his hand between Severus and Hermione’s body beside him and gripping her cock.   
After a minute’s hesitation Draco watched as Severus mirrored the action and then he felt his godfather’s hand on his cock and whimpered in pleasure. The Dark Lord smiled against him and fucked him a little harder. 

The sensation was undeniable. He felt himself on the brink of coming.. and then Tom hissed something in parseltongue.   
It was as if the climax hung on the precipice. It was that moment where everything was so good that if you just did whatever you were doing a few seconds longer you’d splinter into bliss.. but the feeling endured.   
Tom fucked him harder and he moaned needily and almost came.   
The other two in the bed seemed to be experiencing a similar malady. Their frustrated whimpers and panting built. 

Finally, when Tom apparently felt himself on the very edge he hissed a release and at once, all four of them tipped over the edge, screaming, groaning or in Tom’s case, laughing.   
Severus flopped down next to Hermione, who looked like she’d just experienced some kind of revelation. Draco panted and looked at her with faint longing.   
The Dark Lord had said he could fuck her and then he had fucked him instead. 

Tom, resting back against his heels, his muscles shimmering with sweat chuckled. “Impatient boy. First of all – I said she would fuck you.. and secondly.. the evening is young and I can force you all to harden as often as I choose.   
But at present.. I am ready for a drink and perhaps a smoke.   
He added, after a moment’s thought. “except Hermione, of course.”   
“So sorry Hermione. Would you like a sweetie instead” he grinned sardonically. 

Draco snorted in amusement and she punched his arm. “That wasn’t funny, ferret boy”   
he snorted again, sniggering at her weakness so soon after climaxing. 

 

After that Tom had opened the door of her room magically and summoned glasses, firewhisky and cigars and the boys were soon puffing appreciatively, Draco demonstrating smoke rings and Tom smugly creating more elaborate animated smoke objects to dance around the young boy’s poor attempts. 

Severus tapped her lightly, rousing her from her contemplation. “How do you like it” he asked quietly.   
At first she thought he was asking something like ‘How was I?” but he added, clarifying- “being male” 

She thought about it.   
“It’s very different. Almost incomparable. I like it very much. I would like to see what it’s like to sleep with a girl too.   
Is it very different?” 

Tom responded dryly. “it is very different, Hermione. Almost incomparable.   
Perhaps we will allow Severus or Draco to polyjuice into your form. Do you think you could face pleasuring yourself?” .. 

She quirked at the phrasing but sobered again quickly. “I..don’t know.. actually.” She said unsure.   
She wasn’t particularly self confident about her appearance. She thought looking at herself in such a way might only contribute to the complexes she knew she already had. 

Tom asked lazily “Who wants to play Hermione? Two hands shot in the air.   
“Oh.. look at that.. Well it appears you will have to face it. I’ll grant them both their wish and we will take them seven ways from Sunday.”   
Both Severuses seemed to shiver slightly in anticipation. 

“But first.. prove you’re over your little complex, Draco. I want you to kiss Severus.” He smirked..   
“If you impress me, perhaps I’ll allow you to play with one other in Hermione’s body.”   
“Hey!!” she threw at him. “Watch it or I’ll go and find a nice dress to put on while I’m wearing your body.   
Tom seemed to find this threat amusing. 

“I’m waiting” he nodded at the two Severus’. Get up and do it over there. Standing. Where we can watch you. 

Draco and Severus eyed each other dubiously. “Severus lifted an eyebrow and Draco set his mouth in a line of resignation. To Hermione’s surprise they both peeled themselves off the bed and loped wearily over to the space in front of the bed that Tom had indicated.   
They stood there a bit uncomfortably, their eyes flicking from Tom to each other, every so often drifting by way of Hermione.   
After a while Severus said, as if to the room at large.. “Nothing that happens tonight will ever be mentioned to anyone not currently present.” 

Tom nodded. Hermione shrugged – it wasn’t as if she had a lot of people to tell – although, she realised Lucius would HATE this.   
Tom turned to her with an admonishing look. “No.” he said quietly. 

Draco/Severus seemed to be nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Finally Severus just turned, grabbed the younger (identical) boy by the waist, dragged him against his body and plastered his mouth to his. 

Hermione could see his tongue working in Draco’s mouth.   
The faux Severus stood, off balance for a few moments, being vigorously snogged, until he brought his arms up and wrapped them around the other mans neck, pulling him even harder against his mouth and participating in the kiss passionately. 

“..Hot.” Hermione murmured quietly at the two mirror images twined together.   
“Mmm aren’t they.” Tom agreed. “Isn’t it a good thing we didn’t listen to your Gryffindor moral objections at the start?”   
She debated this momentarily and decided Tom was an arse.   
He sniggered and turned to her, dragging her around till he was between her legs and then leaning forward, scooping her up till she was straddling him – his own likeness, knees bent, his arms holding her in place.   
Her body felt unaccountably hard against his and it was very pleasant.   
She hoped he would want to play games like this again sometime. He grinned and kissed her.   
“Are you in any discomfort?” he asked. She shook her head. “Severus was very gentle” she whispered.   
Tom’s eyes darkened.   
“I ..won’t be. Do you want it?” 

She swallowed and nodded. 

He smirked darkly and maneuvered her on the bed till she was on her hands and knees facing Severus and Draco.   
She was astounded. Since she had last seen them, one man had dropped to his knees and was now sucking the other.   
It took her a few seconds to decipher from the voice that was moaning that it was Severus on his knees and that Draco was almost in conniptions. Severus was playing him back and forth, bringing him to the brink and then cooling him down.   
Draco/Severus had his hand in Severus hair and was trying to force the man to let him come but Severus was having none of it. 

Tom ran his hand down her spine and she shivered. He did it again and it felt different. Like an electric jolt that sunk into her. She wondered what he’d done.   
He leaned forward and whispered in her ear in a cruel tone “I think I’m going to just fuck you through the muck that Severus already left in you, you don’t mind, do you, mudblood?! You’re already filth, after all”   
She knew she should probably be indignant now, but instead it just turned her on more. “No my Lord” she murmured back. 

“very good my little whore. Put me inside you”   
She shivered. The words sounded familiar somehow but she couldn’t place it. 

She lowered her face to the mattress, putting her cheek against it and reached past her dangling, hardening penis between her spread knees to place Tom’s cock against her ass.   
He leaned forward slightly and she pushed back while simultaneously trying to force his cock into her with her hand.   
She realised he hadn’t used the lubrication charm this time and just in that second he bucked forward, forcing himself through her tight ring. She yelped. 

Tom laughed low and put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her up and forcing himself deeper into her.   
She whimpered at the burning feeling as he dragged himself as deep into her as he could get.   
He leaned over her back, his back and wrapped his arms around her, one around her chest and the other tightly over her collarbone, against her neck.   
It felt uncomfortable against her throat and she realised that it was an adams apple that he was pressing against. 

He turned his head to whisper darkly in her ear “I’m going to tear you open, Hermione. And you’re going to love it..You’ll scream for more.”   
She found herself whispering excitedly “Yes my Lord. Fuck me.” 

He bit her neck hard and it hurt but it just got her hotter and she writhed, tightening her ass against the hard post deep inside her.   
He rocked his hips teasingly and she whined. “please... please “ He chuckled..   
“Good girl” and reached beneath her to stroke over her hard cock, squeezing it roughly in his hand and then bent his head and hissed in parseltongue very quietly into her ear, his eyes focused on Draco. 

At once Hermione was invaded by sensation. She felt like she could come at any second.. the pleasure was so overwhelming and unexpected that she panicked.   
Draco’s pleasure..   
she was feeling the sensation of a mouth around her.. the disembodied foreign pleasure, unable to be controlled was frightening.   
Tom placed his hand on the base of her spine and she felt a rush of..need, ache, desperate lust. She tried to buck back onto Tom’s cock but he held her firmly in place, his face next to hers, his breath on her cheek. 

“Beg me, mudblood” he spat. She started to plead, helplessly. She needed him to move now. When she begged him pitifully, calling him master, he finally pulled back suddenly and slammed into her. As he’d said it would, it did rip her, painfully, but she was beyond caring. She fought, trying to get him to do it again.   
Finally he relented and started to pound her over and over, laying into her with a vengeance. She just screamed out in pleasure and begged him to do it harder..more.. completely lost to the sensation of her pain mixed with Draco’s unsustainable pleasure. 

Tom, who had been leaning back, gripping her pelvis and driving himself into her as hard as he could, leaned forward again and whispered in her other ear “whose are you?” She moaned “yours”... he hissed   
“tell me the name of the one who you belong to.” And she turned her head and purred “Lord Voldemort.” His smile was feral and he knocked her knees wider, forcing her to strain to prevent herself from slipping into a splits that her body was in no way inclined to stretch to accommodate.   
It changed the angle of his fucking and every blow struck across her prostate, making her yell in joyful surprise.   
She felt his arm tighten on her throat and found it hard to breathe. 

He whispered in her ear “Your pain would please me – will you have it?” She screamed excitedly “yes! YES!! Anything for you, my Lord.”   
He whispered a charm and her battered anal muscles cramped and closed tightly. It hurt and she yowled as he ploughed through the resistance, panting in enjoyment.   
He cast a silent charm that she didn’t notice till his hand gripped her cock again and where his skin touched, prickled in pain as if she were fucking into a bag of broken glass rather than his fist. He chuckled nastily.   
“Do you want to come?” he asked.   
She whimpered and sobbed. Yes.. yes she did. Please. Please my Lord. He forced her face down into the mattress as she gasped and moaned and howled in the blend of agony and pleasure.   
Finally he placed his left hand on the base of her spine while his charmed right hand continued to stroke her in time with his fucking. “crucio” he whispered and she screamed at the top of her lungs in unexpected overload as her climax broke her apart with the force of a supernova. 

 

She woke slowly, feeling arms wrapped around her, holding her gently, rocking slightly. She looked up and Tom was leaning over her. They was his arms around her. 

She frowned. She had the feeling that she should be angry about something but couldn’t remember why.   
“did you do something?” she asked suspiciously.   
The gorgeous evil bastard smirked. “I merely enhanced your inner masochist somewhat, little one. You were magnificent. I am pleased.   
But it is enough. I want my troublesome, interesting Hermione back now.” He brushed curly hair away from her face.. She felt that was strange somehow – but obviously it wasn’t. Then it all came back to her. 

“I’m me again!” She exclaimed with a groan. 

He looked surprised. “Do you not wish to be?” 

She shook her head, to say he didn’t understand. “It means that when i take the polyjuice it will hurt again.   
If you take it in the form it is set for it doesn’t feel bad at all.”   
Draco and Severus appeared in her peripheral vision. Draco was back to normal, his blond hair hanging silkily around his face. They were sitting next to one another.   
Quite..close.. to one another actually, she thought. 

She watched as Draco looked at the young long black haired man next to him with a strange deferential look.   
Her eyes widened slightly. 

Draco inched forward to touch her and Tom bent over her slightly looking at him with a hard glare of challenge.   
He backed off. 

She frowned and pushed Tom up slightly and turned her head to Draco and Severus. “Are you ok?” she asked them both uncertainly.   
Draco swallowed and nodded, somewhat surprised himself. “I don’t think I could handle it if he wore the glamour.. but when he doesn’t talk I can...almost... see him as just a guy.   
Severus next to him looked affronted. “just?” he sniped. 

Severus seemed to have less trouble with touching the blonde haired Draco then the latter had with him.   
He reached out, transfixed and played the blond hair through his fingers slightly. Draco looked at him slightly unnerved. 

Hermione wondered how long she had been out for Draco’s polyjuice to have run out.   
“A short while” Tom said quietly. “But you are quite alright now. The added bonus of polyjuice is that as your body returns to its original state, the nerve damage caused by the cruciatus is neutralizaed – hence why I allowed you to remain unconscious until you had transformed.”   
She frowned at him –“ you cruciated me!!” 

He smiled. “Yes.. and it was extremely satisfying at that moment. You..pleased me greatly. I had not considered this avenue of use for polyjuice. After your sensitive reaction the first time I have been holding off on cruciating you.   
Now.. I know that if you infuriate me too greatly I can force you to transform and cruciate you to my heart’s content without needing to be concerned with any irritating recovery period or long term damage

...well.. other than psychological possibly” he added, a faint smirk on his lips. She looked at him warily.   
“But.. you wouldn’t..would you?”   
the red eyed boy tilted his head at her speculatively. He leaned over her and brushed his lips over her forehead.   
“we shall see, my dear.. but perhaps you would do well to keep it in mind the next time you decide to impersonate me and fuck someone I have set to guard you.” 

She looked down and mumbled “it seemed like a good idea at the time. We had had a lot to drink. Sorry.” 

Tom looked at Draco accusingly, who paled. “You said to comfort her, my Lord. She looks pretty calm now. Hasn’t thought about Potter in hours.” 

As if a switch had been flicked in her mind she gasped.   
“Harry! I don’t believe it – I really did forget all about him.” She looked up at Tom urgently and tried to push herself up to sit upright. He held her in her half reclined position in his arms.   
She demanded. “Is he ok? what happened?” 

Tom looked up at Draco with narrowed eyes. The boy swallowed and cowered babbling that he was sorry. 

“Severus. Remain here with Draco.” Tom growled, conjuring a black robe around himself with an absent gesture.   
He gathered Hermione up into his arms, which she eagerly accepted, wrapping her arms around his neck and clinging to him. The glamour shimmered over him, causing Draco to shudder and look away, just before he disapparated with her. 

 

They appeared in the torch-lit round room where a bloodsoaked mass lay on the floor. Rodolphus was standing over him, but the vampire looked tired. 

She jumped in shock and held Tom more tightly when she saw Lucius Malfoy lying back against the black sofa with a cognac snifter in his hand, watching Rodolphus.   
He, like Rodolphus was drenched in blood and other fluids from top to bottom of his robes, which had originally been silver-grey. 

Hermione struggled wanting Tom to disapparate away from Lucius with her. She was naked.. she didnt want to be here. 

Except when she looked at him, it wasn’t Tom at all but the pale serpent with cold merciless expression. 

Lucius tilted his head back and noticed them, his eyes going to her immediately and crawling over her. He rose from the couch and fell to his knees, looking up at them both. “My Lord” he acknowledged. “The boy has refused to speak. He is..less amenable to physical means of persuasion than most I’ve seen.”

She gripped the black robed muscle of the Dark Lord’s shoulders with cramped fingers as Lucius looked her over with interest.   
Voldemort scowled and turned to the huddled mass on the floor. “Harry.. I’ve brought your little friend back to visit. Won’t you say hello and tell her how well we have been treating you. She was concerned, apparently.” 

The pile of bloody flesh on the floor twitched and made a wet gluggy sound. 

“I believe that may have been a greeting my dear.” Voldemort freed the hand around her back now that she held his shoulders tightly and gestured at the form on the floor. It levitated and unfolded, gristly wet snapping sounds punctuating the wet choking scream that emanated from a face that was unrecognisable to Hermione.   
Harry was one mass of bruised split torn flesh, both eyes swollen closed, his lips torn and puffed to several times their size. His nose and ears were bloody shreds. 

She screamed and struggled, trying to get Voldemort to release her, sobbing helplessly. 

Rodolphus started toward her but Voldemort hissed “stay where you are.” 

He silenced her sobs and took her to the couch Lucius had been on, dropping her gently onto it, where she curled herself into a protective ball and shook, looking at the ruined form of Harry from over her knees, blind to the rest of the room now.   
Lucius, from his knees on the floor next to her got an eyeful of her body, exposed with her knees up like this. His gaze wandered with reserved enjoyment from her frantic tears to the pink flesh at eye level.

Voldemort had wandered closer to Harry. “Tell me what spell you used and i may allow you to speak with her” he said coldly. The meaty face shook faintly.   
“heal him” he demanded. 

A moment later he turned and disapparated, leaving her there. 

Lucius reached out for her and Rodolphus was immediately there, his hand around the man’s wrist, a snarl on his face. The vampire kicked Lucius away as if he were a bag of leaves and scooped her up.   
She cried silently, clinging to him, her eyes going to Harry, uncomprehending. 

The arms around her were rigid and tense. He growled, barely intelligible, at Lucius. “heal the boy” and disapparated with her into his own room.   
His growl when they got there was inhuman, his words barely strung together. 

“in there.. blood..Potter.. forbidden..hours...you!..” his arms tightened around her crushingly. “smell good. Pet.. need..”

She felt them both topple clumsily to the pillows and Rodolphus head was snuffling over her skin..biting her here ..there.. sucking at the blood but rabidly moving on to bite her again somewhere else. The more he bit her, the more he seemed to become crazed. He ripped her legs open and clamped his arms around her, thrusting his face into her pussy where her blood had started to run again since she’d been back in her own body. His sounds were like an animal with a bone. 

She screamed when he bit her there..sucking, trying to get at the source of the scent. 

She lay limply feeling blood trailing from several points on her body while Rodolphus slurped greedily at the mess he’d made of her most sensitive area.   
She had stopped crying after the initial shock. The blood loss actually felt good. It took away the pressure in her head and the felt she deserved the pain for eating and bathing and having sex while her former friend was transformed into that mass of quivering exposed flesh. 

The crack made her look up and Voldemort stood there in a black robe, fuming.   
He became even more enraged when he saw the defiled state she was in and the hunched rabid form of the vampire between her thighs.   
He gestured with a clawed hand and Rodolphus was ripped off her, he crashed into the opposite wall. But a moment later he had thrown himself back across the space and fallen upon her again, biting. His eyes mad with hunger. 

Voldemort seemed shocked and ripped him off her again, holding him in midair, his face, mouth and arms smeared in blood, to thrash and reach for her desperately. 

Rodolphus roared, incapable of forming words. 

Voldemort walked around him inspecting him with a curious expression. “You have never been so out of control my servant. And you disobeyed a direct order I gave you. What has happened I wonder.”

Rodolphus, realising on some level that he could not reach her, had started to lick his fingers and hands clean, rubbing them over his face to scoop more blood to his mouth. He looked wild.   
She had sat up, dribbling blood from multiple places over her body. 

“I think being in a room with Harry and the blood for so long affected him. And.. I have my period you know.. and you left me there”   
Voldemort looked at her, bemused.   
“Hermione.. The man is practically surrounded by blood all day every day. He has never reacted this way before.   
And he saw you this morning. He seemed quite composed when he brought you to me.   
What happened earlier today when you were with him?!” 

He stalked over and tilted her head up and she felt him prod around in her mind and pull up the memory.   
After he had watched it he turned back to the hanging mindless creature, thoughtful. He sighed slightly. 

“I do not have any information about whether creatures like vampires, succubi, other energy feeders, might be differentially affected by feeding from a conduit. I had presumed without your magic you were as any other innocent young girl. That he was drawn to the purity in your blood, nothing more.. that he was attached now, since you had become a blood slave.”   
“But perhaps that was a false assumption. His need for you seems only to have increased now that you are no longer virginal. He is reacting to something else in your blood.” 

“This-..” he gestured in disgust at the twitchy man who had now finished licking his arms clean and removed most of the blood from his face and neck, his eyes fixed on her with a burning need   
“- this.. is not normal.” 

He cast an elaborate spell aloud, using his wand and a large silver cage appeared in the room, with a steel base.   
He vanished three of the bars in the front and levitated the man inside, restoring the bars when he was within. 

As soon as he released the levitation charm and Rodolphus hit the steel base of the cage he rocketed forward, pressing himself violently against the bars and stretching his arms through, pulling them back and trying to bend the bars.   
There was a hissing sound and faint grey smoke rose wherever his flesh touched them. 

Hermione struggled to her feet, still bleeding. “Stop!! Stop him! He’s hurting himself. Stop it Tom!” she cried urgently. 

Voldemort rolled his eyes at her. “He will heal. They do. Irritatingly quickly. It makes disciplining him an exhausting endeavour”   
He looked her over and sang soft healing spells, closing her bite wounds, then led her back to the blood drenched pillows and laid her down to carefully heal between her legs, with a tutting frown on his face.   
In between healing her, he cast crucio absently over his shoulder at the struggling vampire. Rodolphus neither cried out nor fell down but clenched himself against the bars as if he were facing into a wind. 

The Dark Lord, noticing the absence of sound turned and blinked in surprise. 

He finished healing her and stalked away to the cage. Hermione dug through the pillows looking for the tampons Rodolphus had had earlier, finding them and applying one carefully, tucking the string out of sight in as far as it was possible to do so.   
She saw Tom was casting the cruciatus over and over with increasing vigour at a barely affected Rodolphus with growing concern. 

Pulling herself up from the pillows with difficulty she rushed over. “Stop!!” she demanded, upset. 

He looked at her as if she were mad. “Are you seeing something different to myself, Hermione” he asked incredulously.   
“It is of concern that the cruciatus, which has always been quite effective against Rodolphus, now appears to merely tickle.”   
He broke off the curse however, looking at the man stunned who stood pressed at the bars, smoke rising from his flesh, not fighting any longer but not tearing his eyes away from Hermione either. 

“Could you ..um.. can I have some clothes please” she said uncomfortably. 

Tom summoned one of the dry cushions from the back of the pile and transfigured it into a black robe, scourgifying her before he gave it to her.   
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him” she said slowly, sitting down on the floor in front of his cage.   
As she lowered herself, Rodolphus crouched down too, his head tilted in animal curiosity, till they both sat on the floor on either side of the bars. 

“Calm... good..” she soothed. “it’s ok now.” as if she were talking to an animal. Tom looked down at her aghast. 

She reached her hand out slowly toward the bars and before Tom could stop her Rodolphus arm had lashed out and grabbed her, dragging her arm back through the bars.   
She yelped and yelled “NO!. No! stop! Rodolphus!”   
Tom had his wand out and pointed through the bars but Rodolphus had stopped, looking at her. His eyes darted to the Dark Lord and the wand and then back to her, dark eyebrows furrowed.   
He slowly very slowly brought her hand to his mouth and she pre-empted Toms curse “No!.. don’t Tom. Wait” 

Rodolphus licked her knuckles gently. It evoked the impression somewhat of a dog.   
He shuffled closer to the bars, pressing his head to them. She winced at the hissing burning flesh. and reached with her other hand forward to push his head back.   
He let her shift him. She stroked the blackened burn on his face but it was already fading.

Tom looked disturbed and paced away from the cage, pacing back and forth agitatedly. She could hear him muttering. “and now Draco Malfoy? And Lucius? what is-..”   
He spun and stalked back over to her, leaning over her and glowering in a threatening revolted manner. 

He raised his wand and pointed it at her face. 

She jerked back and Rodolphus in the cage cried out thickly “Master.. No!”   
Toms head whirled to glare at him now, his wand still raised at her. She gaped up at him, confused.   
What the hell had SHE done?! 

“So you remember that I am your Master now, do you” he spat at the vampire. 

Rodolphus gravelled out, with difficulty as if he was trying to remember how to speak. “Yes. I am sorry my Lord. I ..lost control..of the hunger. It will not happen again”   
Tom did not seem interested in this at all. His eyes were back on Hermione. 

“I believe I have made a grave error” he said quietly, through gritted teeth. “I did not have sufficient information. I may have underestimated.. I may not have fully grasped the reasoning behind why those of your kind were killed in the past” 

Hermione gasped, afraid and hurt by the sudden coldness and the things he was saying.   
“Tom..” she begged, unsure what she was begging for exactly. Him to stop scaring her. Him to hold her. 

He stepped two paces back from her and the next thing she knew a flash of red made the world fade away. 

 

 

She woke abruptly, sitting bolt upright and looking around. She was in a small room, lying on a single bed against a wall.   
A candelabra with eight endless candles burned on a small table beside the bed. On the far side of the room a small bookcase held ten or twelve books.   
There were two doors, one in the opposite and one in the right wall. 

She got up and tried each of them. 

The first was locked. Not a good sign.   
The second led to a small bathroom with a single torch on the wall. Inside was a toilet and a shower. A black fluffy towel hung beside the shower. 

That was all.   
No mirrors, no vanity. 

She went back to the other room, looking around.   
No wardrobe, no chairs. A bed and some books. 

Returning to the bed and sitting down she tried to stay calm. Tried to think of what she might have done to upset Tom. Because she’d tried to stop him from cursing Rodolphus? Because she’d questioned him regarding Harry?   
Because she’d...well because she’d messed up bigtime when she got drunk with Draco.. He hadn’t seemed that angry at the time but.. she was in a cell again. She had to have done something! 

It looked different to the last one. The stone of the walls was different. The roof was plaster.   
It didn't look like the cells. She thought, worried, about whether Rodolphus was alright.. whether Harry was..and Draco.. even Ron.   
They were all probably not in Tom’s good books. 

She waited and waited but nobody came. 

There was no window. No way to tell what time it was. 

Eventually she got tired and climbed into bed, clutching onto the pillow and closing her eyes, worried about what this meant.


	40. Chapter 40

When she woke.. nothing had changed. 

The candles burned, the room was empty and silent. 

After she sat for a long time and tried to think of what she might have done and yelled apologies at the walls for an hour, begging Tom to come back, she gave up and went to the bookcase.   
The books were on a variety of topics but many were historical accounts. She selected one on ancient Egypt and returned to bed, trying to settle in. 

The book was moderately interesting and she was three quarters of the way through it when the bang of apparition startled her. 

Tom appeared and advanced on her, pointing his wand, his eyes narrowed and furious. She jumped in fright and shrecked back from his wand, wide-eyed and babbling pleas at him. 

He snarled, baring his teeth. “You will not control me!”   
She shook her head frantically, pressed against the wall. Her mouth went dry. 

She had the sudden certain knowledge that Tom was going to kill her for whatever he was angry about. Whatever it was – it was so serious an infraction that he was simply going to end her for it. He was going to avada her any second. She closed her eyes and shook, hoping it was as painless as it looked when she’d seen others fall to it.

Tom raged in a wordless growl and she opened her eyes as he lowered his wand, turning away and pacing to the other side of the room, raising his hand and touching the wall as if to reassure himself.   
He turned back, face still skewed in hate. 

She cried out desperately “what did I do?! I’m sorry. Please.. I won’t do it again. Please Tom..I’m so so sorry!!!” she kept repeating her pleas desperately.   
He looked down, rubbing his hand over his forehead in infuriated indecision, then looked up at her again, his eyes set in steely determination.   
“I must kill you, Hermione. I regret it already but I must.” She burst into tears. “Nooo... please Tom.. I’m sorry. I’ll be better. Whatever you want me to do I’ll do it. I’m sorry” 

he shook his head angrily - “Stop it” 

She snivelled and tried to stop sobbing, wiping at her face frantically and blinking, trying to see through the blurry watery vision. He took a step toward her and then stopped and paced back to the other side of the room. 

“I thought it would be sufficient to bind your magic” he said in a low dull voice, his hand on the wall. “As if I were the first wizard in history to ever think of such a thing. The charm is ancient. I should have realised that others before me would have attempted something like it at some point in similar circumstances.   
Power has always been seductive.” He snorted and laughed at this for some reason. 

He turned back to her. “There is a reason why your powers didn’t manifest till the onset of sexual maturity. I never thought about it.   
I assumed it was purely developmental, perhaps connected to maturation of the brain or the gaining of magical capacity when one reaches their age of majority.   
It is not. It’s an adaptation.. Part of a protective mechanism.   
In probability, it’s not magical in nature at all, other than in the most roundabout way. I’m almost certain you are producing some kind of chemical or scent that is influencing all those around you.” He paused and grimaced then hardened again. “including myself.” 

“I didn’t wonder at all how receptive you were to my magic. But that makes sense now also, If I view everything in terms of factors to increase your likelihood of survival. Alliance with the most powerful wizard available would be less risk than alienating such a wizard, when you are weak.   
I am unquestionably the most powerful wizard of our current age. Your attraction to me, enhances ..whatever it is..that you are doing to make yourself irresistible to others.   
And my knowledge of your power.. my desire to usurp your power, which you appear to be so willing to use to my benefit..renders it almost unthinkable for me to consider destroying you.” 

She was staring at him with a cold desolate despairing expression. 

He continued. “But I must destroy you, Hermione. I told you before – you will never rule me.” 

She nodded numbly. His face twisted in something like pain for a second.   
“Your compliance will not save your life” 

Her mouth trembled in miserable resignation. “Will you..will you hold me while you do it.” She whispered.   
His composure shattered again for a second and he gritted his teeth.   
“No.” he growled, raising his wand.   
It shook slightly, she was mystified to note. She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for the green flash to erase her.   
After she couldn’t hold her breath any longer she opened her eyes and breathed out, panting slightly, looking at him unhappily.   
“Do it.” She said softly. “Please. Don’t make me wait for it like this. Just cast it and let me go.” His wand shook again.   
He lowered it and turned away, roaring and casting confringo on the wall.   
A massive hole blew outward, tossing huge stone blocks into the air to clatter distantly far below. 

Outside it was early morning. Overcast. She could see a grey lake far below. 

“The view from my window was real” she said faintly. “I always wondered” 

Tom had his fingers fisted in his hair in conflicted frustration. He spun and advanced on her, pointing his wand again.   
It poked against her cheek lightly.   
She didn’t move. She looked out the hole in the wall at the fahl sunlight falling over the grey water of the lake.   
She thought to herself that there could be worse last things to see. 

The wand disappeared and Tom suddenly dropped, sweeping her up in his arms and holding her bone crushingly tightly.   
His head was buried in her neck, pressing her into his own. She thought he was shaking slightly.   
She put her arms around his middle and leaned her head against him lightly, watching a pattern of sun and shadow drift over the steel grey wavelets. 

“I’m sorry that everything’s the way it is” she said quietly and meant it. “I wish that I was just ..someone.. somewhere.. and I ran into you.. maybe in a library. and we talked and got to know each other. I wish I’d been alive when you were in school. I think.. I think I would have liked you..if I met you in a library.” He crushed her even more tightly to him.   
He really was shaking, she realised. She stroked his back, confused.   
He suddenly pushed her away, jumping up and backing away. His eyes were large and shiny and his cheeks wet. 

“This isn’t real” he said hollowly. “this ...feeling..   
you’re doing this to me. I don’t feel..this. It’s just another survival mechanism. I haven’t cried since I was-.. “   
He slowly raised the wand again with a shaking hand and again she waited, caught breath, any second expecting to feel the shock of her death striking her.   
When he still did not cast she yelled at him “DO IT, DAMN YOU!!” She jumped up and grabbed the wand and positioned it over her heart and screamed at him to cast the thrice damned curse already. 

And then he did cast and she felt something strike her, pushing her back in slow motion to fall onto the bed. Everything faded.

 

When she woke up in the dark, and realised she was still in the room and he was gone, she actually cried in frustration. 

It was cold as all hell and she realised the wind was from the massive hole in the wall that still remained. 

She wiped her eyes and walked over to the hole. The candles hadn’t been lit and the only light streamed in from a half moon floating in the sky outside.   
She reached the edge of the hole and sat down on the lip, looking out across the view. 

The water looked like black silk. Trees were jagged teeth ranged up the hill.   
The light wasn’t very bright. She wondered whether the moon was waxing or waning. 

Leaning out she looked down. The ground was a long way away. Wherever they were, it seemed to be on a rocky outcropping above this lake. It had to be more than fifty metres down to the stony base of the cliffs.   
The wind blew again and she shivered. The air was so fresh and cool. She had spent all her time since all this started in a handful of rooms it felt like..   
If she’d known this lake was really here.. perhaps she might have tried to get Tom to take her down to it. 

Everything was so messed up. 

When she’d first woken here, she thought Harry was dead and she was doomed to serve Lord Voldemort.   
Now that seemed like a happy dream.   
Harry just made her feel confused. It would almost be easier if he were dead.   
The notion of ‘serving Lord Voldemort’ was idyllic. Just working with Severus brewing in his lab. Or even sorting poor doomed people with Rodolphus.   
If she didn’t have this ability.. it would all be better. 

But then, she conceded to herself. – if she didn’t have the ability – if she wasn’t a ‘conduit’ or whatever, Tom would probably have just killed her at the first best chance.   
Maybe Severus would never have liked her either. Harry would be Harry at least and he’d probably still be her friend. And Ron would be Ron but he wouldn’t be in a cell downstairs. And Draco would hate her. And Lucius too.   
A quick green flash from either of them if they ran into her.   
But it would be simpler.   
It would be better.   
She would never have known what Tom was like.. or Severus.. 

And what if Tom killed her now. Would that make things better?   
She mused. Yes. In many ways it would. He would be able to ‘think straight’ again and would solidify his control over the British wizarding world, destroying the last remnants of the order.   
He would kill Harry of course, and Ron too. But then he would be able to have everything he wanted. He’d rule everything.   
And he’d have Severus. Severus loved him. They would forget her and go back to the way they were only it would be better because Tom would have won.   
There would be no more battle, no more fear – they’d be young and beautiful and have the world at their feet.   
They could be happy. 

It would probably be better for the wizarding world too, eventually. At least there would be stability and if there was one thing Tom could manage, it was effective rule, delegation of tasks, planning.   
She wasn’t even sure how serious he was about his blood purity platforms. He seemed to hate muggles and he tossed around the word mudblood, but he was a half blood and he’d taken a half blood lover.   
Perhaps it was all just a party line to gain the support of the majority and in time he’d soften it to whatever he considered most effective – probably something based on magical ability and intelligence.   
In a sense, she could even agree with a policy like that. 

The wizarding world could very well be better off in time with Tom ruling it, she conceded. 

So. She was superfluous here. Dangerous in fact – as he had pointed out.. as Draco had pointed out in fact, she somehow drew everyone to her unconsciously.   
If she continued to live, not only would she distract him from his purpose, but she’d potentially be the cause of some kind of betrayal, insurrection or rebellion within his ranks in time, or even difficulties should she ever come in contact with some ally or important figure. 

And of course Harry. While she lived, Harry could not be killed.   
Tom would never be happy while the threat of Harry killing him hung over her head. 

And he hadn’t been able to kill her earlier.   
He ..he had cried she realised. 

To think of Tom crying was disturbing. He didn’t do things like that. He was always in control. The only emotion he ever released against his will was anger.   
She was a danger to him. And he couldn’t kill her.   
She leaned forward again looking down at the moonlit rocks far below. She’d prefer a nice peaceful Avada, she thought ruefully. 

Swallowing, she inched herself a little further out over the edge, her heart beating fast.   
‘It will only hurt a little and then I’ll just stop feeling’ she told herself and edged further out, bracing her bare feet against the cold stone of the outside of the building.   
She counted to three and lost her nerve.   
Psyching herself up she decided she’d count from ten. She would do it. 

Breathing fast, she counted down. 

Part of her prayed that Tom or Severus or Rodolphus or Draco or anyone would come now and stop her but the room was still and the wind was cold and she got to one and pushed off, kicking away with her feet, sailing through the air, wind tearing at her. 

She always thought that these things happened in slow motion but it wasn’t like that at all. The ground rushed up at her with frightening speed and then she smashed into it with the force of a subway train. 

She didn’t hear herself grunt or feel the cracking of her bones, the blood seeping out where her skin had literally split from the force of the impact.   
She felt cold and tired. Her fingers twitched in shock, curling of their own accord. The stones beneath her felt so comfortable. 

She closed her eyes and slept.


	41. Chapter 41

Everything ached.

 

 

...

 

 

Everything ached and she felt terribly thirsty.

 

 

...

 

.....

 

Something hot pressed against her , she tried to move away. Everything ached. 

 

 

...

 

 

 

 

“Drink” a voice said. She responded to the glass phial at her lips and swallowed the foul tasting mixture automatically. Whoever it was moved away again. She slept.

 

 

 

 

 

.......

 

 

 

Voices woke her. She started to turn her head toward them but stopped immediately because it hurt. 

“I don’t care. You’re a fool if you think it matters.” 

“Severus, you try my patience” 

“If you wanted her dead, why the hell did you save her? Why bring her back here. You are being irrational” 

“That’s exactly the point. She is a danger. She makes me.. she makes everyone, yourself included, behave irrationally. I don’t know why I brought her back in. I..” 

“I happen to like the irrationality. I really don’t see the problem. If she breathed and sweated pure amortensia, wonderful, keep her safe and happy so that we can continue to thoroughly enjoy being fascinated with her.   
You know why you saved her.” 

“That is too bold! I know no such thing. However I can rectify my error. Stand aside!” 

She groaned.   
There was a shift in the air as if she could feel the two men shift their attention to her.   
Her eyelids felt like they were gummed together. It took a supreme effort to crack the crusted seal on them and squint up at the yellowish ceiling. 

Footsteps on the stone floor neared and then in her peripheral vision she could see Severus, his long hair tied back and greasy, a stricken expression on his exhausted face. His eyes were red and puffy with deep black shadows beneath them. 

“Hermione..” he said. “Don’t try to move. Just let yourself rest. Everything is fine. You will be fine.” 

She tried to speak but her voice was an ugly croak. “no. let ..him. you..have to”   
Severus’ breath caught. “I have to do no such thing. You are not thinking correctly. You need to rest so that you can heal.” 

She heard clinking and he came close, leaning over and pressing a potion to her lips. She tried to press them together and turn her face away, but again pain blossomed. A tear squeezed itself from the corner of her eye. 

She heard Tom stomp over. He said distractedly. “Oh you really are a ridiculous inconvenience, child!” and he stepped forward taking the potion impatiently from Severus. 

His hair was a mess and his face looked pinched and tense. She felt his cool hand brush her temple and the potion bottle was pressed against her lips again.   
He murmured “drink it” and she relented.   
If he asked, she would do anything. She looked up at him sadly. 

‘you have to do it’ she thought as clearly as she could before sleep rose up like a great warm wave and collected her again. 

 

 

...

 

She felt something touch her face and jerked slightly, her eyes clenching behind closed lids. It happened again. 

A hand stroked feather light down her cheek.   
She clenched her eyes and then forced them open a crack. 

Tom sat on the side of the bed looking down at her. 

She frowned slightly, confused.   
Experimentally she tried to move. It didn’t feel fantastic to move but it wasn’t horribly painful either. 

“Welcome back” Tom said, sighing. She looked at him uneasily. 

“Why am I back?” 

His face became shuttered. 

“You know it would be better if I wasn’t What are you doing?! You should have left me!” she berated him. 

He reached out again and stroked her face gently. “Yes. Well.. It seems you are here anyway. It is no doubt further evidence of your influence upon me.” 

She looked at him even more worriedly. “How did you even know to come look for me ?! I doubt I would have survived on the rocks much longer than a few minutes. Some kind of ward on the perimeter maybe?” 

He shook his head. “Responding to a ward alert would take longer than that.   
No. I was with Harry and he fell down mid-taunt and started bleating and then I felt Rodolphus calling me through the mark and realised it was you. I very nearly wasn’t in time.   
If i had stood for a minute I could have watched you vanish forever.” 

“Why didn’t you?!” she accused. 

He leaned down and kissed her gently on the forehead “I didn”t want you to vanish forever” he said quietly.   
She frowned and opened her mouth to try to convince him to see reason. He stilled her with fingertips on her lips.   
“There is no point in citing logical arguments. I realise how foolish I am being. I am in no doubt that this is a bad idea and that the alternative would bring many advantages. However...   
...Severus will never forgive me if I kill you.” He stood and started to walk away. 

She called after him. “Is that the only reason?”   
He stiffened and paused for a second, then continued walking and left the room. 

She lay there for a while, staring up at the ceiling and then she had enough and gingerly tried to sit herself up.   
It felt like she hadn’t moved in a while. Everything was weak and stiff. She propped herself up in a vertical position and swung her legs out of the bed.   
She was in Tom’s room.   
She pushed herself upright. After a hefty struggle she managed to free the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around herself. She shuffled slowly to the door and slipped out to the corridor. 

Turning to the left she found the blue sitting room empty and closed the door again, taking the path to the right.   
She opened the door to her room and let herself in.   
It was also empty.   
The light from the window suggested it was late afternoon. She felt strangely forlorn that no one was here. When she had left the room last it had been so full of people she adored. 

The only one missing was Rodolphus.. but then everyone else there disliked or feared Rodolphus she supposed. 

She wished for a moment that she’d never spoken a word when Draco mentioned Harry. She’d have stayed there and Tom would have soon had them all playing a new game with the polyjuice. She wouldn’t have seen Harry like that, wouldn’t have had to know. Rodolphus wouldn’t have flipped out and Tom might not have realised for a while longer what Draco had already noticed on some level. 

She went to the bathroom and took a shower. She didn’t stay in there long. The hot steam made her feel a bit dizzy.   
Wrapped in a towel she went back out to her room and poked around in the wardrobe, pulling out a pale peach robe with a silvery shimmer to it when the light hit it. She selected undergarments and dressed and then trudged over to her bed and crawled onto it. letting herself fall down onto her side and resting. 

 

When she next opened her eyes it was dark. The fire was lit at the other end of the room. She was still alone.   
She called for the house elf dippy but there was naturally no response. 

She trudged over to the chairs by the fire and sat, staring at the books apathetically. 

All the people she cared for.. the people she loved... she realised, horribly, that she would never know whether any of them had ever truly cared about her or whether she had somehow influenced them in some way.   
Tom didn’t want to be around her now, she could feel it. 

She thought.. perhaps Harry had cared for her as a friend at some point.. but that almost didn’t matter at all now since she had no doubt that if given half a chance he’d grab her and run. Lock her up somewhere and ward her with everything he had.. just like Tom had before he’d realised.   
Except.. she suspected that Harry would still want to possess her even if he knew that she was somehow subconsciously brainwashing him to desire her.   
Harry was stubborn about things he wanted and not always the most reasonable when it came to self destructive behaviour. 

..She fingered the bead of the necklace she was wearing absently. If she could take it off.. then what?   
Change everything?   
She couldn’t even think of a way to reconcile all the different pieces of messed up surrounding her. 

 

The sound of a knock on the door shocked her.   
It wasn’t that it jolted her from her troubling circular thoughts, that was a given – it was that it occurred at all in a place where every person in her world apparated in and out of this room. 

She waited.   
Nothing happened. 

After a minute there was another polite knock. 

She frowned, getting up from the chair. 

On the other side of the door, when she opened it stood Draco in a dark green robe. He looked at her with something between relief and fear.   
“..Granger” he acknowledged nervously. She opened the door for him to enter. He hesitated and then stepped past her quickly. 

“So you know then?” she said dully. 

His eyes widened slightly.  
“that you tried to kill yourself?.. that’s what Severus told me. He wasn’t in his right mind though..   
You’ve been locked away for weeks. Severus almost fell apart, brewing nonstop. He contradicted the Dark Lord yesterday and stormed out during a meeting.   
I.. ...he didn’t say what had happened. Something that involved a lot of physical damage to judge by what he was brewing most of the time.   
You look..alright..” he frowned at her sceptically” 

She pursed her lips slightly. “that.. wasn’t what I meant..” she said distractedly.   
“When .. how long ago did it happen? How long have I been quote unquote ‘resting’?” 

Draco tightened his jaw and looked away. “A bit more than three weeks” he gritted out.   
“The Dark Lord had a ..long chat.. with me about my time with the order. He wouldn’t let me see you. He..   
I don’t know if he knows I’m here. I just needed to see you were ok. “   
His expression shifted through anger and guilt to reserved fear once again. 

“..I’m sorry, Granger. “ Draco’s eyes darted to her face and pierced hers. They were like the surface of the silvery lake outside and narrowed in emotion   
“I shouldn’t have.. I shouldn’t have gotten you drunk and..done those things. I didn’t know you’d.. ...I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m sorry, ok?!”   
Hermione blinked at him. 

After a few moment she snorted, unsure whether to feel amused or touched. What happened to Malfoys never apologise?! 

“Thanks.. Draco..I guess.. but you do realise that not everything that happens is about you, right?” 

He looked hopeful.   
“you didn’t do anything to yourself because of what we all did?” 

“No!” she snorted, the balance tipping in favour of amused.   
“In fact if I’d just shut my stupid mouth and let Harry go hang, everything would have been great. But I guess it’s a bit late for regrets.” 

Draco’s eyebrows rose. “Then why? Cause of Potter?! You can’t possibly be serious?! After ..everything?!”   
He looked incredulous and disgusted.   
She hesitated. 

“Not in the way you mean. And no. that had nothing.. or very little.. to do with anything.”   
She made a face “Although it was terrible to see him like that. Your father was there with Rodolphus. Harry was just-..” She shut the thought off quickly, clenching her eyes and putting her arms around herself.   
She could.. hear that wet gurgly sound he made.. and the gristly snapping of tendons when Tom straightened him out in the air. 

Draco stepped closer, his hand raised as if to comfort her. He drew it back uncertain. 

Hermione swallowed and continued in an unsteady voice. “Harry was unrecognisable. It was ...senseless.” 

Draco seemed to waver but said in a hard voice. “You can’t have it both ways Granger.   
Either the order and Potter or the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. And for Merlin’s sake it better be the Dark Lord since I’ve burned my bridges with the order for you now.” 

She felt a massive stab of guilt. “No.. I don’t want to leave here. I just meant.. I wish they would stop torturing him. ..he was my friend for a much longer time than he’s been a psychopath and.. to see him like that.. it was terrible.   
And pointless. He didn’t break anyway.   
I can’t even begin to imagine the pain he’s been through. And it’s been three weeks?!”   
She put her hand on her forehead, trying to rub away the thought of Harry’s gurgle. 

“What did you do to yourself?” Draco asked suddenly.   
She turned away, looking at the bed, looking to the chairs by the fire and finally walked to the window seat slowly.   
Draco followed her, a few paces behind. She sat down and looked out at the darkening sky. 

He hovered uncomfortably and gestured at the other side of the window seat and she nodded absently. 

“I fell. Down there” she nodded out at the window.   
“There was a hole in the wall and I fell a long way.” 

Draco clenched his jaw for a second. “Fell.. or jumped?” 

Hermione rolled her eyes toward the lake. “I fell..intentionally” 

“WHY?!” Draco demanded. “Why would you DO that?! I was waiting for you to return and Severus was summoned. He didn’t come back for two days and then it was only to drag me into the lab and set me at ingredient prep.   
What the fuck happened?!” 

She shrugged. “I thought that everyone would be better off if I weren’t around.”   
Draco gaped at her looking appalled. He appeared speechless. 

Finally he blurted “Why?! WHY Granger?!” 

She stared out the window pensively again and sighed.   
Draco, frustrated, reached out and pushed her shoulder back, turning her face with his other palm. He glared at her furiously. 

“Don’t ignore me! How did I give you the impression that my life would be better without you in it? When?!   
Was it when I was staring at you like a daft moon calf or when I didn’t even mind dying for a chance to touch you?”   
His eyes were narrowed and his hand tightened on her shoulder and then released her, disgusted at her lack of reaction. 

She took a deep breath, knowing that if Draco didn’t know then he probably wasn’t supposed to. 

“It’s not that.. well.. it is.. sort of but not how you’d think.   
I’m sorry Draco. I’m..happy.. you like me. I like you too!   
Its just... complicated and it might even be taking advantage of you. I don’t know. I can’t help it.. this isn’t something I planned.” 

Draco shook his head confused. “What are you talking about?! I want to understand but you’re making no sense. Why would you be taking advantage of me?   
Not that I mind. Take advantage of me! I don’t care! Better you than everyone else. I’d give you whatever you wanted if you asked. So ask!..” 

She swallowed. She was about to speak when Draco suddenly leaned in, grazing his lips lightly over hers, his eyes closed. 

She blinked, unsure how to respond.   
She wanted to embrace him and kiss him and let him comfort her but.. it would be selfish, wouldn’t it? He didn’t know he was only reacting to some pheromone or something.   
Draco retreated, only a few inches, his head bowed slightly and eyes clenched shut.   
He gritted out through clenched teeth “Just.. Don’t die, Granger. Ok?! Whatever you want, I’ll try and give it to you.. but don’t leave me here alone again..”   
He opened his eyes, watery and grey, and studied her expression. 

She shook her head mutely. “You don’t understand” she murmured. 

“Explain it to me!” he urged emotionally. 

“I can’t-” She grimaced. “-if you haven’t been told..” 

He looked pained.   
“please.” He said in a low desperate voice. It managed to sound more like a demand than a plea.   
She smirked internally. Only a Malfoy could do that. 

After a minute of internal debate, she nodded.   
He looked both relieved and slightly afraid. 

“You’ll hate me when I’ve told you.” She muttered unhappily. The warning only deepened the worry on his face.   
“I couldn’t hate you now if I tried” he said weakly.   
Turning away from him, she leaned her forehead against the cold glass of the window. 

“As a pureblood, you’ve probably heard stories.. fairy tales or legends.. stories.. about wizards or witches who could manipulate raw magic.” His face looked slightly alarmed but he nodded.   
“well.. that’s what I am” she said simply.   
“That’s why Tom bound my magic. He was afraid I might use it against him after I realised what I could do.   
As soon as I discovered I could consciously do it he bound me.” 

Draco was frowning, shaking his head. “They’re just stories, granger. It isn’t real. Nobody can use raw magic. Did the Dark Lord tell you that was why he did it?” 

She rolled her eyes at him. “No. I know I did it.”   
I made him young again. I healed his soul.   
Just by wanting it.   
I used it on your father too. Its why his brand won’t heal. Trust me. They aren’t just stories..” 

Draco leaned back, uneasily. “But.. I’ve been in school with you for years. You’re good at magic.. gifted even.. but you never did anything like that.” 

She sighed. “It’s.. hidden.. when you’re young.   
Tom said he thought it was a survival adaptation to stop anyone from trying to kill the witch or wizard before they’re strong enough to defend themselves. The ability doesn’t manifest till sexual maturity.   
Tom had been watching me for years before he got his hands on me.   
I’ve been under the effects of some kind of potion to prevent me from developing.. desires.. shall we say.. for the last couple of years. I didn’t know it, obviously.   
Maybe it’s why I found it so easy to throw myself into studying when everyone around me was just shagging like nifflers.” 

Draco stood up and paced away uncomfortably, obviously still trying to reconcile this information internally. He put his hands in his hair as he paced tensely.   
“This is why everyone is after you, isn’t it” he said finally. She nodded. She had known that he would make the connection more quickly than Tom had, since he’d already found it strange before he had this puzzle piece. 

He went on- “It’s something about you that makes everyone want you. Even without your magic. Another protection.   
In the stories the wizards and witches were killed as soon as they were found out.   
It’s hard to kill something you want though..something you love..” 

“You think I’m drugged or imperiused or whatever, don’t you?!” 

it wasn’t really a question. She looked away, staring bleakly out of the window.   
“I’ve just found out that everything I thought I had is an illusion, Draco. And my existence is dangerous for the people that I love. Tom can’t kill Harry because he doesn’t want to kill me and Harry is only the way he is because of what I did to Tom.   
Rodolphus went mad for a bit before this all happened – he didn’t even react to the cruciatus.   
You threw away safety and freedom with the order for someone you’d spent years hating – you put yourself in Tom’s and Rodolphus’ way. You pretty much shagged your guardian all because of me.   
Severus has been obsessed with me for years apparently – he poisoned himself because of me, did you know that? Because he thought he’d lost me. I healed him but it doesn’t change the fact that he almost died!” 

“I’ve created a second Lord Voldemort in Harry and I killed Ginny and Ron is marked too now.. all of this is MY FAULT!” She looked at him exasperated. “Things aren’t going to get better with my continued existence – they’ll get worse. And.. and eventually Tom will convince himself he feels safe and he’ll take off this bloody necklace and then.. I don’t even know what I’ll do.   
Nothing good. He should never take it off me. Severus was right in putting it back on.   
It doesn’t matter what way Tom finds to bind me to him or prevent me from acting upon him directly – I’m a threat beyond calculation. The stories had the right idea.” 

Draco was looking at her, shellshocked, his head tilted.   
“...ok.. “ he said unsteadily. He sat down on the floor abruptly, in a messy pile of limbs. 

After a minute or so, staring down at his feet he said, in a broken voice “So...so.. what I feel is just a ..hallucination.. or something?.. wait? Ginny? You mean Ginevra Weasley? You killed her?! Why? Wasn’t she one of your friends?   
And how did..why would you turn Harry into that?! Did you miss the Dark Lord after I rescued you or something? – no! wait. You couldn’t have – you didn’t even have any magic then.”   
He looked up at her like a confused lost child. 

She sighed. “I didn’t mean to do anything to Harry. He was a horcrux. When I healed Tom, the soul fragments blended and changed him. It was an accident. I didn’t even know he was still alive at the time..”   
she looked out the window again pensively. “and Ginny was a lying traitor. She was a death eater spying on Harry and on me. She tricked me. I ..overreacted.   
I was a bit.. stressed at the time.. and I’d just used my ability for the first time ever the night before and then Severus had ...done something unexpected.. and I was very confused about my feelings toward Tom and.. and it seemed like a good idea..”   
She swallowed and restrained herself from looking over at the perfectly innocent area of floor near the centre of the room.   
“I’m sorry, Draco.” She said quietly. “I should have stayed away from you”   
The boy’s face contorted in an expression of pain. 

“No. Stop it granger. Don’t. You don’t get it.” He looked up at her with feverish desperate eyes.   
“It doesn’t matter. Or it’s too late. Either way. I..I need you.” He scrambled over to her and knelt, putting his hands on her knees and looking up at her, something desperate and empty and frightening in his eyes.   
“I need you, ok? I don’t care why. It doesn’t change anything. If you don’t want me, I’ll.. I-I can’t ..”   
He growled a plea at her pitifully.   
“Just let me stay around you.. please! Don’t send me away. I’ll .. I’ll be your pet.. if you want.   
You liked it when I was a ferret, right?   
I’ll never ask anything of you. Just let me be close to you?” 

The boy shrank and became a white ferret. He bounced up onto his hind legs and spun in circles amusingly.   
Hopping away he lowered himself, chased his own tail for a while and then braced himself and did an actual backflip. 

Hermione was impressed.. saddened that the proud boy would reduce himself to performing to try to persuade her to accept him as little more than a familiar.. but nevertheless on some level impressed that he could do that. 

“oh Draco..” she said quietly, sorrowfully.   
Sliding herself onto the floor to lean against the window seat she held her arms out and the animal bounced into them eagerly, climbing up her and burrowing under her hair to lay himself on her shoulders.   
His small damp nose prodded her cheek and she felt a tiny hot rough tongue lick her softly. 

Hermione raised a hand absently and stroked his head. He hung himself limply, giving over to the sensation. 

She sighed. Draco’s reaction reminded her of what Severus had said to Tom when she’d woken while she was still injured. It seemed like.. knowing what was happening to them was not enough to make her paramours think rationally enough to want to stay away.   
‘except for Tom’ she corrected herself. He really was an amazing wizard, she mused again. He was without a doubt, the strongest wizard of the age. It wasn’t just arrogance. 

She braced herself on the windowseat and stood up.   
Draco didn’t even try to clutch onto her, his legs falling on one side of her neck and his front paws and head on the other. 

He raised his head again briefly and licked her jaw, before returning to doing an amazing impression of a self heating mink stole. 

She walked carefully to the other end of the room and perused the bookcases, finally selecting a text on potions of enhancement. Draco perked slightly.   
She sat down in the chair by the fire and opened the book, noting how the small animal twisted his body till he could rest his head on his paws and see the pages in her lap.   
She smiled and reached up, tickling him behind his ears and causing him to emit a soft squeak.   
“tell me when you’re done with the page” she said softly and started to read. 

Draco tapped her with a paw when she was perhaps two lines away from the end and she acknowledged with a nod. They progressed that way for another ten pages. It was quite relaxing, she realised. Like being with Crookshanks except that Draco would actually respond when she spoke to him.   
And he was gentler.. and, not to insult poor Crookshanks memory, but Draco was really incredibly cute like this. 

Not that he wasn’t also quite cute in his human form when he wasn’t wearing a sneer or a snarl. 

She laid aside the book gently and he looked up at her with a squeak that probably meant “hey! I was reading that!”   
She bowed her head and very gently retrieved him while he limply allowed her to drag him around.   
Conveying him to the crook of her arm she stroked his stomach and throat like she had when they had been in his room, except now she felt confident enough to inspect his tiny clawed paws and stroke him under his chin. 

He tolerated her exploration with lazy delight. She lifted him, cuddling him to her and blew breath into his fur on his tiny tubular chest.   
He squeaked softly and paddled with one paw. “tickles?” she guessed. The small head nodded.   
“Bed?” she asked. He shook his head. 

Carefully he twisted till he could extract himself from her grip and pounced off the arm of the chair to the floor.   
Growing back into his human form he crouched by the chair’s arm and looked up at her with concern. 

“You couldn’t summon an elf last time. Have you eaten today?” She shook her head. 

He looked angry.. but it wasn’t directed at her.   
“What do you like?” he wanted to know. She thought for a minute.   
“Maybe.. Tomato soup with some buttered bread? And pumpkin juice?”   
Draco’s face quirked but he bit off the comment he probably wanted to make about her plebeian tastes. 

After the elf had left again and she sat, dipping her bread into the soup and devouring it with relish, Draco transformed back into his animagus form and clambered up in the seat to lay his long body down into the gap between her thigh and the arm of the chair.   
She offered him a small piece of bread soaked in soup and he took it hesitantly, then perked, practically inhaling it and crawling out to beg more from her.   
It was darling the way he’d hold it in his little paws and munch through it like a wood chipper. 

She wished that she was amoral enough to allow Draco to throw himself away being her pet for the rest of his life. He would be such a delightful familiar. 

Finishing the soup she deposited the bowl on the table and returned her attention to the ferret, now climbing out to lay himself across her lap in optimal stroking position. She complied without thinking and he stretched his tiny paws and yawned contentedly. 

 

The pop of apparition startled her, some time later as she’d been staring into the fire and gliding her hand gently over Draco’s back as she used to with Crookshanks.   
Draco startled too.   
He twisted like liquid and shot up her body to curl around the back of her neck again, standing on her shoulder with his front paws, alert.   
“Tom?” she mouthed at him silently. He shook his head. 

“Hermione?” Severus voice called out slightly panicked. 

They both relaxed. She peered around the side of the chair and Draco leaned out past her.   
Severus spotted them both and strode over quickly, visibly relieved. He was not wearing his glamour and he looked a lot healthier than he had when she had last seen him. 

“I... thought for a moment.. when you were not in the Dark Lord’s bedchamber where I left you..” he shook his head, the stricken expression fading slightly.   
“I apologise– I was unable to come to you before now. Are you ..?” he took in the bowl on the table.   
“At least someone had the sense to think of your needs..”   
He scowled but it seemed to her that it was not directed at anyone present in the room. His eye settled on the ferret around her neck. 

“Draco, what are you doing?” he asked tiredly. “Get down.” 

The ferret pressed himself against her defensively, lowering his head to his paws as if to say ‘shan’t. 

Severus hand darted out adder-quick and gripped the creature by the skin of the back of his neck, dragging him off her and holding him dangling, strampling, in the air. He frowned at him and then dropped him without care to the floor, where he bounced slightly.   
Turning his wand upon him he muttered a charm and then Draco was reverting back to human form. 

“What is your problem?!” Draco snarled at his godfather immediately he was able. 

Severus looked down his nose at him. The effect was significantly lessened in his younger body.   
“You are an adult wizard, not a feather boa.” 

“Well I’d rather be a familiar” the boy muttered. “being an adult wizard hasn’t done me any favours.” 

Hermione looked at Severus, biting her lip. “I told him” she said, looking down. 

Severus rolled his eyes in annoyance, sniping sarcastically- “wonderful. One more thing he’s going to be pleased about. Potter is still being frustratingly difficult most of the time and our Lord is already paranoid that the knowledge will get out, since the boy apparently knows all about you and since numerous death eaters, male and female, have been with him in private, attempting to convince him to be more forthcoming.   
He’ll probably obliviate Draco when he learns of this.” 

Draco balked. “Why?!.. thats ridiculous. I’d never put her at risk that way! Why can’t you just let me stay here.   
Granger said I could stay and be her familiar, right Granger?!” he turned to her expectantly. 

She swallowed. “That’s not.. I didn’t say that. I just ..” 

Dracos face fell in alarm and he dropped to his knees. “please! Please...Hermione.. please let me stay here!!” he pled hopelessly. 

Severus looked shocked. He lowered himself into the other armchair weakly.   
“Draco...” he muttered. “you’re not ..yourself.. perhaps it would be better if you” 

Draco’s head bowed and he slumped down on his heels looking at her desperately. “...please?” he begged despairingly. 

She looked at Severus.   
He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose between finger and thumb in aggravation. 

“I’ll ask him” he said finally, grimly. 

Draco brightened tentatively, turning to his godfather. “And in the meantime you’ll let me stay with her?” 

Severus looked at Hermione uncertainly. She shrugged back ambivalently.   
He frowned slightly.   
It looked, she observed, somewhat petulant. She furrowed her brow uncertainly. “Do you also want to stay, Severus?” she asked; the question tentative. 

Severus looked away guiltily, a faint look of wistfulness on his face.   
“It is better if I do not” he responded grudgingly. “He is ..very unpredictable at present. It is better I remain with him.” 

She nodded slowly. “is he.. “ she petered out. Severus raised a questioning eyebrow. “Does he still want to kill me?” 

Draco spun and fixed his godfather with a look of horror. “what?” he asked panicked. “He’s going to kill her?! What for?! We have to stop him!” 

Severus groaned.   
“Thank you so much Draco. You just demonstrated in a nutshell exactly why the Dark Lord is so concerned about the situation.   
You leapt immediately to mutiny at the mere thought of your Master – the man you have twice sworn an oath to serve till your last breath - harming her.   
Rodolphus apparently did something..similar.   
Our lord is quite perturbed now that many of his closest and most trusted Death Eaters have been in her proximity and may have been.. affected.. by whatever it is that makes one urgently desire to possess her and, resultingly, protect her.   
It is difficult to reason with him since I am quite capable of thinking rationally and observing the veracity in his logical reasoning.  
He is right.  
Nevertheless.. I cannot but try to persuade him to spare her as I love her.   
I find myself allowing you to remain when my reason tells me to remove you, for the simple reason that I wish that I could remain here myself. This is a dangerous situation.” 

Hermione nodded unhappily. “I’m sorry – when I understood.. I did try..” she explained. 

Severus looked at her, pain in his eyes. “Yes.” His voice was leaden. “I understand.. but..”   
he swallowed uneasily, looking conflicted. “It...it’s not the- .. it’s-.. Don’t do anything like that again!..   
I thought I’d lost you again.. after I’d only just been holding you..caressing you.. after I’d begun to hope..” 

Hermione wanted to get up and go over and embrace him.. but after what he had been saying she thought it probably would be for the best if she didn’t.   
Severus looked at her longingly and sighed. He stood abruptly and went to her, holding out his hand as if to help her out of the chair.   
She placed her hand in his, but instead of helping her to rise, he simply raised it and pressed a soft lingering kiss to her inner wrist. 

He released her hand and wished them both a hushed goodnight, leaving by the door this time. 

She looked at Draco, who watched her from his knees nervously. It was almost comical how different he looked to his former snide insulting self.   
She smirked. “Oh get up. I’m not going to ask you to leave. And you don’t have to be a ferret to stay.” 

He looked as if she’d placed the sun inside his skull. His eyes glowed in relief.   
He climbed to his feet, looking down at her   
“I like it..” he said quietly, blushing “I like it when you stroke my fur. It feels..safe. warm...   
I’ve never felt anything like it.   
I wasn’t kidding. I’d rather be your pet than be...whatever I am now. Death eater.. Malfoy heir. Adult wizard”   
he spat the last bitterly. 

She sighed. “You can be a ferret if you want. I like it too. You’re adorable.. and it felt nice to sit by the fire and stroke you and read like that..   
but it’s not all that you are, Draco.” She stood.   
“Besides. There are disadvantages.” 

Draco frowned. “Maybe but..its..easier and.. It feels good.” 

Hermione quirked her lips at him. “Ok. suit yourself. I won’t argue. You can spend the rest of the night as a ferret if you really want to”   
Draco didn’t bother to respond, he was already shrinking down and spun in a happy little circle on the floor, rearing up on his paws then and swaying dizzily.   
She smiled and reached down, lifting him gently and raising him up, cuddling him against her breast so that his head rested on her shoulder. He squeaked softly and she stroked him. 

“Right then. Let’s go get ready for bed, my dear ferret” she said, grinning and carried him into the bathroom. 

She placed him on the slippery long vanity and he skittered for a second before he found balance, looking up at her unsteadily while she flicked on the shower.   
She didn’t need one, she’d showered only a few hours ago but she felt Draco was being unreasonable and needed to get his perspective back a little. 

Undressing in front of the small animal felt very slightly perverse, but she pretended that he was Crookshanks and had no interest in human anatomy.   
The ferret lay with its head on its front paws and watched her with great interest. 

Any second now, she thought. Any second now he’ll change back and then there’ll be no more of this ‘I’ll be your familiar’ business.   
Draco just lay patiently while she disrobed.   
Then she walked back and picked him up, putting him back against her chest as she’d carried him before.   
“watch the claws” she muttered, opening the shower door and stepping inside. 

She didn’t think ferrets could look aghast but this one did. 

She stepped under the shower and turned, letting it hit her back and sheltering Draco with her body from the worst of the hot spray.   
She wet her hair and then, half turning, put Draco’s back under the spray. Wet, his fur became translucent and he turned into something akin to a drowned rat.   
It didn’t seem to bother him at all. He squeaked repeatedly and she shook her head. “I have no idea what you want” she smiled. He shook his head.   
She turned again, warming her own back and stroked down the slick animal in her arms.   
He snorted and shook his head, licking his whiskers. 

“Shall I wash your hair?” she enquired with a raised eyebrow.   
Apparently yes. He licked her cheek excitedly.   
She laughed, unable to believe how stubborn the git was. She would have thought he’d be chomping at the bit to become human again, but it seemed that he was just pleased as punch to be coddled like some kind of child with a hair problem. 

“Ok” she snickered and lifted him carefully to stand on the inbuilt slate shelf.   
Unlike the bench, there was a lot more grip here and Draco could stand stably. He shivered in the chill out of the water. 

She gave him a sympathetic pout and opened the shampoo, dumping it into her hands and then spreading it all over him, lathering him up till he looked like a frothy white pygmy puff, leaving his head free.   
He seemed overjoyed and arched into her hands when she massaged the shampoo in.   
When she had finished she very carefully massaged the lather around the top of his head and under his chin. 

He looked at her expectantly. She picked him up carefully and cradled him against her again with his head on her shoulder, turning and putting him under the spray. She supported him with one hand and stroked away the lather with the other,   
After this she maneuvered him into the crook of her arm and rinsed his underside. His head fell back over her arm as he enjoyed the warm water and her attention.   
She picked him up again and held him to her, turning off the water and shaking a little to drip. 

“you really are impossible, do you know that?” she sighed.   
He lay his head against her shoulder, his face turned toward her and squeaked softly.   
“oh well good then. So long as you’re aware of it” she sniggered. 

She got out and wrapped the black towel around them both, returning to the other room and, rather than going to the bed or the wardrobe, turning and returning to the fire, sitting down on the hearth and bending her knees, folding them up in front of her , her whole body cocooned in the enormous black towel. 

The wet ferret who was pressed between her bent legs and her chest hunkered down still further. 

This close to the fire it was lovely and warm.   
She lowered her legs and dried the rest of herself cursorally, then turned the towel on the ferret at her shoulder. 

He seemed to like being towelled too and she pulled him gently off her and put him down on the hearth in order to wrap the towel around him properly and give him a good rub.   
After she was finished he had spiked hair all over his body and gave himself a shake, inspecting his body and looking at her with a decidedly Malfoy expression. It seemed to scream ‘what do you call this?!’ 

She stroked him all over, on top of the towel on the hearth until his fur lay flat and silky and dry.   
Her own hair was slightly damp still but, without magic, it was going to have to remain that way.   
When Draco’s fur was dry, she lifted the small animal and draped him around her neck, taking the towel and tossing it into the bathroom on the way past. It would be replaced automatically anyway. Removing the ferret she tossed him lightly on the bed and slipped between the covers. 

Draco slunk up and then burrowed underneath the sheets too, a small rounded bump made its way around the surface of the bed as he crawled about.   
When she had settled she felt him crawl back and curl against her stomach as she lay on her side.   
She stroked him absently and drifted off to sleep. 

 

She had no idea how long she’d been asleep when the door slammed open, hitting the wall.   
She shot upright in bed, squinting, adrenalin electrifying her. 

Tom. 

He stalked at high speed over to the bed, black robed and looking like a beautiful boy possessed by a pissed off demon. 

She thought for a second he’d come to kill her but he stopped, glaring at her furiously.   
“YOU ARE STILL MINE!!” he hissed venomously. 

She furrowed her brows in confusion and nodded. 

“Why then, do I find you here when I look for you, when I left you lying in my bed?!”   
He folded his arms and looked at her disapprovingly, as if she were a dog that had made a mess on the carpet.   
She shrugged.   
“You said I was only alive for Severus sake. I didn;t think you’d care.   
There was nobody else around. I wanted a shower. My clothes are here. This is my room. The list goes on.   
Does it really matter? I’ll come back to your room if you like.” 

A small white furry head popped out of the blankets. Tom’s expression went from volcanic to nuclear meltdown. 

“MALFOY?!!!” he yelled, incensed. “You returned here to bed the boy?!” 

She felt insulted at this, despite the fact that she realised she probably might have, had Draco not been so taken with being a ferret.   
“Actually no.” she responded coldly. “Apparently Draco wants to be my pet. He’s been a ferret all night, except briefly while Severus was here and even then he spent most of the time asking to be allowed to be my familiar.”   
She folded her arms, irritated that he would be so distant to her this morning and now turn around and act like she’d ignored some, obviously silent, command to stay in his bed all day and wait for his return. 

Tom looked about five nanometres worth of mollified. 

He narrowed his eyes and then leaned down and ripped all the blankets back.   
One hand clamped onto her upper arm and the other grabbed the squealing and struggling ferret around the waist and he dragged them both off the bed roughly. 

She tried to move where he wanted her to move and not fight and, although he was still squeaking pitifully she could see that Draco didn’t dare turn around and bite the hand that was obviously hurting him either. 

He dragged them out of the room and down the hall to his own door, open wide. She could see Severus sitting up in bed anxious and afraid.   
Tom shoved her toward the bed and then pointed at a shirt on the floor, transfiguring it into a cat basket. He dropped Draco on it unkindly, sneering at him.   
“Very well, Malfoy. Am I not generous? I will grant you your wish. You may be a pet.   
This is your bed. If I find you in mine I will make a hat from your pelt and give it to your father for Christmas.” 

Hermione stood uncertainly by the bed, her arms wrapped around herself.   
Tom rounded on her   
“What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? Get in the bed!” 

She complied hurriedly, sliding herself against Severus. He looked at her with concern. 

Tom pulled his robe off angrily, sending it floating to drape over the back of the chair, and slid in beside her.   
He reached for her suddenly and she flinched at his rough abrupt movements.   
He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her down in the bed till she lay flat on her back. Then he scooted down under the covers himself, turning on his side toward her and closing his eyes with an air of finality in his movements. 

This was Going To Sleep Tom. 

Hermione darted a glance up at Severus who was uneasily lowering himself in the bed to lie down too. His look spoke volumes.   
“Unpredictable” he’d called Tom earlier. 

Toms arm came up and draped over her possessively, pulling her against him slightly.   
“You are mine.” He said again quietly, as if explaining to a difficult child after a spanking.   
“You belong to me. And me alone. I decide where you will go and what you should do. I am in control, not you mudblood. You will obey me.” The last words were muttered tiredly. 

His entire tirade was at odds with the way his hand stroked her skin as he spoke, too, and the way he now edged closer till his hard body lay stretched the length of her own and his chin rested lightly on her shoulder, his head on the pillow only a bare couple of inches from her own. 

“Always, Tom” she whispered affectionately and put her own hand on his arm over her.   
He smiled slightly with closed eyes and soon enough his breathing slowed and he seemed to be asleep. 

She turned her head slightly to look at Severus who lay on her other side, raising an eyebrow.   
He whispered so softly she could barely hear him. 

“While you were recovering, sometimes he would sleep next to you in your room. Then he became very upset about his own ‘weakness’ and started threatening to kill you again.   
When he returned to sleeping here and left you there he didn’t sleep well and grew angry again.   
You have been sleeping in here for the last week.   
I should have said something earlier. I thought.. now you were awake he would try to keep you at arm’s length again.” 

“Go to sleep, both of you” Tom grouched. “Severus, your babbling is keeping me awake.”   
He shifted slightly, his arm squeezing her and stroking down her side in a similar way, she realised, to the way that she’d stroked Draco’s fur earlier.   
He kissed her shoulder lightly and less than a minute later, he was breathing deeply again. 

She turned to Severus and smiled excitedly. He looked somewhat hopeful too. He folded his arm under the pillow, as he was won’t to do when he slept and she felt his calf press against her own, his hand sliding to lay on top of her hip. 

Oh hell no, she thought. I can’t sleep on my back and I’m not going to lay here all night on tenterhooks while the pair of them dream.   
She swallowed and turned her head, kissing Tom lightly on the lips to wake him.   
He jolted slightly and cracked an eye to peer at her irritatedly. 

She smiled and then eased her body onto her side, turning her back to him and pulling his arm around her like a blanket. 

There was a sound of grumbling and he extracted his arm and gestured. Her hair became dry and then swept itself back and braided itself.   
He put his arm back around her, cupping a breast loosely and putting his face against the back of her neck. 

Severus seized the opportunity and turned over too, switching sides and edging himself against her till he could feel her skin against his back.   
She put her arm over him, pulling him back against her and resting her hand on his abdomen.   
He covered it and interlaced his fingers in hers, sighing happily. 

“I missed you” she thought she heard him whisper. Tom kissed the back of her neck as if in agreement. She closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep.


	42. Chapter 42

In the morning she found herself on her back, both men curled up against her.   
Her face was turned slightly toward Tom, whose hand was, (she blushed), cupping her mons lightly, seemingly unconsciously. Severus, on her other side, had his hand on her abdomen and his calf hooked over hers. 

She felt very..wanted...somehow. 

“Why must you always wake up far before it is time to rise” Tom mumbled against her skin. 

She yawned widely. “I do it purely to tick you off” she muttered.   
“I thought so” he slurred and fell back to sleep.   
She frowned at him, wanting to move and stretch her back. His hand on her was starting to feel a bit tantalizing too, as nonchalantly as he cupped her. 

She shifted her hips gingerly, trying not to wake either of the men but attempting to move herself up slightly so that Tom’s finger would just-.. 

“Want something?” he mumbled, amused. 

Her breath caught. She felt his finger curl and dip into her slightly, just as she’d wanted it to. He teased over her clit and she tried to rock as subtly as she could to not wake Severus. 

“Mmmm” the long haired boy rumbled on her other side, his hand sliding up to cup her breast. “What a pleasant way to awaken.”   
“Isn’t it just?!” Tom smirked on her other side, his hand teasing her more forcefully now. She rolled her hips against his skilful fingers.

“More” she urged breathily. 

Severus raised himself, looking over her at Tom, obviously talking in that silent manner they often did.   
He smiled, greatly pleased by something. A moment later he dived under the covers and, while Tom pulled her face back to lock her mouth to his and kiss her languidly, the covers peaked and shifted as Severus pulled her into a suitably open position and burrowed his face between her legs.   
She bucked in pleasure , Toms tongue in her mouth, as Severus’ tongue began doing amazing things below. 

Tom rose, leaning over her, still kissing her and toyed with her breasts gently. He pulled back and gazed on her with an appraising possessive expression. 

“We are both going to have you, my dear. I am allowing Severus to fuck you, as we both know he has been dying to for so long it is practically driving him mad. ...You are going to offer me the last untouched place you possess.   
It will hurt. I could ensure that it does not.. but I will not. ...I am still angry with you for daring to try to take your own life when you know that it belongs to me..” 

‘I wanted to protect you’ she thought, gasping as Severus sucked on her clit. ‘I love you.. I don’t want you to be in danger’   
She pulled his head back down, kissing him hungrily as her body wriggled and rocked against the smooth face sucking and licking at her pussy.   
Tom growled low, nipping at her lip and pulling back. “I don’t care about your intentions. You are mine. The decision is mine.   
He reached down under the covers and grabbed a handful of Severus hair, dragging him up her body. When the long haired boy emerged, his face was slick and he was licking his lips, black eyes glittering with lust.   
He leaned down to kiss her but Tom dragged him back, pulling him to his own mouth, kissing him brutally, biting and sucking before releasing his lips and proceeding to lick the shiny juice from the boy’s face. 

“Mmmmm ...take her” he muttered. 

She felt Severus heavy cock lowered for the first time against her since they’d bathed. He rubbed it against her, slathering it in her sopping wetness and looking down at her as if he wanted to memorise her face.   
Then, in one movement he pulled back and with unerring aim thrust forward and skewered her. 

She gasped, her back arching painfully as his size seemed to both stab at her womb and stretch her walls.   
“Uhhhhhh” Severus groaned, his eyes slipping closed. “Even better than I imagined.. so hot.. wet..tight.” 

Tom pulled her face to the side and kissed her again, stretching his tongue as deeply into her as he could, trying to push it into her throat.   
Severus started to move and the intense slippery pressure was amazing. She moved mindlessly, rotating her hips. 

After Tom had kissed her for a few minutes, allowing Severus to continue to fuck her with audible enjoyment, he pulled away and without warning shoved Severus hard, pushing him off her to the side to land on the bed. 

Severus glared at him in surprise, a barely veiled snarl on his lips. 

“Thats enough.” Tom smirked. “On your back!”   
he glanced at Hermione imperiously.   
“Ride him.” 

She twisted and moved to climb over Severus but he was already gripping her and forcefully pulling her where he wanted her, shoving his cock back up into her with a groan of relief.   
She sighed happily and moved on him, his hands on her ass directing her as she rose and fell. 

Tom had moved too.   
He had positioned himself behind her and now his hands slid around her, moving over her belly, breasts, sliding down to toy at her clitoris, making her bounce on Severus and pant, thrilled. “please.. don’t stop!” she begged Tom, but he removed his hand, and wiped it over her lips, smearing her with her own juices.   
Severus black eyes flashed and he tore her down to his mouth with a hand on the back of her neck, kissing and licking at her. 

She felt Tom’s fingers exploring the place where Severus’ cock was pumping up into her. 

Severus moaned, obviously enjoying the unexpected touch as much as she. The fingers travelled up from her pussy to brush over her ass and tease at her tiny rosette. 

“It will hurt, my dear. There must be blood” Tom said in a low voice. 

She whimpered and tried to pull away but Severus held her fast. He broke off the kiss to pull her down even lower, pushing her ass up for Tom and mumbling against her neck.   
“it is only a little pain. You’ve had worse. Let it happen, Hermione.” 

She felt Tom’s fingers probing her again and it hurt unreasonably much when he forced the tip of his finger into her. She squeaked in shock.   
Tom laughed low.   
“It will not feel as it did last time you felt a cock in your polyjuiced ass either my dear, even taking into account this body’s inexperience. Unfortunately the female anatomy is simply different. It is not as..accomodating..to this pleasure.   
But over time you will learn to enjoy this when I wish it. I can make it more pleasurable for you.   
But I will not this time. This time you will feel the undiluted pain.   
You say you wish to protect me.. you claim to accept my ownership of you.. you claim to.. love me.   
If those things are true- you will ask me for this.   
Offer yourself to me, Hermione. Offer yourself up to the pain I’ll give you. Show me you desire to be mine..” 

The fingertip slid out of her again and she felt a terrible fizzing sensation inside. He had cast the scourgifying colonic spell. 

She froze, although Severus continued pumping up into her very slowly, his breathing fast. She could feel his pulse racing in his throat by her lips. 

“I’m scared” she whimpered.   
A hand stroked down her back. She could not tell if it was Tom or Severus.   
“Could you use a spell to-“ 

“No.” Tom’s cold voice interrupted. “I will not influence your will in that manner today. You must decide. If you cannot accept this fate and offer yourself to me despite your fear..” he hesitated.   
“..I will leave you alone with Severus. I will not deny him what he has so long desired. But I will not see you again.” 

Her breath caught. Did he mean it?! She’d never see him again if she didn’t ask him to hurt her horribly!? 

What kind of bloody psychopathic deranged.. she launched into an internal panicked bout of cursing. 

A pair of hands slid gently up her back and back down to grip her hips loosely, fingertips stroking her silky skin.   
She thought about Tom sleeping behind her last night, his breath on the back of her neck, arm around her.   
She couldn’t..not.. see him again.   
She didn’t want him to go away again. She wanted to fall asleep that way every night. 

“-and you can..” Tom urged convincingly.   
“embrace the choice.. be mine.. it is such a small thing that I require.   
Hardly to compare with a cruciatus curse or the rigors of your initiation. You want to please me.. don’t you?” 

Hermione felt a stab of fear inside her again but what he was saying sounded so reasonable really.   
He was going to have anal sex with her. It was not as if he was going to string her up and whip her or burn her or flay her. It was hardly an exotic and forbidden practice – she’d heard some women enjoyed it.   
It could not possibly hurt as much as the cruciatus and he would probably heal her afterward. 

“Indeed” he responded again to her thoughts. “you will be fully restored. No trace will remain.” 

She swallowed. Severus hands, which had been resting on her lower back, stroked her reassuringly and he stilled his subtle achingly slow thrusts into her. Sighing, she forced her hands underneath his back and gripped him hard.   
She said in a small, not particularly enthused voice. “Ok.”   
“If this is what you want..if this is what it will cost.. do it. I give myself to you, Tom. I’m yours. Take me.”   
She braced herself, curling her body tightly around Severus, her head pressed into his neck. One of his hands came up and stroked her hair, the other moving from her lower to her middle back.   
It felt comforting. Well.. except perhaps for his cock that he had started to rock in her gently again. 

Tom sighed in satisfaction and she felt something brush up against her ass.   
One of the hands on her hips was removed. She felt his large, hot, slightly weepy cock positioned against her rosette and then there was a feeling of increasing pressure. 

She clutched Severus even tighter and he rumbled. “easy. Shhhhh” 

The pressure on her ass rapidly evolved into pain as Tom started pushing – hard – trying to force the head of his cock inside her. She bit her lips and tried to be quiet and relax. It felt like he was trying to shove a baseball bat into her, it was impossible. The flat wide pressure just pushed her sensitive flesh in, without parting it. 

His hand returned to her hip to join the other and then he was pulling her and forcing that blunt pressure against her harder. 

She hummed uncomfortably, her eyes closed.   
A growl from behind her indicated that Tom was less than satisfied with events. 

The pressure vanished and then she heard him spit, feeling wetness land on the cleft of her ass. He smeared it down over her rosette and roughly forced a finger into her, making her squeak and flinch away.   
His hands caught her hips again and he hissed low. “stay..” then one hand vanished and the horrible pressure returned, worse than before.   
She could feel him rubbing his cock over her tiny puckered hole trying to find an angle that would allow himself to force through the ring of muscle.   
He pushed with his cock in his hand and pulled at her hip at the same time and just as the painful pressure became unbearable it got worse. Sharp stabbing and stretching pain lanced through her ass as he forced the very tip of his head in. 

She whimpered, digging her fingers into Severus. It really hurt! it got worse as he worked and stretched her further, the pressure never letting up. She felt like he was splitting her open. 

“Relax, damn you!” he hissed and slapped her ass, shocking her.   
He thrust forward hard and the head of his cock finally slipped past her tight ring, She felt her ass spasm, trying to eject the uncomfortable foreign mass. It truly felt like he was massively huge.   
When he started to push forward again and the horrible sharp stretching feeling was joined by a burning, she tried to crawl forward to compensate and keep him still.   
His hands tightened on her hips. 

“Hold her, Severus” Tom growled low. 

Severus comforting stroking hands moved immediately, one sliding over her upper back, gripping and bracing her shoulder, the other holding her around her lower back. She found that any movement was now thoroughly impeded.   
Tom’s hands on her hips prevented her doing much from the waist down to avoid the terrible sensation. He held her immovably in place. 

She whimpered, starting to cry. At that moment Tom suddenly drove forward into her. She screamed against Severus neck.   
It felt like being stabbed.   
It was bad! Really bad. Par with the cruciatus, she thought. 

“Shhhh shhhh. I’m sorry Hermione.” Severus was saying into her ear. “Be strong. The pain will recede soon” She sobbed against him.   
Tom forced himself further in, shoving hard, and she bit down on Severus flesh where his shoulder met his neck, screaming through her teeth. He winced sharply and held her more tightly.   
Tom was pulling back now and it hurt just as bad. When she thought he might remove that baseball bat from her ass he drove forward again violently, impaling himself to the hilt. She screamed again. It felt like he tore her wide open.   
Her ass burned and stung and ached...   
She could feel his short curled hair brush against her crack.   
He did it twice more and at the last it felt slightly easier, as if she were lubricated. 

She realised that it was probably blood. 

He stopped and she heard him pant at Severus “sweet fucking Merlin, she’s almost too tight. ..I need to stop for a minute. See if you can’t heat her up again.   
Not that I do not enjoy sodomizing crying girls, but you know where this must lead if it is to be successful.” 

Hermione was somewhat beyond caring about where this must lead or what success exactly meant. She just wanted it to stop. She didn’t understand why he had to hurt her. She knew damn well that he probably had dozens of spells that he could use to make this better. He was deliberately not using them. 

Severus started moving inside her again slowly. She felt stretched beyond capacity. Severus movements seemed to rub against the pressure in her ass.   
When Tom remained quiescent it almost didn’t hurt so much. Her entrance burned and ached and it felt like his huge cock throbbed inside her, but it was not as bad.   
It just felt like she really.. really needed to use the bathroom. 

“Stop biting me now, Hermione. There’s a good girl” Severus said gently.   
She realised that her teeth were sunk quite deeply in the man’s boyish flesh. She could taste a little blood.   
Letting go and lifting her head somewhat she saw an angry purple ring of teethmarks and some small drops of blood welling up . Her jaw ached. 

“sorry..” she muttered. 

“Mm.. its quite alright. Kiss me..” he purred.   
She frowned anxiously. She didn’t want to move in case Tom started moving again. 

“Perhaps it would be better if..” Tom’s voice trailed off and the next thing she knew he had leaned down over her back, tossing Severus arms off her impatiently and clamped her to him, then rolled to the side, tearing her off Severus again, to rest on his chest as he lay on his back, up against the pillows. 

It felt like her weight forced him even deeper inside her. She lay limply, her head on his shoulder.   
He arranged his arms so that he could cup her breast and play with her pussy.   
She barely responded.   
The surly looking man at their side watched with visible irritation. “Must you keep doing that, my Lord?” he grumbled. 

Tom chuckled below her, the movement shaking her slightly and making her breasts jiggle.   
“There are more important things, Severus” he reminded him. “lick her. Ignite her passions again and I will allow you to fuck her to completion before I finish it.” 

Severus rolled lithely to his hands and knees and she parted her legs eagerly, Tom parting his own beneath her, for Severus to lie betwixt them. 

His body was lovely. Broad shouldered milky skin tapering down to a rounded attractively muscled arse. Strong thighs parted slightly to allow him to grind against the mattress as he applied his face to her pussy once more, obviously very much enjoying her taste.   
His efforts soon bore fruit. Lying like this the pain in her ass faded to a background discomfort and the stimulation of her clit moved to the forefront of her attention.   
She sighed as he inserted his tongue into her as far as it would go; thrusting in and out and calming the reddened flesh from where he’d been fucking her. Soon enough she was rocking slightly against his sucking lips on her clitoris. 

She’d winced the first time she tried to move like that and then Tom had started to play with her breasts gently; the next time she’d tried to move, he’d moved with her, very slightly shifting within her.   
It hurt, but in conjunction with Severus’ talented tongue on her clit, it was almost ok. 

Severus seemed to notice her change and increased his efforts severalfold, gently plucking at her tiny bud with careful teeth.   
She gasped and moaned. Two of his fingers slid into her, increasing the pleasurable stimulation and, when she bit her lip, rolling her hips in time with his fingers thrusting, he inserted a third finger.   
The tightness was delicious when he twisted them in her.   
Tom had started to slowly move in short thrusts in her ass, circling his pelvis and stretching her. The pain seemed to actually enhance the feelings in her pussy a bit now. It was like a sharp edge on top of the smooth waves. 

Severus got up on his hands and knees now and crawled up her body till his knees were pushing Tom’s and hers wide.   
Her pussy was at just the right height with her lying on Tom this way, he could lean forward slightly and position his cock at her entrance.   
Pushing in, it felt again as if he was brushing up against Tom, increasing the pressure within her, but he reached down and played the pad of his thumb over her clit, expertly teasing her to a mild frenzy. 

When he started to thrust into her in earnest he keyed back his stimulation, leaving her panting and eager but keeping her just far enough away from her climax to feel it almost upon her without being able to reach it.   
Tom started kissing her neck and she tilted her head away, baring her throat to him. 

Severus was growling and fucking her harder and she could feel Tom thrusting in and out of her slowly too now.   
It felt..   
it felt quite good actually. She could come like this.. if Severus would just touch her clit. 

She reached down to do it herself and Toms hands slid from her breasts to her wrists, capturing her hands and wrapping them around her. He tutted in her ear. “Now now.. patience, my dear.” 

She groaned in frustrated need as he started sucking on her earlobe and then nipped a line down her throat.   
Rolling her hips helplessly between the two thrusting cocks rubbing against each other through the thin skin she tried desperately and futilely to get enough friction where she wanted it in order to tip over the edge. It seemed that that was not what either of her partners wished however. Every time she was close, they would stop or alter their movement to prevent her from reaching completion 

With a low growl of urgent need, Severus suddenly kicked up a gear, starting to slam into her and a few seconds later he groaned deeply and burst, filling her with his seed as he jerked weakly, his pelvis clamped to her by his hands on her hips. She cried out in frustration. She had been so close.. if Severus had just kept doing that a little longer..   
Tom started moving more vigorously as soon as Severus had stilled and she found that the pain in her rear was almost gone, it just felt a little uncomfortable and strange.   
And wet, she added thoughtfully.   
Severus flinched slightly every time Tom thrust and soon he withdrew his overly sensitive cock and sat back on his heels. 

In response, Tom released one of her wrists and gestured, cleaning them both, never stopping his own movement in her. 

She felt frustrated and needy at being empty and understimulated. 

Severus looked past her head and seemed to attend to a silent communication. He nodded silently and climbed off the bed, retreating to the bathroom with a final long look back at Hermione. A moment later she heard the shower start. 

She whined in frustration and Tom nipped her neck sharply, wringing a breathy yelp from her.   
“Hush, my dear. Concentrate on the feeling. Doesn’t it feel..good... so dirty and wrong.. so slippery and strange.”   
Toms mouth at her ear made her shudder in lust.   
His breath.. the dark promise in his voice.   
He fucked her a bit harder and she wriggled, bucking her hips at air, feeling like she needed Severus back again.. needed Severus mouth on her clit.. or his thumb.. anything. She had been so close! 

Toms hand slid down the damp skin of her abdomen, over her mound, down to her clit. 

She whimpered and tried to raise herself up against his fingers..but they remained a half a millimetre too far away.   
She could feel them.. just there.. every so often a feather light touch across her clit. It was maddening.   
Her pussy clutched and sucked at air.   
Tom’s cock pumped up into her hard and he was breathing fast across her ear now.. making her heart flutter. 

She thought she might go mad if he didn’t let her come soon. 

His finger touched her clit again lightly and she cried out, bucking her hips as her climax inched a little closer again. 

“feel it, Hermione.” He urged.   
His finger hovered nanometres out of reach and she growled in frustrated urgent desperation.   
His cock in her ass made her yearn to come but it wasn’t quite enough. 

“Do you remember when I took you against the wall in the shower” he said low and punctuated his words by sucking on a sensitive spot below her ear.   
She whined and remembered how he’d looked at her with such a penetrating demanding hunger as he’d nailed her to the wall. Hearing the shower running in the background now made it more tangible. She imagined she was back in the shower again and he was holding her against the wall, his hands on her wrists, pressing her face to the cold stone as he slid in and out of her ass. 

“Yessss..” he hissed. “like that.. Mmm...I want you to come for me... Show me you belong to me, Hermione..   
come with my cock in your ass.. Do you remember how I fucked you when you wore my own body.. come for me!”   
His hand that wasn’t hovering over her pussy suddenly pinched her nipple hard and she gasped in pleasure. 

When he’d fucked her that night he’d hurt her so much but it had felt amazing and she’d come so hard.   
She felt the ghost of his finger over her clit, not even touching, just hovering. The weight of a shadow. She clenched her ass around him, feeling his slick oily movement through her.   
He was right.. it felt so wrong but somehow so hot..like it was bad or shameful.. degrading.. to enjoy it. 

Tom sniggered at her ear. “Indeed, my dear” he panted. “what would your former acquaintances at the order think ..if they saw you writhing in sodomite pleasure on my cock. ..Perhaps i’ll send them a pensieve memory. I’m sure the remaining Weasleys would find it.. edifying” 

She gasped and bucked on his prick, her clit spasming quite without stimulation.   
“You like that.. my filthy little mudblood queen?” he laughed breathlessly. 

“I’d flip you over and drive you into the bed if I didn’t know you’d rut the mattress and bring yourself off immediately”   
She whined, trying to turn her head to catch his lips,   
He cooperated and brought his mouth to hers, putting his hands onto her hips and effortlessly lifting and slamming her onto his cock.   
Pulling away from her thrusting tongue he hissed “Raise your knees, my beautiful whore” 

Hermione complied after a few seconds. It was difficult to do it... lifting her legs changed the angle of her ass upon him, seemed to spread her to him even further.   
He caught her under the knees and pulled them up and apart, holding her wide open for his long plunging length. She found herself moaning. She was surprised.   
If he.. if he just.. she could almost come.. it felt strange and different, her pussy clenched at nothing.   
“Do you know...at your initiation..” he hissed excitedly. “I had intended to fuck you like thiss in front of all my asssembled Death Eaters after you killed the Weasley boy.   
I would have used the lussst incantation to forssse you to come in front of them all.. begging and ssscreaming for Lord Voldemort to fuck you even harder.”   
The image was too much. She felt herself pitch violently into her climax, her clitoris twanging and throbbing untouched, every muscle clenching. She heard her own voice shrieking in pleasure as Tom fucked her wildly and exploded inside her bare seconds later, as if he’d been hovering on the edge, only waiting for her to come to let himself go.   
They coasted down from the high together slowly, his movements in her gradually winding down till they lay, both breathing fast, glazed in sweat.   
He released her legs and she let them slide back down to lie atop his. She felt her skin sticking to his beneath her.

“Uhh” he huffed exhaustedly, letting his head fall back. She sighed in blissful afterglow. His hand came up and brushed her damp hair away from her face.   
“My precious..” he murmured distractedly, as if he were talking not to her but to himself. “Severus is correct. It matters not why you are so deliciously tantalizing. It is sufficient that you are.   
If it is a drug...If I am drunk on your essence – you will still be mine. Utterly. Forever. I will kill any wizard that tries to take you from me.”   
His arms curled around her possessively and he rolled them onto their sides, his soft penis slipping from inside her.   
She felt liquid drip out slightly at the same time. 

He kissed the back of her neck and then rolled away from her, getting out of bed. She rolled onto her back, looking curiously as he retrieved his wand from his robe and returned, climbing back onto the bed and crawling gracefully to straddle her. 

When he pointed his wand at her forehead, she felt no fear. Not after what he had said before he got up.   
He probably wouldn’t hurt her. 

She shivered pleasurably when he started speaking in parseltongue and his wand moved over her forehead, drawing a sigil. He moved it down and pointed over her left breast, speaking again in those soft dark hissing tones and drawing another sigil. Then he moved off her and knelt to the left in order to roughly pull her onto her side, and she felt his wand dip into the cleft between her buttocks.   
She frowned over her shoulder at him as he incanted in parseltongue once again, she could feel the thin wooden shaft moving against her flesh, drawing. 

He released her and then pointed the wand at his own cock. She noticed that it was covered in drying blood and blinked, wide eyed. 

It hadn’t hurt except in the beginning – how the hell was there that much blood?! 

Tom had finished incanting and was already moving to his own heart. She watched as he also spoke the words and drew a sigil on his own forehead and then he performed a complex curling wand movement and spoke one final lengthy stream of parseltongue. 

There was a strange unbalanced feeling as if the world was shaking beneath her slightly or as if she were standing on a beam and losing her balance. Then it settled.   
She frowned at him. Was something else supposed to happen? She didn’t feel any different. 

He smirked.   
“You’re not supposed to. If the spell were bidirectional, you would feel me as I now feel you.   
But do believe me.. it was successful. You are bound to me now.” 

She smiled, pleased, looking up into his red eyes brightly.   
Her joy dimmed when a thought occurred to her then. “What about Harry?” she asked tentatively. 

Tom’s expression darkened.   
“You are also bound to him. Our bindings are currently of similar strength, due to young Harry’s thankfully imperfect understanding of the nature of parseltongue mediated bindings.” 

“He did not realise the important role of will. Your unwillingness to engage in the sex act with him and his use of a lust incantation to force you to comply, together with your ignorance of his intentions – your lack of desire to be ‘his’ - severely weakened the effect of his binding.   
Unfortunately, his mark upon you..and the use of the blood of your maidenhead in the incantation are both strengthening factors and thus it was completed even so.” 

“Had he secured your willing and informed participation.. it is probable that I would not have been able to bind you now.” Tom appeared pensive for a moment, sitting back on his heels.   
“it is also possible that his blending with part of my soul may have rendered him magically similar enough to myself that I was able to usurp his binding to cast my own.” He frowned, looking darkly at the candles in the candelabra on the bedside table. 

“In any effect, the fact remains that you have willingly offered me..a form of virginity..you have suffered in sacrifice, I have spilled your blood and you have expressed the desire to be truly mine. You have climaxed from the art of my manhood alone and we have reached our pleasure together. This satisfies all the conditions of the binding, even if my mark and your maidenhead would have been the optimal configuration. It is still sufficient to match Potters connection.” 

Tom’s eyes flashed in pleased surprise and he smiled nastily suddenly, looking at her.   
“I can feel him faintly.. through you.. He has realised what has happened and is furious. How delightful!” 

Tom reached out and grabbed her left arm, pulling it up and licking over Harry’s mark slowly and lingeringly.   
He fell into cruel laughter. “The boy is in a frenzy now.” 

The door to the bathroom opened and Severus stepped out in a towel, stopping and looking at them both questioningly.   
“it was successful” Tom said in a satisfied voice. 

Severus brightened. “Excellent my lord. Congratulations!” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “Thank you for the half hearted attempt to veil your envy, my servant.   
– know, that had it not been for Potter, this binding would have been yours, Severus.   
Alas, we seem to have run out of virginity. You will therefore remain unsatisfied. Take it up with the boy if it frustrates you.” 

The long haired youth scowled blackly. “I regret my inability to sufficiently suppress my own desires in this instance, Master. I shall certainly take up the matter with the boy at the earliest possible convenience.”   
He stalked to the bed silently and slid into a horizontal position with lithe catlike fluidity.   
“Would you like me to heal her while you shower?”   
Tom looked into his eyes and seemed to sigh gently. Communication passed between them for almost a minute.   
Finally Tom looked to Hermione with an unreadable expression. “Is that acceptable for you, my dear?” 

She looked at him curiously. It was unexpected that he would ask her instead of simply deciding.   
“Of course” she responded lightly.   
She felt a tiny bit disappointed that Tom would not heal her himself but she thought that Severus probably wanted to be alone with her. He seemed a bit upset. 

Tom’s shuttered eyes blinked slowly and she somehow felt he had acknowledged her understanding of the situation.   
He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Precious girl..” he murmured and got up, going to the bathroom and closing the door after himself. 

Severus sat up and moved closer to her. “Are you ok?” 

She smiled and sat up, wincing slightly. The movement, stretching her skin, made her bottom hurt a bit.   
“Well.. I was before I moved. But it’s not so bad”   
Severus looked relieved. 

There was a faint squeak.   
Severus’ head whirled in that direction, alarmed. Hermione realised what it was. 

“Oh my god. Draco! I forgot that you were even here” She blushed bright red. 

It seemed that Severus had too.   
Tom she couldn’t be sure of – it was possible that he simply did not care that he was there. 

There was another squeak which sounded indignant and the blond boy unfolded at the foot of the bed. 

“Granger.. are you ok? That was.. intense.”   
He looked at Severus and the two ‘boys’ exchanged a look that held an undertone of challenge.   
She had the feeling Severus wanted to piss a circle around her and bare his teeth at Draco, metaphorically speaking. 

“I’m fine. Thanks.. both of you.” 

Draco looked down, alarmed, seeing her red face. “Don’t blush Granger.. I- I shouldn’t have said anything. I was just.. concerned.   
You don’t have to ever feel embarrassed about anything in front of me, ok? You were.. amazing”   
The blond boy swallowed and darted a look up at her nervously. His eyes were stormy with emotion.

“Thank you Draco” Severus said dryly. “Get back in your basket, if you please. Hermione will play with you later.   
Perhaps I can procure her some cat toys for you.” 

Draco’s face twisted in a snarl and he took a half step forward before he forced himself to stop.   
Realistically seen – Severus had his wand already in his hand and, even on a good day and with the element of surprise, Draco would probably still have his arse handed to him. The man was a world class duelist, a dirty fighter and due to his experiences with the marauders during his Hogwarts years, he had a paranoid nature and the reflexes of a cat. 

Draco backed off and shot her a regretful look before transforming and slinking back to the basket Tom had transfigured for him, curling into a sulky ring of ferret. 

She offered Severus a ‘was that really necessary’ expression and the boy raised his eyebrows and smirked innocently.   
“He did say he did not want to be a wizard. I am only giving him what he apparently wants, Hermione.   
Now roll onto your stomach for me and I shall repair you.” 

Hermione frowned ruefully but lay back down and turned over.   
Severus wince suggested to her that there must have been quite a bit of blood. The black silk sheets were probably hiding a multitude of sins, she thought. 

His hand brushed lightly over the cheeks of her bottom. Then she heard him singing quietly.   
Once again she thought to herself what a lovely voice he had and that it was a shame that he seemed shy about raising it. 

After a few minutes he said quietly. “I have healed the physical damage but I will give you a couple of potions after you are dressed.   
One to ensure against any sepsis which may have occurred – unlikely though it may be. And.. a contraceptive.   
A real one, not like Potter’s lie that you described in your pensieve memory. That was to block Lestrange, I gather – it sounds like it could be Melgar’s protected-sleep elixir or something else in the dreamless range.   
The little bastard was probably hoping to impregnate you if he could. Thank Merlin he was unsuccessful.” 

Hermione smiled grimly.   
“What has happened to him?” She asked carefully, hoping that this wouldn’t make Severus angry.   
His young face darkened. 

“He is still in the room in which you last saw him.   
Physical and psychological torture proved ineffective. Persuasion and coercion and even seduction failed but eventually I managed to find an agent to impair his occlumency and the Dark Lord was able to discern what binding spell he had used on you.” 

“He refuses to participate in any rite to release the binding. He offered to remove your mark once but it was merely in the hope that the Dark Lord would release his magic.   
We are looking into other methods of neutralizing the mark. This binding was the first step toward that end.   
If we are able to remove his binding with you then it will be possible to kill him and that should remove your mark.   
The Dark Lord plans-..” Severus broke off and seemed to reconsider. 

“Plans what?” Hermione asked, concerned now. 

“it is of no consequence.” Severus said dismissively. “Come. I will escort you to your room and wait while you dress. You may bring your..pet. I imagine he would prefer not to remain here alone with his Master.” 

Hermione stood, unbothered by her nakedness and walked to the cat’s basket, crouching and lifting Draco carefully.   
“Come on then ferret” she said, smirking. 

The small animal let her pick him up and cradle him against her breast in the crook of her arm.   
Severus shot him a disapproving..and faintly envious.. look. 

She stroked Draco’s stomach and the ferret basked, his head falling back. 

“You realise you are not helping matters by coddling the whelp?!” Severus said acidly. 

“But he’s adorable!” she protested. “How can you not want to tickle his tummy. Look at him!”   
The ferret turned his face toward the sable haired boy again and looked somehow smug. 

“Oh come on then.” Severus snapped and stalked to the door, throwing it open and marching out in a huff.   
She followed at a more sedate pace stroking Draco’s head.   
He twisted his head around and licked her hand, squeaking at her softly. 

“its ok. I know you were just worried.” She whispered at him and held him closer. 

When she got to her room she could hear the shower running already. Walking into the bathroom she found Severus lounging against the vanity in his towel.   
She smiled at him   
“Would you like to join me?” 

He raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at the ferret in her arms. “Will wildlife be involved?” he asked sardonically. 

She sighed at Draco. “You can’t expect me to wash you every time you shower!” she said to the small white face.   
The ferrets head swung toward Severus uncertainly. 

“You may join us..in human form” Severus offered generously and inspected nails that were perfectly filed and clean, looking up at Draco as if to say ‘hurry up and decide, you’re wasting my time.’ 

Hermione put the small animal on the ground. The ferret craned his head up to look at them both, sitting down on his haunches and thinking for almost a minute. Then he squeaked once as if to say ‘shan’t’ and turned and bounced out of the bathroom. 

Severus scowled.   
“Damn it all to hell!” he cursed under his breath. “I’m concerned about this, Hermione.” 

“Apart from the question of Draco’s mental state - have you any idea how Lucius is going to react if... When.. he learns that his only heir has abandoned any and all duties in order to be your housepet?!   
He has already been quite vexed at being denied access to you. He was not informed about your..accident and resulting condition.   
He seems to believe that he has some claim to you – that you share some kind of mutual affection– he has become quite obsessed. The Dark Lord’s continued refusal to allow him to see you has made him volatile.”

“Draco’s absence if he remains here with you, will be conspicuous and Lucius will find out one way or another where he is. At that point I am entirely certain that all hell will break loose.   
Beyond the shame of Draco’s behaviour – Lucius will be enraged that his son is in your presence.. in your graces.. when he himself is denied.” 

Hermione swallowed and frowned.   
“I see” she said softly.   
She looked down and gently undid the towel around Severus waist, laying it on the vanity.   
“Come on.” She tugged at his waist and turned, going to the shower and slipping inside. 

They took a long time in the shower. Severus washed her body from head to toe, and although he did not try to touch her sexually, he washed her hair for her with great care and apparent relish and then he held her to his chest for a long time with the water splashing down on her back. 

Eventually she sighed.   
“I will have to see Lucius.” she said quietly. 

Severus stiffened but he did not try to pull away. “That is not necessary, Hermione” he said in a low voice. 

She lifted her head and tried to read his expression. “Perhaps it is, perhaps not. It is the easiest way to deal with this situation. If I see Lucius, he will not become an unpredictable potential threat to Tom and I can request he offer Draco as a guard.   
If I refuse to see him.. as you said – he will be very angry about Draco, i don’t know what he might do to him - and he will resent Tom for denying him what he wants.   
Tom did say that Lucius was a spoiled child. It’s the only real solution. Let’s not dwell on the inevitable.” 

Severus arms tightened around her slightly.   
“it is not the only solution. Draco could pull himself together, stop avoiding his problems by posing as wild vermin and Lucius would simply have to accept that it is no longer appropriate for him to spend the...time... he desires with you now that you are blood bonded to his master.   
THAT is the easiest solution, Hermione” He sounded slightly petulant. 

Hermione thought on his solution for a minute. She contradicted him finally-   
“The problem isn’t Lucius understanding of the situation. As you said – he is obsessed. He will desire me even if he is given a reasonable explanation as to why he cannot see me. His anger and frustration will only make him more of a risk. And.. and I don’t want to make Draco return to a life in which he is tortured and prostituted constantly.   
He doesn’t deserve that.   
The only reason he betrayed Tom was that he wanted to be able to sleep without fear. If he feels happy around me – if he prefers being a ferret to being a wizard for the moment – I won’t force him to do anything.” 

Severus said nothing. 

She turned and shut off the water, getting out and reaching for two towels. As she handed Severus his, he said, with a troubled look on his face – “i tried to protect him, you know” 

She tried not to look too sceptical. Severus looked hurt at her disbelief. 

“I warned Lucius. I appealed to the Dark Lord. He is not my child.. nor my servant. They both essentially instructed me to keep out of it.   
You have no idea how often I fought.. physically fought.. with Lucius over Draco.” Severus looked slightly sickened. 

“what.. happened with the polyjuice was wrong.. it should never have occurred. I have since cursed myself over and over. ..I am afraid Draco fears me now.   
He has never ...never feared me before. He would come to me when he needed to talk.. or hide.  
What have I done?! The boy won’t even remain in a human form now. I should have stood up to the Dark Lord.   
But..at the time I thought it better to do whatever it took to keep him in a playful mood.   
He might have reacted quite differently to finding you both, you know. Draco knew that he was taking his life in his hands, touching you – and daring to use the Dark Lord’s hair in your polyjuice?!!” Severus sounded exasperated. 

“I was quite certain that the boy would see a green light before the night was out. Faced with that or even with an extended bout of crucio as an alternative I thought it would be better if I touched him.. kissed him..brought him off as expected of me – I thought that Draco would be in less danger than if I refused to indulge our lord.” he trailed off.   
His eyes implored her.. seemed to ask for some word of understanding, forgiveness, some answer that would undo what had been done.   
Hermione swallowed. She didn’t have one. Short of obliviating Draco – and that would erase important contextual information, probably rendering the boy a bit unstable in his view of reality - she didn’t see how you could take back a blowjob. It went somewhat beyond the bounds of normal, healthy, family life. 

She set her mouth.   
“Well.. the way I see it.. things are different now. Whether for better or worse is too early to tell. You both need to adapt to this new view of each other.” She looked at him seriously.   
“Do you truly completely regret being with him in that way? You invited him to shower with us, Severus. What if he had? You would have stared at the wall and pretended we weren’t all naked?!   
Are you only unhappy that things have changed or is there some part of you that’s unhappy because he’s avoiding you when you have just figured out that you might fancy him a wee bit.” 

Severus looked ashamed. “I don’t want to ‘fancy him’ as you say. He is practically my son!” 

At that moment the fully dressed human Draco marched into the bathroom with a furious expression on his face.   
They both turned, taken aback, as if they had forgotten that he was in the next room and that even as a ferret he did have the capacity to hear and understand human speech without difficulty.   
Severus looked panicky. “Draco..” he started. 

Draco did not pause for a moment, he stamped up to him and violently kissed him, forcing his tongue into Severus mouth. 

Severus froze but when Draco continued to snog him quite determinedly, he suddenly melted and wrapped his arms around the boy, his hands wandering over his back and into his silky hair, eyes closed with a look of ecstasy on his face. 

Draco slowly ended the kiss and glared at him. “Not everything is about you, you know.” He growled.   
Hermione recognised that she had said the same thing to him when he had thought she’d tried to commit suicide because of him. 

“Don’t overthink things, Severus.” 

Draco turned then to her “And you are not going to see my father, Granger. You know how he can be... I’m not going to let you do that so that I can stay here. I’ll go back. Severus is right.” 

Severus looked relieved and proud at the same time. He seemed to sigh then and took a deep breath.   
“I’m.. sorry Draco” 

Draco looked at him and snarled. “Damn it! don’t make me shag you on the spot just to reassure you. I wanted to stay in my animagus form because I thought the Dark Lord might allow me to see Granger that way. You know that as a wizard..he’d send me off like my father. I..needed to see her.” 

Severus looked torn “He’s right.” He reluctantly agreed.   
“If you do not see Lucius, the Dark Lord would likely also choose to keep Draco at distance in order to avoid provoking a situation. Draco you will have to come to terms with not seeing her.” 

Draco looked upset but resigned. 

“No he won’t” Hermione interrupted. “I’ve already told you what is going to happen. I didn’t ask for a democratic vote. I will ask Tom to allow me to see Lucius. I expect he’ll allow it in order to keep Lucius managed and reasonable.   
Besides.. if I’ve...infected.. or affected Lucius in the same way as i seem to have everyone else then it would be cruel to refuse to see him.   
Even if he is an utter bastard. I am not one.   
And if I am going to have to see him anyway then I damn well want Draco out of things. I want him to stay here in this room in whatever form he chooses – but I do agree that Tom is more likely to be amenable if he remains in animagus form for a lot of the time. So fine. He can be my familiar and my guard. Problem solved.   
Now move. I want to get dressed. Someone cast a bloody drying charm on my hair please.” She pushed between them and stalked out of the bathroom. 

 

The two boys.. men.. did not follow her out of the bathroom immediately and as she dressed in white satin lingerie and pale blue robes that gathered in an empire waist, she suspected they were snogging again. 

Confirming this, Draco marched out of the bathroom with swollen, thoroughly kissed lips, Severus trailing dazed after him. 

He inspected her outfit and raised an eyebrow. “Very nice..” he smirked. 

She reached for silk slippers but he took them out of her hands and pulled a pair of black heels out of the wardrobe.   
He tapped them, transfiguring them to the same blue as her robes. 

She frowned at him. “I can’t walk in those. Look at them!”   
Draco looked at her in disdained amusement. “Of course you can, Granger. Try.” He placed them down in front of her. 

She slipped her white stockinged toes into them and stood up, wobbling slightly in place. 

“Now walk” he suggested. She did, very shakily, looking like she was standing on stilts.   
Draco gaped almost disgustedly.   
“How could you possibly have reached this age without ever walking in heels, Granger?! You have to learn. You can’t go the rest of your life wearing children’s shoes!” 

She glared at him and kicked the shoes off. “Shut up, ferret. You walk in them, if you think it’s so easy. Prancing around in full man-hunting kit hasn’t been exactly on the top of my list of priorities, you know.” 

Draco snorted and transfigured the shoes into a larger size, toeing off his boots and socks and slipping his bare feet in.   
He walked up and down the room once gracefully.   
On the return route he actually adjusted his pace and swung his hips sexily. Both Hermione and Severus gaped, their jaws very nearly hitting the floor. 

Draco rolled his eyes at them. “You do know the kinds of things I’ve been doing for the Dark Lord for the last couple of years, right?” 

They exchanged a mutually discomfited expression. Hermione tried to think of a way to ask politely “seriously? Tom made you cross-dress to fuck bloody pervy foreign men?!”   
she couldn’t think of one.   
“Ok. sorry then. I take it back” she said weakly. “But tell me again why I have to learn to do it?” 

Draco looked like he didn’t quite understand the question. “because.. its expected?” he supplied, looking at her strangely. “Because the Dark Lord might dress you in Marie Matoine designer robes but if you are going to ruin the elegant line by wearing those ridiculous flat things then you might as well be wearing an off the rack from Madame Malkin.”   
He frowned at her expression which remained unconvinced.   
“Because.. the Dark Lord will like to look at you more in these.” He pointed at the shoes. “As will my father. And If you can put him in the right frame of mind perhaps he won’t see you as something to beat to the ground and piss upon.   
If you dress correctly... if you respond like a pureblood.. maybe..just maybe he might act like an almost normal human being.” Draco looked slightly distressed.   
Hermione responded quickly. “ok. ok.. I’ll try. I’ll learn to walk in them. You can teach me. I’ll get it. Don’t worry.” 

Draco looked relieved. He slipped the heels off and transfigured them back to Hermione’s size.   
She put them on and wobbled again. 

Severus cast a drying charm on her hair and Draco looked at her speculatively. “Up, I think” he said and started casting upon her hair. 

Somehow or other he managed to tame it into a French twist. She looked at him as if he’d just solved world hunger.   
“you really really should stay here and be my guard and occasional pet. Seriously. Please stay!”   
He smirked and offered her a hand to guide her back to the Dark Lord’s bedchamber. 

“Draco..” Severus started and the boy realised his error and shrank back into ferret form.   
Severus smiled nastily down at him suddenly.   
He retrieved a pair of Hermione’s white panties from her wardrobe and transfigured it into a tiny diamond studded collar and thin silver rope leash. 

The ferret stood on its hind legs and put tiny paws on where its hips would be if he didn’t have a body like a slinky-spring, looking up at him irately. 

Severus lowered himself to one knee and stroked a finger over his head. “if you wear a leash, perhaps you will be allowed to leave with her” he cajoled. 

Draco took his hands away from his hips and grudgingly offered his neck, standing up and balancing his paws on Severus knee.   
He looked away in shame as Severus attached the tiny soft leather collar. 

“What will happen if he tries to transform?!” Hermione asked anxiously.   
Severus pursed his lips. “It should expand. I placed a charm upon it to remain a millimetre away from the surface of whatever it surrounds. As he changes it should simply expand to retain this property.”   
The ferret squeaked nervously. Hermione looked uneasy too.   
“So you mean.. there’s a small chance that if he transforms it might break his neck?! Take it off!” 

Draco looked at her and then he was transforming. Her heart nearly stopped in panic.   
But the collar worked perfectly and he was left standing looking unbearably delicious in a white diamond-studded collar and leash that set off his silvery eyes brilliantly.   
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him as she calmed again. “you know-...” she began. 

“I know” he interrupted and rolled his eyes. “The whole bit with the collar and leash and leather and paddles and saddles and cages.. all not new to me. You like it. I’ll wear it.” He stated it flatly in an absolutely jaded fashion. 

Hermione blushed slightly. “well.. it.. it does suit you a bit.. sorry...”   
Draco stalked up to her with a wicked little smirk   
“I’ll be your pet, Granger.. I already said that. You can do what you want with me. Anything you want. You only have to say the word..”   
He shrank back down into his ferret form again and preened his ears for a moment. 

She nodded, feeling a wee bit flushed at Draco’s implication that he’d be her willing slave.   
She darted a shy glance at Severus. He was staring at Draco as if the boy had suddenly pulled a rabbit out of his arse. He seemed..very.. alert. She had a sneaking suspicion that if he had a tail he’d be wagging it. 

Focussing and taking a deep readying breath, she prepared to try to walk the entire ten or twelve metres to Tom’s bedroom. At that moment the man in question appeared at the door.   
He stopped still, taking in the scene before him. Severus naked with his arms folded. Hermione dressed elegantly as if she were off to tea at the ladies club, high heels and coiffed hair no less -and finally, Malfoy at her feet in a collar and leash. 

It took about two seconds and then he burst out laughing. All three people occupying his attention looked somewhat resentful.   
“I won’t ask. “ he sniggered. “Will you come with me to Harry, Hermione, or would you prefer to go to the lab with Severus? Your..new pet.. may come along if you decide to come with me. It will tickle me to watch you take a Malfoy ‘walkies’. 

She glanced at Severus willing him not to be offended.   
“I’d love to come with you. Thank you. I.. I need to talk to you about something though.” 

Tom looked immediately worried and alert. “What is it?” he said impatiently. “out with it” 

She held up a finger in front of Severus as if to say ‘not one word’.   
“I want to see Lucius Malfoy at some point. Severus said he has been difficult and I also want to request him to allow Draco to guard me..” 

Tom looked relieved and then smiled, pleased. He stepped close to her, Draco springing out of the way hurriedly.   
In the heels he was only an inch or two taller than her.   
He cupped her cheek and feasted his eyes on her. “you are a clever.. brave..girl, my dear. I will arrange for you to visit Lucius. Preferably in a context in which others are present. Hopefully it may curb his more impulsive tendencies.” 

“...Perhaps-.. He looked down at Draco speculatively.. “Does your father know of your animagus form?” he enquired, inspecting him judiciously. The ferret shook its head.   
Tom pointed at him and darkness spread through his fur until he was black as night. Finally the tiny white collar turned black too, the diamonds now standing out in sharp relief.   
Draco squeaked in alarm, spinning and looking at himself. He transformed back suddenly and both Severus and Hermione gasped.   
Draco looked entirely different with silky black hair. His silvery eyes were brighter and the tan of his skin gave him a mediterranian look. She thought he looked good. Different but good.   
As a blonde he looked more aloof, more coldly perfect. Like this.. he looked like a younger variant on Severus in some way. All angles and lights and fragility. 

Tom also looked at him with interest. He stepped up to the boy and twitched aside his black silk with a finger, turning his head and smiling darkly. “I am being extremely generous to you..Draco.. you do realise that, don’t you?”   
Draco nodded quickly. Hermione could almost smell his fear.   
“Good..” Tom said quietly. “See that you remember it” he warned.   
Draco swallowed and looked down. His subservience seemed to delight Tom. He turned away and Draco immediately transformed into his animagus form. 

Hermione felt uncomfortable. “um..” she began.   
Tom turned back to her, one perfect brow arched.   
“I.. I can’t actually walk in heels. Draco said he’d teach me but right now.. I’m probably going to fall over.” 

Toms face split into a massive incredulous grin. He burst out laughing and walked back over to her, pressing a kiss to her cheek and wiping an eye.   
“Oh..you are such a treat, girl. What am I to do with you?! Shall I have you humple around and possibly fall and embarrass yourself entertainingly.. “   
he sighed as if he really wanted to do that.   
“alright. I’ll charm them for today. Have your pet tutor you in how to be a..lady.” Tom looked down at Draco with a nasty smirk on his face. 

Hermione was absolutely certain that yes. He had in fact demanded Draco cross dress for some horrible wizard or wizards at some point.   
Arse. 

He looked back up at her, still smirking. “Now now, my dear. I am in an excellent mood this morning. Don’t spoil it.” 

She pursed her lips stubbornly and he kissed her on the cheek again, lingeringly, wrapping his arms around her possessively.   
“Come then. Let us visit the boy who still continues to elude death in an annoying manner”   
He cast the charm on her shoes and levitated Draco, reaching out and gripping him at the middle in a way that looked a bit more gentle than he had clutched him last night.   
Draco hung down from his hand on either side like a piece of rubber. 

Severus stepped forward and kissed the corner of Hermione’s mouth, then did the same to Tom, taking a bit longer and looking at him entreatingly, before he backed off and nodded, disapparating. 

A moment later Tom wrapped his ferret free arm around her and disapparated them all too.


	43. Chapter 43

She looked around when they reappeared.   
The room was still large and white and round without windows or doors but it looked very different. 

It was much bigger, for a start. 

The black sofa that had been here in the middle of the room was gone and instead there was on one side a suite with a long low leather sofa and three chairs, much as there had been in Harry’s sitting room.   
A black solid metal block lay in the centre of the suite. It had rounded edges. 

On the other side of the room a kingsize bed with industrial looking metal frame and tall corner posts sat. There were no blankets or pillows and the frame was studded with rings suitable for attaching...things. An X frame joined the four posts high over the bed and another ring was set in the centre. A chain dangled from it at present and pooled in a pile in the centre of the mattress. But that wasn’t what really drew the eye first in the room. 

The juxtaposition of two collections of items was disturbing.   
The first collection consisted of items of dubious purposes – Hermione recognised a rack among them. A large X shaped apparatus against the wall and something that looked like a wooden horse from gym class.   
The other items she couldn’t work out the purpose of but they looked decidedly ominous all the same. 

The second collection was arrayed on the floor and against the walls on the other side of the room behind the lounge suite. 

It was a large number of paintings and drawings. Most of them seemed to be of her. There were many portraits but also some ..um.. quite detailed.. nude studies and erotic pictures.   
She blushed.   
Harry was sitting on the floor facing away from them, painting on a canvas propped against the wall.   
He wore a plain black robe and his hair had been shorn off. 

She looked over the images, shocked. Harry could paint. He could really really paint. These were amazing! 

Harry hadn’t turned around to see who had arrived or even moved.   
He continued to paint placidly, but he had straightened since they apparated in.   
There was a sense of alertness about him now. 

He daubed at the canvas before him, tilting his head slightly.   
She couldn’t make out what it was of. He was sitting in the way. 

Tom dropped Draco to the floor, not unkindly and walked over to Harry. Hermione followed tentatively, her shoes made an unfamiliar clack clack sound on the stone floor. 

“Harry..” Tom said in a dark entertained tone of voice. “I’ve brought you a visitor. Don’t you want to say hello?”   
Harry’s shoulders bunched defensively and he shook his head. 

Hermione felt shocked and, paradoxically, a little hurt.   
Harry didn’t want to even look at her. Was he so angry with her for what Tom had done with her this morning.   
She stepped closer, Draco trotting beside her. “Harry?” she asked tentatively. 

Tom grinned. “Oh come now, Potter. Hermione is not the superficial type. I’m sure she will not mind that you’ve changed somewhat since she last looked upon you.   
Come to think of it.. it would be very difficult for you to look worse than you did the last time she saw you.” 

Harry’s shoulders slumped, defeated. She saw that he had apparently learned in the meantime that what Tom wanted he got one way or another and it was better to just give it to him. 

Harry stood and took a deep breath. He turned slowly and Hermione gasped, shocked. 

A deep, livid red scar started an inch above his left eyebrow and scored down, jumping from his bisected eyebrow to his cheekbone and winding down to his jaw. It had obviously been left unhealed intentionally. He had a thick ring through the septum of his nose and his lips were pinned shut by two more links that entered above and below his lips on either side of his cupids bow.   
Together with the absence of hair, he looked like a prisoner of war, a victim of torture. 

His eyes were changed.   
Harry looked resigned. 

Hermione’s hand flew to her mouth. 

Tom was looking at Harry admiringly. “He is a lot quieter these days. It’s rather a droll story actually. Do you recall what it was you said Harry to get me to button your lips permanently?”   
Harry nodded slowly, his eyes darting from Tom to Hermione warily. Tom sighed.   
“Of course I can still hear him, naturally. He is cursing me right now for bringing you here. It seems he is not happy to see you after all.” 

Tom paused, looking at Harry with glittering red eyes. “Oh.. you are? Oh I’m sorry Hermione – he is. He is merely ashamed.” The beautiful boy smirked at her.   
The difference in the two boys appearances was dramatic. Harry looked.. ruined.   
She felt her heart weep for him and tears spilled from her eyes. She had done this. She had brought him here.   
She looked down at Draco and the black ferret looked up at her, he seemed uneasy too. She bent and picked him up and held him to her, stroking him, whether to comfort him or to seek comfort for herself she didn’t know. Through her blurred vision she could tee Tom snarling at her emotional reaction.   
There was nothing she could possibly say. 

Tom glared at Harry and flicked a hand, banishing the rings binding his lips. Harry looked at him, startled. The boy gestured dismissively as if to say – go.   
Harry walked carefully to Hermione. He stopped a metre away and looked at her desperately, his eye darting back at Tom fearfully. He tried to speak but his voice sounded uneven and cracked from disuse. 

“M-ione” he creaked. “don’t cry. It’s ok” Hermione only cried more. 

“i’m sorry Harry. I’m so sorry that they did this to you. I’m sorry! “ she just kept repeating it over and over helplessly. 

Harry flinched and crashed to his knees before her. She saw Tom with his hand raised and an expression of rage on his face.   
“foolish girl!” he spat, sounding disgusted.   
“I warned you! Now you’ve ruined my good mood. How dare you weep over this creature!.. this..pestulant blot in an otherwise sparkling vista of triumph and achievement! HOW DARE YOU REGRET RETURNING TO ME!!!”   
He raised his hand at her as if to curse her and she didn’t even flinch, just waited, feeling she deserved it. 

Tom swore loudly and lowered his hand, then raised it again to run it through his hair. “Damn it..” he hissed, infuriated, his eyes narrowed and staring at Harry venomously.   
He waved a hand and the ring through Harry’s septum vanished.   
He stalked over and cast another charm. Hair grew rapidly from Harry’s head. Tom fisted it roughly and ripped his head backward, holding a slender graceful hand over the holes left by the rings. He chanted low and the holes healed completely. He did the same thing to the scar but it did not heal completely. It left a thin white trail jagging down Harry’s face.   
The overall effect was still a thousand times better. 

She ran to Tom, in her heels and flung her arms around his neck thanking him compulsively over and over as she wept.   
He stood and allowed her to embrace him but did not respond in kind. His face still looked hard.

“Thank you... my Lord” Harry said grudgingly. 

Hearing Harry call Tom his Lord was somehow the audible equivalent of the rings and the shaved head.   
She gulped a breath and tried to calm herself. Tom’s cold eyes softened to an exasperated frown.. He cupped her cheek and brushed her wet cheeks with his thumb. “Silly girl” he said wearily “yet again I find myself moderating my own desires in the attempt to make you happy.” 

“Look! Harry still has all appendages attached. Genitalia still present and in working order. Both eyes.. most of his teeth. Fingernails reattached. All of his skin is in place. He has not been raped.. although he has become a passable cocksucker when charms are applied to prevent him biting. He is not presently cursed. I have given the boy furniture.. allowed him to paint.. am I not merciful?” 

Hermione nodded. It could be worse. “Thank you, Tom” she said genuinely meaning it. 

“Tom?!” Harry enquired in an amused tone of voice. 

“Silence, Potter” Tom hissed. “You are tempting me to pin your lips again already. Please try to apply your survival instinct as a buffer between the production of your thoughts and their verbalization” 

Hermione stroked Dracos head and he twisted his head up and licked the inside of her wrist. Tom’s eyebrow raised slightly. 

“What’s with the animal?” Harry asked, a suspicious tone in his voice.   
Hermione stopped petting Draco guiltily and put him upon the ground. 

Tom quirked. “Don’t you recognise your ‘friend’ Harry” he taunted. 

Harry furrowed his brow confused then goggled incredulously. “SERIOUSLY?!!” he fell over laughing. 

The ferret bounced forward at high speed and leapt for his face, scratching and biting him viciously on his cheek.   
Harry yelped and batted at the animal on his face, knocking him off and scrambling out of reach. The ferret stood on its hind legs at the ultimate end of the leash, straining.   
Tom was laughing full throat at the scene – the collared Malfoy hissing and squeaking at the end of the leash and the boy wonder with scratches and blood dripping from a nasty bite, looking shocked. 

“Bloody hell Malfoy. No need to get your knickers in a bunch” Harry complained, shocked, his hand on his cheek, wiping at the blood.   
Draco shot into human form, Harry’s blood smeared around his mouth, and leapt toward him, the leash flying out of Hermione’s hand.   
Tom was still laughing, his eyes narrow in mirth, almost crying at the laughter wracking him.   
Draco had pulled back and was about to punch Harry, who was cowering.   
“DRACO!” She barked. 

Draco froze, shocked. 

“Come here..” She demanded icily.   
Draco looked angry, frustrated, rebellious and afraid all at once.   
“Draco..” she said again, quietly this time. 

The black haired youth rose elegantly to his feet and walked back to her with dignity. He wiped the blood from his mouth and bowed his head   
“Forgive me. I forgot myself” 

She smiled brightly. “Well.. Harry probably did deserve the bite, but it was enough.” She looked back at the other two. 

Tom was looking at her with an interested speculative expression on his face, a small smile on his lips.   
Harry was horrified and confused. “I actually thought Malfoy had betrayed me..” he confessed slowly. “you’re telling me he’s your slave?!” 

Hermione looked at Draco with an indecisive expression. Draco met her eyes, realising she didn’t know how much he wanted her to reveal, and turned to Harry.   
“I did betray you, Potter” he spat. “You imprisoned, raped, cruciated, imperiused and prostituted her. I had to stop you.   
Now I am grangers willing slave. I would give my life for her!   
I am her pet because it makes us both happy. I can’t compete with her mate.. and I will never try” Draco’s eyes flicked briefly to the Dark Lord in acknowledgement. 

Tom smiled contemplatively, his head tilted slightly at the strange dark haired Malfoy. Harry, though, narrowed his eyes at Draco. 

“I offered you shelter, Malfoy! I hid and protected you. You were a traitor – I should have known you’d turn on me too.   
I love Hermione. Everything I did – I did to protect her!” 

Draco was incredulous. “Are you joking or do you really believe that, Potter?! I was there. I saw you! You sold her body to me for the night, you obliviated her afterward. From the self satisfied look on the weasel’s face I’d say you gave her to him too! You’re full of shit, Potter. The Dark Lord has been merciful to you.”   
He turned away and looked at Hermione in concern. 

She was feeling anxious. Everything that Draco had said was right. She found it so difficult to think about Harry. She’d known him so long that everything in the recent past just got submerged under the weight of the years of love and adoration for him.   
The horrible things he’d done just blended in with Lucius and the initiation and everything else. It was hard to find anywhere solid to angle her scales to get perspective on the relative wrongness of the things that had been done to her.   
She found herself wanting to protect Harry from harm even when she knew he was dangerous.

She sighed. Draco gave her a ‘you ok?’ expression, to which she nodded.   
Draco looked back at Potter and glared once more, then shrunk back down to a silky black ferret. She bent and picked him up, holding him against her like a doll again, his head resting on her shoulder as she stroked him.   
She noticed both boys.. men.. looking at her with a faint expression of envy and glowered back at them defensively. 

Harry seemed to abandon the previous line of conversation. “What’s with his hair?” he asked curiously. 

“Never mind, Harry.” Tom responded “That’s not important. What is important is the deal I am going to offer you. You may want to think about it very carefully.. particularly in light of your claim to love Hermione.” Tom strolled closer to the boy still sprawled on the floor and offered him a hand.   
Harry looked at the hand suspiciously and then allowed Tom to pull him to his feet. 

“let’s sit down and chat” Tom suggested, gesturing at the lounge suite. 

Hermione followed the two boys.. ‘men’ she reminded herself, since Tom was in his seventies, relative to his year of birth and Harry was hardly a little boy anymore either considering his life and the fact that he shared a part of Tom’s soul.   
It was just hard to think of them as anything other than boys due to their youthful appearances.   
Tom had warned her not to think of him as a peer – but it was seductive the way the word ‘boy’ crept into her mind when she looked at him. It made it all the more severe a contrast when he glamoured himself to look like ‘Lord Voldemort.’   
The two identities.. Tom and Lord Voldemort.. had become completely separate to her now.   
It was a dangerous trick of the mind.   
Tom was Lord Voldemort. He was not a 17 year old boy, but a cunning and powerful 71 year old wizard – probably the most powerful in the world at present. 

She sat down in an armchair. Harry sat in another. Tom sat on the sofa and leaned back, stretching his lovely body languorously.   
The angle Hermione sat at placed Harry on her left and Tom before her and slightly to the right.   
Spread around the background was a veritable mosaic of Hermione themed images. 

Here and there she saw an image that wasn’t of her. Here was a scene in a dark forest. There was a waterfall, a picture of the burrow, a picture of Hedwig, a picture of the tree by the lake at Hogwarts, another of a beach with the sun setting. There was a picture of the library at Hogwarts.   
The rest seemed to be of her face or her body.. or some scene featuring her.   
She saw one of her suspended, barbed wire wrapped body straining in agony, Lucius Malfoy standing to the side and looking on.

She glared. 

Tom looked at her face and turned around, following her eye and then turning back and smirking when he worked out what she was looking at.   
“Delightful, aren’t they?!” he remarked innocently. “Such a talent the boy has. ...and probably a photographic memory, although some are more abstract or impressionist perhaps.   
I allowed him to paint after I discovered an image of you sketched in his own blood, hidden on the floor beneath his bed.   
Finding it was an accident. I enlarged the room to accommodate some of the toys you see around us.   
When I saw his skill I supplied him with canvas and medium to more fully capture his subject matter.” 

“My personal favourite is this one” Tom gestured summoning a rather modest sized canvas in dark blues, black and white. It depicted her face and upper body, being held down upon a bed by hands at her wrists. Her head was turned slightly to the side and tears were streaming down her face. She wore an expression of miserable terrified resignation.   
She couldn’t look away from it. 

“It reminds me somewhat of the memory you have of Harry ...encouraging... you to take his mark – however.. in this picture.. as you see here – you already have his mark.   
I have divined from Harry’s own memories that this image pertains to the morning of the day that you spoke with Draco. The picture is very evocative.. don’t you agree?”   
He looked at the canvas again appraisingly and levitated it back to the others. 

Hermione looked at Harry accusingly. He had his arms folded and was looking away from her stubbornly.   
Draco, who had turned around from her shoulder to look at the image when Tom displayed it, turned back around and pressed a cool nose against her neck. She stroked him absently, feeling comforted. She was glad he was here. Without him, she suspected being with Harry and Tom might be just a tad too intense. 

“What’s the deal then?” Harry demanded shortly. 

Tom studied Hermione a moment longer thoughtfully, seeming to be weighing some decision internally.   
After a minute he said, with absolute finality. “I am going to bind you to me, Harry.” 

Hermione blinked at Tom in shock while Harry leapt up and sputtered unintelligibly in dismay,   
He cried out “No! I refuse! I won’t do it. You can’t make me.” The sharp angular face shifted, displaying an averse, fearful realisation. “..Don’t make me do this! Please! Please..my Lord.” He dropped to his knees and started to beg helplessly.   
Tom watched him dispassionately for a while and then silencioed him impatiently.

“You will accept it Harry, or you will not – but it will happen either way. If you refuse to embrace my binding - if you refuse to ask me for it, I will send Hermione to Lucius immediately and you will not see her again...ever”.   
Harry started screaming something silently, desperate and stricken. Tom made a pained face and put his hand to his temple as if the boy were giving him a headache. “Be quiet now, Potter..” he said mildly.   
Harry crumpled in on himself weakly, despair and fear further marring his scarred features.   
“That’s better” Tom said, sounding relieved. “What is your decision?” 

Harry turned to look at Hermione, she saw glistening tears track a path down his cheeks. He turned back to Tom and hung his head. 

Tom brightened. “Excellent, Harry. I’m so pleased you are reasonable. Shall we get to it immediately?” 

Both Harry and Hermione gaped, appalled. Even Draco turned and looked at the Dark Lord in shock.   
Tom stretched his limbs, doing an amazing impression of some kind of greek sculpture depicting male beauty. 

Hermione frowned. “What the hell is this bullshit?!” she thought angrily at him. Tom blinked at her innocently as if he hadn’t any idea what she’d just ranted at him loudly in her head. 

“There is after all, no time like the present Harry. Perhaps...Hermione and Draco would like to join us?”   
Tom arched a brow expressively at Hermione.   
That brow arch, she knew, meant – I would really prefer you to join in, but do feel free to make your own decision. No pressure. No pressure at all. It really would be better if you indulged my wonderful mood though. Not getting my own way does make me so snippy.’ 

Draco put his paws on her chest and stood up to look into her face. She stroked his head absently.   
“Do you want to?” she whispered softly.   
He turned and looked at Tom and Harry and then back at her. He patted his paw on her and squeaked.   
“Does that mean only if I do?” she asked suspiciously. The animal nodded. She stroked him again. 

Harry was looking at her longingly. 

“Define.. ‘join’” she demanded of Tom suspiciously. 

He snorted. “I cannot. It remains to be seen. I am certain only that I will have Harry and he will come by my hand alone. There is however no need to make it a terrible ordeal, necessarily. Today has been.. entertaining.. thus far and I am prepared to continue in the same fashion, provided I do not have to deal with too much irritating resistance.   
If I must fuck..any other..letalone the saviour of the wizarding world, I rather suspect you would prefer to be an active participant than that I return you to your room to wait anxiously with your pet.”

“Mione!! Please!” Harry said desperately, clearly no longer silencioed. “Don’t leave me alone!!” 

Tom sniggered nastily at him and Hermione frowned at the cruelty displayed yet again. 

“I feel it only fair to warn you-” Tom said to her. smirking “- Harry is a devious little snake – he is not afraid in the slightest to be left alone with me – the thought of me fucking him actually excites him even though he, of course, despises me and is afraid to lose power in the binding,   
His emotional plea is solely in the hope of having the chance to slide between your thighs again, Hermione. It was the first thing his mind flashed to. He has such difficulty occluding these days.” 

Harry glared at Tom venomously. “Bastard..” he hissed. 

Hermione was not altogether surprised, she had already realised in the past that Harry would freely pretend to be the needful boy he used to be in order to get what he wanted.   
But he was so good at it that she wondered every time whether this time wasn’t the last remains of Harry in the Lord Potter shell.   
She sighed. 

“Of course –I would enjoy it if you were to remain..” Tom said quietly. 

Hermione swallowed. That was essentially an underlined italicised form of the tricky ‘but do what you want-no pressure’ eyebrow lift.   
“Ok Tom” she said quietly, a slight ominous foreboding in her chest.   
Draco’s small furry face studied hers and then he turned and tumbled down onto the floor, spilling upwards into his human form. 

Hermione, who had been scowling at Harry noted the slight flicker of interest in his eyes when Draco reappeared.   
Clearly she had been right in her guess of Harry groping Draco when they left to try to capture Rodolphus. 

Draco looked at her uncertainly and then at Tom. He seemed indecisive. Finally he pressed his lips to a tight line and turned to Tom, dropping to one knee and bowing his head respectfully. “what would you ask of me, my Lord?” he enquired tightly. 

Tom snorted, mildly amused. “I am so glad you recalled to whom you owe your primary allegiance, Draco. It would have been a poor start to our play to have to discipline you. Do remember your place!”   
Draco curled lower, submissively.   
“Yes my Lord. Forgive me, Master.” 

Hermione stood up and moved to stand beside Draco, stroking his black silken hair once again as if he were a dog.   
“May I, Tom?” she asked uncertainly. 

The dark haired boy tilted his head, smirking at her faintly. “Yes.. I believe I will allow it. If only because it will irritate poor Harry terribly”   
Hermione smiled back at him. She felt an inexplicably strong pull and wanted to walk over and climb onto the demon eyed adonis but she was afraid to leave Draco with Harry until she knew that Draco was truly willing to engage him, and not simply participating to please her. 

Harry darted an annoyed glance at Tom. “But I want..” he began.   
“No, Potter” Tom waved him down dismissively. “You are lucky to be allowed to see Hermione and as for Draco - he belongs to her. I have given him to her and at present I believe I will defer to her wishes regarding him. He is hers to share or keep apart, as she chooses.”   
Hermione decided quickly that she would not make the slightest peep against Tom should he desire Draco for any purpose whatsoever. She had seen him fuck Draco before while he was polyjuiced and he hadn’t harmed him. His fascination with him since changing his hair colour suggested that he would probably not be pleased to face a fuss when (not if) he felt like taking Draco again.   
Tom smirked at her and his red eyes glittered. 

“Thank you, my Lord.” She murmured quietly. “Stand, Draco. I want to undress you”   
Draco stood gracefully and turned to her. His eyes were eager with barely restrained excitement. He seemed uninterested in the other two boys. “I’m yours” he said softly.   
She smiled and began to unfasten his robes, removing them swiftly and leaving the boy standing in black boxer shorts and his boots.   
He toed the boots off and removed his socks. She could see his boxers tenting already and took a moment to admire his body.   
Behind Draco she saw Harry and Tom equally pleased with this display of firm sculpted flesh.   
Draco stood, calmly looking down at her with eyes darkened to stormy grey in lust. She ran her hands lightly over his chest, tweaking a nipple, scratching nails down his compact abdominal muscles. “beautiful” she declared faintly.   
Draco stood up a little straighter, preening at her compliment. 

She slid her hands into his boxers but did not pull them down, merely reached behind him and cupped his small rounded buttocks. The glimmer of interest in both Tom’s and Harry’s faces behind Draco sharpened intensely.

Leaning forward, Hermione licked a trail up Draco’s chest to his neck, raising herself up on her tiptoes to suck at his neck below his ear. She heard him moan under his breath, turning his head and trying, and failing, to capture her mouth as she moved away again.   
Pulling her hands out of his boxers she shot Harry a nasty look and dropped to her knees lightly. Pulling with her teeth she dragged Draco’s silky boxers down while he looked down at her in surprised pleasure. Not at the daring act, but merely at the fact that it was her doing it, she suspected.   
When his cock sprang free and his boxers fell she was already licking at his balls, her small fingers teasing his length.   
Draco groaned and moved to rub his cock over her face. She smirked and sucked at the base of it.

A movement disturbed her and she saw Tom stand and walk to the still kneeling Harry. “up.” He demanded.   
Harry pulled a face at being disturbed while watching the action in front of him.   
Tom made no comment but fisted his hand in Harry’s hair and pulled him bodily to his feet. He sat in the chair Harry had been sitting in and dragged the boy down onto his lap sideways. “Much better” he said lazily, ignoring Harry’s poisonous glare.   
“The view from the sofa is not ideal and now I have something to play with while I enjoy the show. Continue” he waved at Hermione and her robes disappeared, leaving her in her white satin lingerie and thigh high lace stockings, hair silky and still perfectly curled into a French twist.   
Draco hummed approvingly. “very nice, Granger. “   
She raised an eyebrow and captured his cock, pulling it down and into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the head and releasing him again. “Lie on the table” she instructed quietly. 

When he did she pulled him forward till his ass hung off the end slightly. “spread yourself for me...”   
Draco gasped slightly but drew his legs up and pulled them wide into a near splits.   
Hermione turned to Tom. “If you wouldn’t mind..”   
Tom, who looked delighted, flicked a finger and Draco flinched as he was cleaned internally. “Thank you, my lord” she smiled and started to run her fingers down the inside and back of Draco’s thighs. 

While Hermione worshipped Draco gently with fingertips and soon lips and tongue, Harry shifted on Tom’s lap excitedly, leaning forward to see better and the older boy looked at him with interest.   
“I am curious, Harry... what does it feel like for you when I am close to you.”   
Harry hummed distractedly, unwilling to turn his attention away from Hermione. Tom flicked his hand and Harry’s robe dissolved into fog and dissipated. The younger boy jumped in surprise and flinched as Tom ran a hand down his spine. “answer me” Tom said, not unkindly.   
Harry frowned, his eyes still hungrily fixed on Hermione. “feels strange. Familiar.” He muttered.   
Tom looked thoughtful. “yes.. I have been thinking the same thing.. “   
“lean back against me. We will watch together. I would like to explore this further”   
Harry darted a suspicious look at Tom. 

Hermione stopped in her ministrations where she had been tonguing over the boy’s cheeks, moving ever closer to the small wrinkled hole. She turned and fixed Harry with an ‘I’m waiting’ look.   
“Do as you’re told Harry or I won’t continue.”   
Draco groaned in impatience. “Fuck!!..Potter! be a sport and do whatever the fuck the Dark Lord wants, would you?! Hermione!!..” he whimpered for her to continue and she smirked, trailing her fingernails up his cock and making his entire body shudder in pleasure. “POTTER!!” Draco wailed angrily. 

Tom chuckled at them both and put his hand on Harry’s shoulder, gently tugging the boy back and around to lean against his chest.   
Harry swallowed and uneasily allowed himself to turned, sliding one leg either side of the Dark Lord’s   
“Good, Harry!” Hermione praised and returned to tonguing Draco, to the tune of tiny gasps of pleasure and a groan of relief when she finally reached her destination and started to lick and thrust her tongue into Draco’s small hole.

Tom, who had been stroking Harry’s chest absently, turned again to his passenger and trailed his hand down to the cock which was already standing at attention.   
Harry shivered at the passage of the slender fingers. His shoulders curved slightly in defense.   
Tom tsked chidingly. “Now, now...you’ve been thinking about me touching you like this for the past couple of weeks, Harry. Don’t be tedious when you’re finally getting everything you could possibly wish for.   
Look.. I’ve even brought you your other two favourite daydreams. If you’re very good, I may allow you to play with them.” 

Harry shivered. Tom had gripped his cock lightly and was stroking up and down it teasingly. He could see that Hermione had already moved from tonguing Draco to licking up the boy’s shaft.   
Harry raised his head to look at the face of the boy/man he lay upon. “Make Draco sit up” he murmured. “please..” he added as an afterthought. “And... and...let me see Mione’s body” 

Tom grinned.   
“Hermione.” He called her attention. She stopped and looked at the two, who looked much more friendly now, she noted. 

“Yes my love?” she said, knowing that this term would probably irritate both boys in different ways. She was not wrong. Twin scowls of annoyance flashed on both faces. Harry wanted her to call him her love while Tom neither favoured the notion of love in general, nor the absence of the honorific ‘my Lord’. My love was even worse than ‘Tom’. At least Tom was in some sense an identifier – my love was a possessive descriptor.   
He lowered the hand that had been about to unclothe her and demanded coolly “strip! Draco, sit up now.” 

The black haired boy got up unhesitatingly, not wanting to miss the show either. 

Hermione was unfazed. She looked down at herself. The satin lingerie and lace stockings left little to the imagination in her own opinion, and it hardly mattered if she took them off. 

“Slowly..” Tom said. 

Hermione performed a miniature striptease and found that she enjoyed the utter focus with which the three boys fixated her.   
When her bra and panties were gone she pointed a toe in Draco’s lap, leaning down and purred “take it off”   
Draco smirked at Harry smugly and trailed his fingertips down Hermione’s thigh till he caught the edge of the lace stocking, sliding it down and off her silky leg. Hermione turned and repeated the process for the other.

“Continue..” Tom’s voice commanded airily but Hermione was already dropping to her knees before Draco. 

Harry frowned and half turned to Tom. “I want her to suck me instead!” he said urgently. “please!!” 

Tom snorted. “I’m certain you do, Harry. But I am quite content with the present performance. Perhaps if you are good and Hermione is amenable we shall see afterward.”   
Draco threw his head back in surprised delight as Hermione started to suck him in earnest, taking him deep into her throat. 

Harry pouted, folding his arms. Tom unfolded them with a frown. “That is not being good, Harry” he warned him. 

“Why are you doing this?” the younger boy whinged. 

“Because it pleases me” came the reply, and Tom’s hand stroked down Harry’s chest again. 

“At least make Draco look normal!” Harry demanded petulantly. Tom sniggered. “You are under the mistaken impression, Harry, that because our desires coincided in wishing Hermione naked and Draco more advantageously displayed, that I will bow to your every request. I prefer the boy this way. “   
Harry persisted. “Why?! He doesn’t even look like Draco Malfoy anymore. With his eyes closed he could be anyone.. The point isn’t that he’s hot.. it’s that he’s Malfoy.” 

Tom appeared to consider this evaluation carefully. “...perhaps you are right” he conceded eventually. 

Draco was moaning and leaning back on his hands to roll his pelvis against Hermione’s mouth. 

Tom turned Harry’s face toward him with a finger on his jaw, against considerable resistance since Harry was disinclined to look away from the scene before him. “Kiss me and I will make him look ‘normal’” Tom offered. Harry’s eyes widened. 

He looked back at the pair before him. Hermione’s hair was still perfectly coiffed, curled into a French twist that was entirely alien relative to her normal wild mass of wavy hair. He turned back to Tom. “Hermione too..“ he required, swallowing.   
Tom smirked and cast a finite incantatum on the pair. 

Hermione paused in her movements as her hair spilled down her back. Draco didn’t even notice that the black slid down out of his hair, he put a hand on Hermione’s head. “Don’t stop, Granger!!..” he begged breathlessly. 

Harry smiled in pleasure. It now was unmistakeable that Hermione was sucking off Draco Malfoy, with mutual enjoyment. 

“Harry..” Tom warned lowly.   
Harry turned his head and pecked Tom on the lips, turning back to the pair. 

Tom sniggered. “You call that a kiss?.. I’ll blind you and watch them finish by myself..” 

Harry growled angrily and kissed him hard, closing his eyes as if he wanted to pretend he was not passionately kissing his greatest enemy.   
Tom allowed it and sunk into the kiss, their tongues wrestling and struggling for dominance. Tom won in the end, but the kiss continued. Harry whimpered into his mouth when Tom started to stroke him off again. 

Hermione and Draco finished while the two were occupied and sat, staring at the aesthetically pleasing image the two black haired boys made, snogging with Tom’s hand around Harry’s cock.   
Tom had not closed his eyes and he smirked at Hermione through the kiss.   
Hermione thought clearly at him ‘do you want us to go away?’ Tom’s eyebrow lowered in irritation.   
‘do you want us to join you?’ she thought at him. The red eye blinked and Tom nodded slightly, still kissing Harry. 

Hermione crept over, tugging the somewhat weak and blissful Draco silently in an indication that he should follow, and lowered herself to kneel before the pair, bending forward to lick Harry.   
Draco stopped her, pulling on her shoulder, a pleading expression on his face and she tilted her head quizzically. In answer, he leaned in and tentatively kissed her. 

Understanding, she gave herself over to the kiss for a minute, kneeling up and holding him against her closely.   
Draco’s hands glided up her back. His eyes were closed.   
When she ended the kiss and pulled away, he looked happy and slightly glazed.   
She pointed at his chest and indicated Harry’s balls. He nodded. 

Quietly she stood and moved to the side of the chair so that she could lean over the arm and suck Harry’s cock without getting in Draco’s way.   
Tom had his eyes closed. One hand was in Harry’s hair and the other stroked him still, lightly..teasingly. Both were breathing faster now, she could see.   
She felt a strange diffuse kind of jealousy, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out who she was jealous of.   
Perhaps simply that they were not all focussed on her anymore as they had been before. 

When she leaned down and quickly wrapped her lips around Harry’s cock, Draco following her lead and burying his face between Harry’s legs, the boy who lived made a sound of alarm and fought Tom to turn his head and look down.   
Tom allowed him, after a brief tousle to escape his mouth. 

Harry looked ecstatic and disbelieving. “Oh god...” he groaned.. “Fuck... deeper Mione...”

Tom raised his hand and slid his fingers into her hair on the back of her head. She willingly allowed him to direct her movements till Harry was whimpering and groaning upon the older boys chest, bucking his hips and arching his back.

Tom’s other hand, which had been playing in Harry’s hair gently tightened and he dragged the boy back to his mouth, kissing him with gusto.   
Harry didn’t fight. He moaned, the sound muffled by the tongue wrangling with his own. 

Hermione could see that Draco, below her, had moved down to tongue Harry’s ass and moved back and forth between his tight balls and the little pink ring exposed further down. Harry seemed to be in a state of helpless bliss.   
Seconds later, Tom forced Hermione all the way down onto Harry’s cock and he pulsed inside her, making her swallow desperately or risk choking. Even so a small amount of his fluid escaped and went down the wrong way and she pulled away, coughing and struggling to clear her airway. 

All three boys looked up at her. Draco looked mildly concerned and empathic, but Harry and Tom wore identical expressions of delight at her discomfort.   
‘this is not a good thing’ she thought very quietly in the back of her mind. 

Harry, exhausted and satisfied sighed and let himself relax against Tom’s body, apparently lulled into a sense of complacency by the relatively gentle manner in which the Dark Lord had been fondling and kissing him.   
His softening cock dripped a small amount of come onto his thigh. Tom indicated to Draco that he should clean Harry and Draco just prevented himself from looking to Hermione to verify that this was expected. He knelt up, licked away Harry’s milky release and took the soft member into his mouth, sucking it clean and laying it back down gently. 

Harry’s eyes glittered in excitement and his cock actually hardened a little again. 

Tom, watching Harry closely snorted in amusement. “Already Harry? You only came a minute ago.. You really do have a thing for Malfoy, don’t you?!”   
Harry swallowed and nodded. 

Draco looked undecided whether to be repulsed or amused. He rose gracefully and retreated to where Hermione was standing, his eyes pleading and, when she assented silently, kissing her tenderly, wrapping his arms around her lower back.

Tom snarled silently, watching the two together and the adoring manner in which the boy held Hermione.   
“Malfoy!” he hissed when the kiss continued longer than he felt was acceptable.   
Draco broke off the kiss and looked down, immediately, submissively. “my Lord?” he asked with a note of fear. 

“Perhaps I will send you to wait with Severus after all. You are.. somewhat superfluous.. to my current needs”   
Draco looked up, horrified. His gaze flicked to Hermione, who also looked worried and disappointed, and then back to the Dark Lord.   
The blonde dropped to his knees. “Please my Lord. It won’t happen again. Please may I remain?! I’ll do whatever you want. With..with Potter too. Don’t make me leave her.” he ground out in a low voice. 

Tom narrowed ruby eyes at him. 

“Why isn’t Severus here, Tom?” Hermione asked, genuinely curious. “you are letting Draco and myself join you. It feels wrong to leave him to work. Does he know what you’re doing now?   
He said something this morning – he does, doesn’t he?!   
Tom!! That’s terrible. He’ll be thinking about it.. and you let me come here knowing..” she felt distressed at the thought of Severus, after how emotional and insecure he’d been this morning, having to wait in his lab knowing the two.. three people he loved were here, probably enjoying themselves without him. 

Tom sighed irritatedly. “Severus and Harry do not get along at the best of times. I have brought him here several times and it invariably ended up with Harry screaming under Severus’ wand after he made some unwise comment.” 

Harry burst out, trying to sit up and being restrained, “I hate the fucker, Mione. What are you talking about. Don’t even mention him. Especially not right now. God.. he makes my skin crawl.“ 

Hermione looked at Harry acidly, eyes narrowed in hate. “I’d like to go to the lab with Draco please Tom” she said coldly. “Harry, I really don’t care what you like or dislike anymore. I love Severus. He’s brilliant and loyal and sexy as all hell and I don’t want to hurt him by staying here any longer.”   
She bent to retrieve her underwear. Her robe was gone, since Tom had vanished it. 

Draco glanced at her fearfully and crouched lower on his knees, anticipating a massive shitstorm any second.   
Tom indeed looked extremely nonplussed. He looked like one whose parade had been pissed upon.   
“Hermione..” he began in a low voice. 

She had retrieved and replaced her panties and was fiddling with her bra.

Harry looked upset and conflicted, worried that she was going to be allowed to leave. 

“Hermione!” Tom demanded her attention. 

She folded her arms over her half fastened bra and looked at him resentfully. 

“Severus would not be happy here.” He said quietly. “He was distressed that I bound you this morning. Not merely because he would not be able to, thanks to the boy who always ruins everything-“   
Harry smirked in satisfaction at the moniker   
“-but also because, when I claimed him years ago, I did not even consider binding him. The thought never crossed my mind and if it had, I would never have entertained the prospect of doing something so sentimental or unnecessary..   
...the situation was different with you – as you know...   
Although I could conduct some lesser.. more symbolic.. rite – Severus will never be connected to me as you are..”   
Tom paused significantly. “And as Harry is about to be..” 

He sighed wearily. “And it would make the event less pleasant for me to sense his unhappiness throughout.” 

“Moreover.. seeing Harry with you may drive our brilliant potioneer mad. He was very resentful for a long time when I killed another mudblood that he desired.. and Harry looks so very much like his father..” 

Harry, on his lap visibly put two and two together and started to struggle to get free.   
“DON’T YOU DARE CALL MY MOTHER A MUDBLOOD, YOU SNAKEFACED MURDERER.” 

Tom snorted irritatedly, silencioing him, and scowled at Hermione while restraining the struggling boy with some difficulty. “Now look at what you’ve made me do. The boy is seldom as calm as he has been today.” 

Hermione was processing the fact that Severus had apparently wanted Harry’s mother. A lot of things seemed to become clearer in light of that little factoid.   
She spoke quietly. “You know it doesn’t matter whether Severus is here or not. He’ll still be hurt. Oh for Pete’s sake! HARRY! STOP IT!”   
Harry stopped moving and looked at her with an unreadable overemotional expression. 

“Thank you.. at least that” Tom said wryly. 

“Harry-“ she said in her most reasonable tone of voice “you need to get over that word. It’s used a lot around here. If Tom truly cared about blood status, he would hardly be with me.. or Severus for that matter.   
Tom cares about power. He used the word purely to draw a parallel between your mother and myself. It’s just a word. Now calm down.”   
Harry looked at her angrily but remained still. 

Tom released the silencio and looked at him pointedly. His voice was cool and unemotional when he spoke.   
“Yes Harry. I killed your mother. Your father too. Yes – I tried to kill you. Many times. You are truly like the most irritating cockroach – I stamp and stamp and you refuse to die. If you want to blame anyone for the sad affairs in both of our lives – blame that ridiculous woman who dared to make a prophesy threatening my life. It was she who condemned your parents.” 

Harry’s gaze upon Hermione could have cut steel. 

Tom’s face darkened. “If you feel that way Harry, you know I would be overjoyed to prepare the ritual to release your binding with Hermione. We could take your mark off at the same time.” 

Harry looked away. “Let go of me” he said. 

Tom, apparently having had enough of his difficult behaviour, threw him off his lap to sprawl on the floor. He crossed his legs and drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair, his gaze shifting between the three, the only robed person in the room.   
Harry had scrambled to his feet. Naked, he advanced on Hermione. She looked at Tom and took an unsteady step back. Tom watched but did nothing. 

“How could you do it, Hermione? Just about every person I ever hated – you’re fucking them! Snape? Malfoy? You chose to betray me to the man you knew had been wanting to kill me since I was born.   
You chose to give yourself to him.. after you refused me.   
I loved you! More than anything in the world.   
Worse - You were my friend..   
I held on through everything that they did to me.. everything they promised me.. because I didn’t want to lose you.   
I held you in my mind – I painted you on everything I could find so I could look at you.. talk to you..   
but I just don’t understand. How could you do this...any of this?”   
Harry rubbed a hand over his face. His rage had subsided and he just looked tired and defeated again. He turned to Tom and grimaced. 

“I won’t do it. Send her to Malfoy if you want. Take her away. I don’t care if you never bring her back.” 

Hermione had been afraid till Harry had thrown her actions in her face. Now she just stood, shocked, her bottom lip trembling, swallowing and trying not to let any of the tears fall that she felt crowding her eyes.   
Draco looked at her and looked at the Dark Lord as if considering whether to chance pissing him off by going to her and offering a shoulder.   
Tom narrowed his eyes at the blond boy and turned his gaze upon Hermione, his eyes softening. “Come here..” he said kindly. 

She swallowed again and, not looking at Harry, hurried to him and climbed onto his lap, burying her face in his robes and finally letting silent tears fall. Tom put his arms around her and soothed her back, bending and kissing the top of her head. 

“I’m sorry” she whimpered, muffled against him. “It still hurts to think of it like that. I’m sorry Tom” 

Behind her, although she couldn’t see it, Harry was aghast. He stood watching her be comforted and held by the most evil reprehensible man in the world to his mind and was confused. 

Draco muttered to him, so low it was barely audible. “You really have no sense at all, do you Potter?!” 

Tom stroked Hermione’s hair patiently. He didn’t shush her. The agonized look on Harry’s face at seeing the girl he loved run from him into his enemy’s arms was sufficient to render the Dark Lord very tolerant to her tears at present. 

Harry scowled and stalked away tensely.   
Tom sighed. This was all not conducive to binding the boy. “Hermione..” he said with a faintly chiding tone.   
She looked up, eyes puffy. 

“yes?” 

Her voice was very small, not just because of her little emotional moment –but because she knew she had disappointed Tom. She had ruined his seduction of Harry by first allowing Draco to upset him and then asking about Severus when he had obviously decided that he wasn’t to be present for a reason.   
Tom knew she understood her mistake.   
He fixed her with a slow even gaze. 

“You know what I require..” he murmured and frowned when she blanched. 

“I don’t know if I can talk to him right now” she whispered. “And it won’t help anyway. He hates me” 

Tom snorted, gesturing at the extensive artwork – “Look around you. The boy wallpapered his room in you. Right now he is simply petulant. Go and bring him back. It is important that he accepts this binding. Obey me, my precious..” 

Hermione sniffed and nodded reluctantly. Tom reached behind her and fastened the second latch on her bra for her.   
She climbed off him carefully and looked for Harry. 

He had gone to the other side of the large room and laid himself down on the bed, one arm over his eyes, the chain pushed to the far side.   
Behind her as she walked away she heard Tom call Draco to him and hoped that Draco would be ok.   
She tried to communicate to Tom that she would succeed and that he should please not hurt Draco.


	44. Chapter 44

When she got to Harry she stopped, startled. His lips, below the arm covering his eyes, were twisted in a smirk. 

“Come here” he said very softly. 

She took a step backward, swallowing. This is not Harry. Did he do that on purpose?! She couldn’t believe he would..   
the way he’d looked at her. That was Harry. He was hurt and betrayed. He wouldn’t do that..just...in order to get her here away from Tom – there was no way he could know Tom wouldn’t just get Draco to apparate her away.   
He hadn’t.   
This was just him responding now, probably understanding that she’d been sent and would likely do anything to get him to comply. 

She took a deep breath, trying to ignore that niggly little fear that always seemed to gnaw at her when he used that..unHarry-like voice.. smiled in that dark way. 

“I’m waiting” he hissed. 

She shivered and glanced over her shoulder at Tom. He had Draco kneeling at his feet and was saying something too quietly to hear. Draco looked afraid. She had to hurry up so that Tom would let Draco go. 

Steeling herself she moved closer to Harry, alarmed to see his cock hardening again. “Sit on me” he commanded very softly.   
“I.. I can’t.. I..I’m not supposed..” Hermione floundered. 

“Do it.” Harry’s voice was like velvet over steel. “Do it or I’ll refuse him” 

She swallowed. “H-Harry..” 

Harry took his arm off his eyes and sat up on his elbows, glancing past her and then back to her face when he was sure that he wasn’t being watched.   
“Obey me, Mione.” He said coldly. “Undress and sit on my fucking prick. Now! Or not only will I refuse Voldemort and ignore you from now on, I’ll do anything I can to make things difficult for your little pet.   
It bothers Voldemort the way he looks at you. It will bother him more if I point it out constantly.”

Hermione flinched and stiffened. When she spoke it was sad and hollow. “I..forgot.. what you were like, Harry. I let myself believe the lies that you tell all the time now. I.. I won’t let myself do that again.”

She took off her bra with one hand and slid her underwear down grimly.   
Walking reluctantly to the bed she tried not to look at Harry. 

“Of course you will, Mione.” He said soothingly. “You can’t help it. You love who I used to be..   
You’ll love who I am too, in time. Ride me.” 

She climbed onto the bed and straddled Harry.   
He reached down and raised his cock and she gingerly lowered herself down upon him.   
She wasn’t very wet anymore after the arguing and the crying. 

He groaned softly in relief and pushed up into her in counterpoint to her movement, seating himself fully.   
“You feel like you were made for me” he murmured. 

Hermione shivered. She felt strange. It wasn’t anything she could put her finger on. It felt different to have Harry inside her than it had with anyone else. It felt like her skin tingled slightly all over.   
Harry was looking up at her and smirking darkly with a knowing expression. 

“I feel it too. It’s the bond. It’s not all it will do.. Kiss me, Mione” She found herself obeying immediately - automatically. 

Harry wrapped his arms around her and caught her mouth eagerly, plunging his tongue between her lips.   
She felt a weird euphoria and responded blindly, all thoughts of worry and reluctance gone.   
When Harry started pumping up into her, she found herself wanting to move and really ride him. 

She broke the kiss to sit up and saw Harry’s eyes were almost glowing with pleasure. It made her happy to affect him so and she bounced up and down on him, rolling her hips and trying to please him even more. 

She looked around muzzily when she felt a hand land lightly on the back of her neck.   
Tom stood by the bed looking at her with an unreadable expression.   
“Alas, my dear.. I suspected this might happen. Did you at least secure his promise before he exerted his claim?” 

She blinked in confusion, still bucking her hips on Harry. Tom. She loved Tom. What was he talking about? 

“No. She didn't” Harry panted joyfully. “I just told her what I’d do if she didn’t obey me.” 

Tom sighed. “Yes well.. I can’t say I’m surprised Potter. It’s what I’d have done.. Kiss him, Hermione” 

She tilted her head at Tom, breathing fast as she rode the boy beneath her. Something was saying that Tom would never want her to kiss Harry. 

“Kiss me, Mione” Harry cajoled and she found herself immediately bending to do it.   
Harry buried his hands in her hair and thrust up into her. 

She felt a movement behind her and then her insides fizzed.   
Oh no.. some tiny part of the back of her mind whimpered. Going to hurt me. 

A hand that was not Harry stroked down her spine. “No.. I won’t hurt you this time.. At least.. not much.”   
Tom’s voice was like a dark purr. 

She felt another charm wash over her and something felt.. strange.. with her back passage. Tom pressed his cock to her and pushed hard, the head popping in almost immediately.   
It hurt but nothing like it had that morning. He felt extremely large but also slippery and oily.   
When he pushed in, it didn’t burn. It just felt a bit tight and achey. 

He worked his way in slowly till he was all the way inside her and then rested. 

The tingling on her body seemed ramped up to a vibration all over her. As if her whole being were thrumming like a plucked guitar string.   
Tom leaned down over her back and it felt wonderful. The more skin he pressed to her – the better she felt.   
She writhed mindlessly between them both, causing them both to gasp lightly and put their hands on her to still her. 

“Mmmm... you’re such a hot fuck, Mione” Harry groaned below her, sliding his hands down to her hips.   
She felt Toms arms slide under her and around her, pinning her in place as his face rested against her neck.   
He kissed her and she pleaded for more. 

When he started to move in opposition to Harry she cried out, revelling in the sensation. It was.. so much..   
“More!” she moaned, turning her head to capture his lips.   
He eagerly appeased her, kissing her hard and then pulling away to start fucking her harder, knocking her around on Harry’s prick like a marionette.   
Harry made an urgent animal sound of hunger. 

“Hermione..” Tom’s voice next to her ear was thick with the passion of his ministrations. “Punch Potter in the face for me” Hermione joyfully smashed her fist hard into Harry’s cheekbone, right on the thin white scar. 

“Hey!!” he cried out in shock and anger. “Fucker! Was that really necessary?!” Harry glared over her shoulder. 

Toms snigger was like gently tinkling bells in her ears. He licked her neck again and nipped her. She moaned softly and closed her eyes. Tom.. do anything for you Tom..love you. 

“You deserved it, Harry” Tom said, a smirk in his voice. 

Harry pulled her hips down onto him harder against Tom’s movements.   
“Maybe so” he panted “but you deserve a hell of a lot worse than me and right now you want me to do something for you, so don’t do that again!” 

Tom laughed again. “A ..familiar.. line of reasoning, Harry.”   
He gripped Hermione around the shoulders and pulled her up against him to sit on Harry’s cock while he was plastered to her back.   
She whimpered happily and leaned her head against his shoulder. 

Reaching for her left wrist he lifted it and looked at Harry nastily. “What does it feel like when I do this..” he wondered curiously and lifted her wrist, sliding his tongue over the mark slowly. 

Both Harry and Hermione shuddered in pleasure. 

Tom smirked, surprised and amused.   
“Don’t..do that.” Harry ground out through his teeth. 

Tom did it again, more slowly.   
Harry moaned. 

“Is it different now while we’re all connected?” he asked, genuinely interested. 

“Yes.” Harry said shortly. “Stop!” 

Toms face became dark and hungry. “Take my mark, Harry. I’ll let her visit you if you ask for it..”   
Hermione gyrated her hips at that moment, making both men’s breath catch.   
Tom pushed her forward onto Harry’s chest and pumped into her a few times, his eyes closed in enjoyment. 

“Merlin.. she really is.. good... Maybe I shouldn’t let her..” 

Harry growled in frustration. “I fucking know what you’re doing.. damn it.” He thrust his pelvis against her helplessly even so. 

“Knowing doesn’t change anything, boy..” Tom panted again, moving faster,   
Hermione moaned, her hands on Harry’s chest, her head bowed. “Harry..” she whimpered “More!”, moving her hips and tightening the muscles in her pussy.   
Harry groaned. Pressed down by the weight of them both he couldn’t fuck her like he wanted to. 

Tom paused momentarily in his movements, making Hermione whine disappointedly.   
“I take it back, Harry – Giving you my mark doesn’t change much for me and I’d rather not let you have the chance to sway her. She is..somewhat succeptible.. and I am very aware of how you think..   
You have the advantage in our two bindings at present. So much easier to satisfy her.. Forget I mentioned it.   
I was merely curious whether Hermione licking your mark would have the same effect on me. Foolishness.” 

He raised himself off her now and knelt, pulling her up by the hips and sliding into her long and deep. She groaned.. “so..dirty.. and hot.. ..ohhh..harder.. please Tom!!!” 

Harry looked up at them, absolutely breathtaking together and wavered.   
He stroked Hermione’s face and slid his hands down to grope her breasts hanging delectably over him. She moved like a cat having its ears scratched. 

“You’ll let her visit me? How often?” 

Tom blinked at him. “I said the deal was off, Harry. It’s irrelevant.” 

Harry growled, frustrated. He bucked his hips up, watching the look of bliss on Hermione’s face shift in correspondence with his movements.   
She bit her lip and furrowed her brow slightly. “mm..Harry..” she mewled. 

Harry groaned and snapped, snarling “Damnit! Tom Riddle.. Lord Voldemort. May I have your mark?!” 

Tom suddenly had his wand in his hand and ripped Harry’s arm off Hermione’s thigh, raising it and pressing his wand to the skin on Harry’s forearm.   
Harry screamed in pain, turning his head away. Tom continued to press the wand to him, looking down at his agony and pumping, hands-free into Hermione’s ass, which she ground eagerly back against him. 

She gasped at the strange sensation flooding through her. It was like a flowing.. or a bridging.. Both around her and inside her.   
The closest thing to the sensation was the feeling of directing raw magic. 

She opened her eyes and saw Harry struggling, tears squeezed from the corners of his eyes.   
His lust died within her and she felt a slight clearing in the haze that was her mind. 

Turning her head to his raised arm she saw Tom’s wand and the dark mark.. except it was different.   
This mark was surrounded by a rim of boiling dark clouds. They flickered with lightning here and there. 

2+2 filtered through her mazed mind and became 4.   
Clearly.. a piece of Tom’s soul was not as good as the whole thing. Tom would never have let himself be sucked into taking a mark.   
The man in question dropped Harry’s arm and curled his body around hers, his arms wrapping around her tenderly, his lips against her neck.   
He moved gently within her, easing in and out of her slowly. She realised she could feel his satisfaction. 

“Quite right, precious one.. And he did it..for you.. however.. since he failed to extract any kind of promise.. technically he did it for nothing.” 

Harry was recovering from the pain and looked at his arm with horror. 

“What did I do?! Mione!!” His eyes were wide and frightened. 

Tom laughed softly in her ear. He sounded so sexy.   
Still holding her he lifted her off Harry’s wilted cock and sat down on the edge of the mattress with his feet on the floor, her legs either side of his.   
In one movement it seemed he lifted her legs up to her chest and tilted her, spinning her around on his prick till she faced him, releasing her legs to wrap around his waist. 

“Mmm.. that is so much better.. my.. beautiful ..mudblood!” he growled, his face dazzling in his triumph.   
The word sort of turned her on when he said it, she acknowledged.   
And she also realised he knew it and it was partly why he used it. The other parts being because it turned him on too and because it would probably upset Harry.   
He leaned in and captured her lips, kissing her passionately. She responded in kind, using her legs wrapped around him to leverage herself and move on his cock. 

“mmmm...” he indicated his approval. 

Pulling away from this kiss he slid his hand between them and started to rub her clit. 

“Pardon my inattentiveness earlier.. it was necessary that you not come while connected to the boy.. I will show you all that can be done with this bond later.. But for now.. Hermione..Come!”   
She felt as if something had suddenly ramped her lust up several notches and as if a bucket of neurotransmitters had been dumped out in her brain as she suddenly came.. hard, her whole body clenching around Tom, hearing herself cry out jubilantly.   
Tom too, gasped, gripping her harder and bowed his head, thrusting up, his breathing suddenly laboured.   
He groaned as the twinges and muscle spasms died down. 

“That is.. somewhat more.. intense.. than I expected” he muttered. 

Hermione felt her head clear somewhat and looked at Tom uncertainly.   
She wanted to kiss him and wrap her arms around him tightly and not immediately separate.. but she had a feeling he had other things to do.   
She glanced at Harry who was lying on the bed, looking angrily at the mark on his arm. His entire posture and expression flashed in neon letters ten miles high ‘I am such a fucking idiot. Why did I DO that?!’ 

He sighed. “Unfortunately not this time, my dear” he said and sounded actually regretful. 

Nodding sadly she extricated him from her body and stepped away, her knees a bit rubbery.   
A scourgify flashed over her. In the next minute Harry was screaming and clutching at his arm. 

He stopped and glared at Tom. 

“Just testing, Harry” Tom smirked smugly.   
“In the spirit of experimentation – Hermione, could you go and lick his mark for me” 

Harry held his arm away protectively and looked at her in horror. 

She rolled her eyes. ‘calm down. I wasn’t going to pounce on you and start slobbering’ she thought. 

Tom snorted.   
“well if you’d rather she didn’t, then. It should work just as well if you do it. Do try Potter, as without your magic, you have no other means of contacting me should you require.. assistance.. at any point.” 

Harry looked infuriated 

“I may create such a circumstance if you do not test it immediately” Tom said threateningly. 

Harry looked like he wanted to spit and half turned, holding his arm out to Hermione imperiously.   
“lick it then” he demanded. 

She frowned and folded her arms resentfully. “well I would have.. but if you’re going to be like that about it..” she snarked. 

Tom rolled his eyes and grabbed Harry’s arm, wrenching it toward him and licked the mark, looking away distractedly with his eyes.   
“Yes. It works.   
My my... it is a rather unusual sensation.. isn’t it.. I’m glad I didn’t put anything like that into mine, it would have been difficult to prevent Bella from licking herself raw once she’d realised. And I’d likely never have gotten any sleep.” 

Hermione felt a momentary sharp prick of jealousy at the idea that Bellatrix Lestrange might pleasure Tom.   
She forced it down. It was irrational. And Bella was dead anyway so it didn’t matter. 

Tom smiled and reached out to capture her hand. He brought it to his lips and kissed her fingertips.   
“What a pity I cannot mark you this way, my dear. I would even consider..finding a means of making it bidirectional.. simply so that I could surprise you with such a shiver at unexpected moments.   
Although... I see the potential for misinterpretation by my servants.. No.. it is for the best that I am not tempted.   
I will never take a mark. I am not as foolish and cockblind as young Harry.” He nipped at her fingertips and she shivered at the delicious sensation.   
She wished she could go home and lie with him some more. 

Tom’s smug expression conveyed clearly that he was quite aware of her near insatiable desire for him. 

She noticed Harry was watching them both. He looked..calculating.   
This was not a good thing. Never a good thing when Harry got that look on his face. It meant he had figured something out and it was not going to be good for someone else.   
Since there was only Tom and herself present, either option was less than ideal. 

‘watch out’ she warned Tom. ‘your soul mate is planning’. 

Tom sighed and looked at the bed he and Harry sat upon with some measure of disdain. “This is not.. ideal” he observed.

Harry snorted at him cynically. “I didn’t think it was supposed to be for comfort..” 

Tom’s red eyes flickered and his perfect lips curved into a small smile. “perhaps not..” he conceded. “But I believe I am beginning to expand my view of you, Harry. We are..so very alike..these days. And after I bind you..” 

Harry snarled. “I’m not going to bind with you! You just bloody marked me. Isn’t that enough?!” 

Tom made a dismissive gesture. He seemed to concentrate for a moment and wandlessly transfigured the bed.   
It was still a four post bed, but now it resembled his own, even down to the colour of the curtains. 

Harry looked around at it with an expression of surprise. It was clear he was pleased with it but didn’t want to show it. 

“Would you like a bathroom too, Harry?” Tom offered flippantly. “I could put one in.. with a large tub..if you like” 

Hermione looked around the room suddenly. No doors. No curtains.. how did Harry wash.. or relieve himself. 

“There is a waste hole in the floor over there” Tom responded to her query. And Potter is scourgified when he is healed and whenever I visit him.”   
Hermione swallowed and felt a momentary flash of pity again. She hadn’t had to deal with a waste hole too extensively before she’d had her wee breakdown. Harry had been here for.. Draco said almost four weeks. 

“I suppose you want me to agree to the binding for a bathroom?!” Harry asked snidely. 

Tom shrugged and held out his hand to Hermione. She took it and let him pull her onto the bed to sit in front of him, between his legs. He rested his back against the frame of the bed on the bottom and bent his knees, walling her in on either side.   
Wrapping his arms around her in an affectionate, possessive gesture, he pressed a kiss to her head and cuddled her. Cuddled her!   
Complete with slight rocking and all. 

Harry’s eyes sharpened and he looked at them with something akin to thirst on his face. 

“Suit yourself then, Harry. You don’t have to have a bathroom. I merely offered one. It wasn’t in exchange for anything.   
I had a momentary urge to be generous in the wake of the sex.” 

“Yes!” Harry responded quickly. “I’d like a bathroom. Please!” 

Tom studied him.   
Hermione could feel the patient coiled anticipation in her lover somehow. 

“Fine. I will add a room. Later. Remind me, Hermione.”   
She nodded, thinking to herself that the day Tom Riddle needed reminding of anything whatsoever was the day she would buy a hat purely so that she could eat it.”   
His arms tightened around her and he kissed her behind the ear affectionately.   
She felt warm and wanted. It was a good feeling. 

Harry sat alone against the bedframe on the other side of the bed and watched them.   
She supposed that she should try to give Tom what he wanted.   
His finger stroked her upper arm subtly as if rewarding her. 

“Harry.. “ she started, looking at him sadly. “It doesn’t have to be this way.. You could be happy here.. with us. If you just let yourself.” She bit her lip.   
“there are so many things we could do..” 

She thought clearly ‘is Ron still alive?’ The finger on her arm stroked down once.   
She thought again ‘is he in any state for Harry to see him again?’ A sideways motion now. Drat. She swallowed.   
Harry looked dubious. 

“there are lots of games.. Before I saw you last time and got a bit of a fright we..that is Tom, Draco, Severus and I.. were all playing with polyjuice. It was so good!! We could do that again.” Harry looked at her uncertainly.   
“If you like, i’d play Ron – I know just how he should have treated you. Ron was always an idiot.   
He has a nice body though.   
If I could get past the..great big idiot.. thing, i’d fancy him too.” 

Harry’s eyes brightened tentatively now. She continued   
“But it would be different if I was him – I know what it’s like now and I’d let you nail me to the mattress if you wanted.. And Draco would play too if you like because I’d ask him to.   
You shouldn’t laugh at him about his animagus form. He’s sensitive about it.” 

Harry looked quite interested in the prospect. His eyes darted to Tom uneasily, obviously expecting some kind of demand or requirement. 

Tom smiled wanly.   
“If you don’t wish me to join in.. I understand, Harry.. however..I could please you far more than Ronald Weasley could on his best day” Tom said softly, seductively.   
“More than Hermione in a Ronald Weasley suit, as delightful as she is – and she is delicious when she is squirming below you, trying to cope with the demands of her own cock..   
more..even..than that debauched little gold-gilded slut Draco.” 

“You see.. I know exactly..what you like.   
You have no idea how good I can make you feel.. if you allow me to” 

Harry wavered visibly, his eyes widening as he looked at the gorgeous face with the unnatural eyes. 

Tom released Hermione and gestured to the bed beside Harry. She crawled there and knelt passively. Tom stretched his shoulders, rolling them and emphasizing the perfect proportions of his lean muscled body.   
He shifted to his own hands and knees and crawled slowly, somehow elegantly, up the bed toward Harry, who lay transfixed, wide eyed and unmoving. 

When he reached Harry’s feet he gripped his ankles and pulled the boy easily down the bed, parting his legs and dragging him down till he knelt between them. 

Harry looked almost hypnotised. 

Tom feasted his eyes upon him. Harry’s body was more slender than his own, his nipples a pinker shade while Tom’s were pale, almost as white as the rest of his marble statue body.   
Harry’s narrow hips were all bones. He hadn’t been eating enough since he had been captured. 

Tom ran his fingertips from Harry’s ankles up his legs, barely brushing his skin.   
When he reached his lower abdomen, Harry shuddered. The fingertips kept going.   
For minutes Tom simply touched Harry all over, running delicate fingertips over his face, his throat, his arms.. nothing more..   
Harry bit his lip and fidgeted eagerly. Tom smiled and leaning down he pressed a soft kiss to the tender skin just above Harry’s hipbone.   
He followed it with more, light, tender caresses and soft kisses, and then he was tracing the tip of his tongue around Harrys nipple, not touching the nipple, just painting around it with warm breath and saliva.. 

Harry whimpered.   
Hermione was spellbound and tried not to move, for fear of ruining it. 

Tom kissed his way up Harry’s chest and started to lick the line of his jaw, dipping down to suck his neck. Moaning softly, Harry moved his hips against the body above him helplessly. His hands hovered in the air uncertainly.   
Tom whispered in his ear. “I want you Harry...” and Harry’s hands found their way around him, skating excitedly over his skin up to his neck and hair and then down to the small of his back.. timidly stopping above Tom’s buttocks. 

Tom tilted his head, looking down at Harry’s blushing aroused face.   
He dipped low and flicked his tongue at the boys lip, teasing him till Harry was leaning up when he retreated.   
Then Tom descended upon him, seizing his mouth roughly, devouring him with passion. 

Harry made an urgent little sound in the back of his throat and his legs slipped up around Tom, hooking over his thighs as if to prevent him from leaving.   
Tom smirked through the kiss, growling low as he rubbed his pelvis against him gently. Hermione could see they were both hard. She desperately wanted to join them but knew without question that this was a moment for just the two of them. She was honoured to be allowed to watch. 

Parting the kiss, Tom leaned up a couple of inches, breathing almost as fast as Harry.   
“You do not need to worry.. I am not that red haired buffoon. I will not leave you wanting. I want you to be mine Harry.. as Hermione is mine.. as she is yours too..   
I am weary of allowing my life to be dictated by a drunk old hag and a mad puppeteer. They destroyed both our lives Harry.   
And they are dead. Yet we live. I feel alive with you in my arms..” He ground against Harry’s cock and the boy gasped, closing his eyes in pleasure. 

Wrapping his arms under Harry’s shoulders, Tom embraced him even as he supported himself on his elbows.   
“Do you not feel alive right now?” He returned to placing small butterfly kisses on Harry’s lips and jaw. 

“Ohhh... touching you feels.. so strange though..” Harry mumbled, tilting his head away for Tom to access his neck.   
The boy in question started nibbling his way down a sequence of apparently well mapped favourite spots.   
Harry was mewling and clutching at him in seconds. 

“What does it feel like?” Tom muttered into his neck, moving back down to his collarbone. 

“Familiar..” said Harry uneasily, able to talk now that Tom had moved away from the super erogenous zones at his neck. “Like.. like a brother.. or..someone close to me.. worse than with Ron.. I think I can feel you through Hermione.. when I touch you.. it feels.. strange.” 

Hermione swallowed. She was absolutely certain that Harry was simply recognising the similarity of their souls on some level. Part of him was Tom. 

Tom stopped kissing Harry and hissed something at him. Harry startled and hissed back.   
The older boy raised himself and let only his tiny pebbled nipples touch against Harry’s own, making him gasp in surprise and look at the red eyed boy in wonder.   
“You are.. like me..Harry. Who will ever understand either of us but the other? Even Hermione cannot truly know..” 

At this, Harry turned his head to look up at Hermione. She gasped.   
“No.. don’t stop... you are SO beautiful together.. please. I’ll be quiet.. I just want to watch you..” 

Harry turned back and looked up at Tom. “I..love her.. She doesn’t have to understand everything about me. I love who she is.”   
Tom leaned down and kissed him. “..And I never said you had to choose between us Harry. But can you not accept..both of us?” 

He leaned up and pulled Hermione to him gently till he could kiss her. Harry lay below him, groin to groin and watched them kiss. Tom released her and Hermione leaned down and kissed Harry, who responded urgently, as if he wanted to reclaim her. 

Tom sniggered. “She isn’t going to vanish either, Harry.”   
Harry kissed her even more desperately. When he finally released her he looked despairing suddenly.

Both Hermione and Tom shared a startled glance. 

“What is it” Tom demanded quietly. 

Harry looked at him unhappily. “she loves you.. she’ll never love me” 

Tom seemed confounded as if he couldn’t work out why that mattered or why Harry would even want her to.   
“She is.. quite attached.. to me.. yes” he said uncertainly. “but she ..cares for you. She was ..distressed.. that you had been harmed, if you recall. I had to remove her.” 

Harry sighed. “She was only bothered by the blood. She watched Snape curse me for ages without caring.” 

Hermione protested “I was bothered Harry. But..” she frowned. “Do we have to have this particular conversation now?” 

Two even stares met her. 

She scowled. “fine. I was bothered.. but..you .. you scare me! Alright?! You frighten the hell out of me sometimes and I’m not just scared of what you might do to me – although I am scared of that – I’m scared that you might somehow, in some way, manage to hurt Tom and I don’t want anything to ever hurt him.   
The things you did to me..”   
She swallowed. This was not helpful. She silently begged Tom to forgive her. 

“look.. I love Harry.. it’s just.. you’re not Harry anymore. You’re..Lord Potter. Lord Potter could do anything.. any bloody thing that enters his mind on the spur of the moment.   
Call me over and cut me just to demonstrate to Ron how weak he is – or demand memories of my torture for his private porno collection.   
But.. but you have no magic now.. and Tom’s here.. and someone would stop you if you decided to..”   
her eyes had widened and she felt like she was trying to reassure herself to prevent the panic that rose at the thought of Harry getting free. 

Toms face softened and he stroked her hair reassuringly and lifted himself up to kneel, straddling Harry, his hard cock at a 60 degree angle.   
Half turning and pulling her close he put his arms around her and soothed her. 

“I told you, Hermione.. I will not allow him to hurt you again.   
You did not have to have sex with him earlier. You could have come to me and I would have taken you away.   
You did not need to even see Harry. I offered you a choice. There was no pressure. Yet you chose to.   
Trust in me that I will protect you and do only that which you truly wish to do.” 

Tom turned back to look down at Harry. His voice was not unkind.   
“I did tell you when I restored you to your human form, have you forgotten?   
She is frightened of you.   
You are..so similar to me in many ways Harry.. but you are also so very young and brash – you act unwisely at times, seeking only to feed your immediate needs, without worrying about the longer term result..   
...and you have only recently discovered how powerful you can be.” 

“If I had treated her as you treated her.. she would not be turning to me for comfort right now.   
Admittedly it was perhaps a more difficult situation for you than I as she expected cruelty and fear from me and was surprised when I was instead kind to her, whereas from you she expected kindness and understanding and had no means of dealing with such callous enslavement to someone she loved.” 

“You should know - She wept bitterly when I convinced her I had killed you. It must have been a wonderful thing for her to find you lived.   
And ...luckily for us all.. you destroyed the possibility that she might feel safe with you and work to aid the order.   
The order is barely hanging on now. A few rebels remain to be rounded up.. but your loss, and Hermione’s supposed betrayal, decimated the ranks. Most of them could not see how continuing to fight could serve any purpose.” 

Tom faltered, sighing.. “All of this..is because you are in some.. but not all.. ways – similar to myself.   
You loved her and feared her loss – you wanted to possess her.. and you went about it in a manner I might have employed if I were half a century younger and had less experience of the ultimate result of such an endeavour.   
Even now.. you unnerve her by presenting a facade of the boy she remembers.. tempting her to believe in your weakness.. your softness. This deception does you no favours, Harry. If you were..lord Potter as she calls you.. all the time.. she would eventually adapt.   
Teasing her with the visage of Harry’s innocence and then tearing it away only serves to make her distrust you still more.   
You are like a Gryffindor’s idea of a Slytherin.”   
Tom leaned down and stroked the side of the boy beneath him. 

Harry’s face contorted into different frustrated and angry expressions. “But... there’s nothing I can do. she only wants me as I was.. she never saw me like I saw her – she thought of me as just a friend and that isn’t enough.   
If I act like she wants me to, then she is soft and hot and sexy but when I show her what I want she panics and freezes or obeys rigidly – she isn’t.. she doesn’t behave for me the way she does for you.   
She doesn’t love me the way I want her to. I can see it in her eyes. I want her to love me..   
and.. I want her to obey me too.   
I want her to enjoy the things I enjoy..” Harry looked up at Tom desperately. 

Hermione pushed away from Tom coldly and got off the bed, stepping back from them both.   
“Look.. I just do my best to pretend you’re both not evil bastards, alright. And right now – you’re ruining it.   
How about, just for a change – nobody hurts me. Nobody says ‘you’re mine!’ in that creepy way like I’m some kind of contested object.   
Tom – stop giving Harry pointers on how best to bloody suck me in. It’s easier to imagine you care when you’re not actually teaching a night course on ‘manipulating people into a false sense of security while still getting what you want’. All of this is stupid. If you took this bloody necklace off I’d...” 

Tom tilted his head interestedly. Harry raised an eyebrow and god they looked like brothers. 

“What would you do?” Tom asked in a low, innocently curious voice that set the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. 

She took a step further back and swallowed. 

Tom started to move off Harry, but the boy below her shot her a meaningful glance and held him by the arms.   
“Kiss me again..” he demanded. 

Tom looked delighted, as if he was a dog that had just done a clever trick. “Yes Harry. More like that.. Playing off against me and saving her from imagined danger is an excellent way to get into her graces.” 

Hermione thought suddenly about Lucius and felt like an idiot. 

Tom snorted and looked at her. “Severus did warn you, my dear, that I was likely using him in that respect. However you were perfectly right to be afraid, as time did tell. So bravo to you for recognising a genuine threat.   
You can still visit him later, since you were so insistent about doing so earlier.” 

Harry looked confused. 

“Lucius” Tom explained shortly. 

Harry’s eyes widened. “You said she wouldn’t have to see him if I..” 

Tom frowned. “firstly.. She knows quite well that you enjoyed seeing her with Lucius and I am becoming less amused by your posturing now. Secondly – I said no such thing. I said that she would be sent to him immediately if you refused – and she would have visited him immediately in that case.   
It just so happens that she would have been visiting him later anyway even if you were compliant, as she had specifically requested to do so shortly before we came to you.” 

Harry still looked confused and slightly concerned. 

Tom snorted, entertained. “No, boy,.. Lucius is not further competition. She does not feel for him.. in fact she would prefer not to see him. She is going because she believes she is protecting Draco.” 

And you Hermione added mentally. Mostly you in fact.   
Tom acknowledged the thought with a pleased expression again, staring into her eyes. 

“I will not allow him to harm her as he did before” he said softly.   
“Against my own will.. against my own better judgement and best interests... I have developed a rather strong attachment to her. I find myself..indulging her.. more and more often.” 

“... Tell me what you were thinking to do if I released you from the necklace, Hermione. I will not be angry. I am merely curious. I promise no harm will come of it if you tell me.” 

Harry turned to look at her curiously too now. She bit one side of her lip. “I.. it’s stupid.   
I realised the problems with it immediately.   
I wouldn’t do anything. Don’t ever take the necklace off me, because i do get that kind of sudden impulse from time to time. I’d ruin everything..” 

Tom’s look of impatience was faintly mirrored on Harry’s face in a disturbing manner. 

“I.. I thought if the prophesy had never existed – Harry would have grown up with his parents, you wouldn’t have lost your body and you both might not have been enemies..   
but of course you still would be and it might be worse.. far worse. It probably would be. It’s one thing to be able to change anything.. but if you don’t know how everything fits together then its just idiotic to mess around in reality.   
Apart from that, if i did that, I’d end up changing my own time line and thinking I’d gone mad.” 

Tom looked at her consideringly. “of all the things you could change you’d pick that..” he mused   
“You could simply alter our attitude to one another in the present.. or adjust the present configuration of space – perhaps isolate us from the wizarding world.. but instead you immediately think of changing the entire course of history.   
As if that were just as simple a solution. Oh.. just remove this piece here and everything would have been better.   
Yes.. I think i agree with you – it would be unwise for me to release you.   
You would likely do something absolutely momentous accidentally and then end up in the centre of the sun or at the bottom of the ocean.. or somewhere equally inhospitable.” 

Harry looked indecisive, his eye flicking between them both. Tom noticed and raised an eyebrow. 

“Well.. it’s just... she’s the greatest witch i’ve ever met. You can’t just..make her a squib for the rest of her natural life. There has to be some other way..” 

Tom snorted. “Her natural life... That is an interesting point Potter. Hermione will never die naturally. She is not aging as she naturally would.   
So in effect, assuming I can find a way to insure against unnatural death, I am condemning her to a squib existence forever.” 

Both Harry and Hermione’s jaws fell open in horror. 

“The thought has struck me that it is terribly unfair for such a talented witch to be so limited.   
However.. I can not find a way to release her magic..without giving her access to magic, Potter – and as we have just established, she would likely as not take the entire universe apart on a whim.” 

Hermione recovered her tongue “What do you mean I’m not aging?! I just had my cycle. My body is certainly doing something!!. How did.. why would..” 

Tom looked at her seriously. “No. I’m afraid not, Hermione. Organs work. Blood pumps.. You will experience menses.. but your cells simply replenish themselves perfectly.   
Neither you, nor I nor Severus are currently aging, Hermione. It was my little..gift.. to us all after I had thought I would lose both you and Severus.   
You had saved Severus life and I had all of your power in my grasp.. it was the work of but a minute to change that one small thing. To simply make our bodies more..effective.   
But I was too hasty. I should have thought to render you.. render all of us.. impervious to harm. I was distracted by the moment as they say and then it was too late. Now..I cannot risk it. Hence the horcrux I still would like you to make.” 

She was appalled.   
“But.. but I don’t want to be seventeen forever! And I might be able to live a lifetime without magic if I throw myself into something like potions..or arithmancy.. but I certainly can’t live forever like this. I don’t want to.” 

Harry looked ill. “What...what is going to happen to me as we both go through time?!.. I’ll get older, won’t I?! And someday I’ll die.. and then she’ll die too.   
Or.. or will I just go on and on because she won’t die?” He looked queasy. 

Hermione on the other hand looked relieved. “Yes!.. I’ll die when Harry dies! Thank goodness.” 

Tom sighed sadly. “And here you see, we come to the crux of the dilemma. If Harry dies – you will die. If you die.. I will die.. and I have absolutely no intention of dying.   
Therefore either Harry will join us for eternity.. or Harry will release you from both your bond and your mark.   
If Potter cannot face an eternity of mastery, exploration, self-development and good sex and he refuses to release you - then I will have to strive until I can find a way to dispatch him and yet spare you.   
However.. I believe I do have at least one suitable means of prolonging Harry indefinitely which does not require his willing participation to administer.” 

Harry looked stunned. “What.. what will you do to me?” he choked out. 

Tom smirked. “I merely said that I have one. Not that I intended to utilize it. It would likely bring you much closer to Hermione and as you have already marked her and taken prime bond.. I am understandably reluctant to tip matters further in your favour.   
We shall see. We have many years.. decades in fact.. before I need to be concerned about your aging process.   
By that point i can almost guarantee that I will have identified a more suitable option or will have discovered a means of killing you.” 

Tom focused on the boy beneath him, who now looked stricken. “perhaps in time you might sway me in favour of searching for methods of preserving rather than eliminating you”   
He leaned down over the goosebump covered body and brushed his lips over Harry’s jaw.   
Harry stared at him, frozen and wide eyed. 

Tom smiled darkly. “I meant what I said, Harry..” He trailed a tongue down the boy’s throat lightly. “I want you..   
In truth.. I feel you belong with me already. Almost.. as if you were a part of me” 

Harry swallowed and turned his face to look at Hermione, who still stood, unsure.   
Tom’s seduction of Harry was twisted and dark suddenly and she didn’t know how to fix it.   
Harry’s eyes beseeched her. 

She made up her mind and returned to the bed, crawling to Harry and kissing him. 

Tom looked up, surprised but pleased at her initiative.   
He continued to kiss Harry, moving down his chest, licking and sucking. Hermione kissed Harry fiercely and he put his arms around her, pulling her down to lie beside him.   
She could tell when Tom had started to suck Harry’s dick by the way the boy gasped suddenly through the kiss and moaned, writhing and tipping his head. 

She broke it off and turned to watch. She had never seen Tom perform fellatio before.   
He was obviously, to judge by Harry’s helpless sounds of pleasure, phenomenal at it. 

“Does he?” she whispered to Harry. “Does he know exactly how you like it?”   
Harry nodded frantically, his hands moving to delve into Tom’s hair. 

Tom had his eyes closed and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying swallowing Harry’s cock over and over again. Harry whimpered, bucking and trying to force Tom even deeper.   
The muffled sound of a chuckle indicated that Tom knew quite well what he wanted and preferred to tease him at present.

Harry suddenly moaned loudly, tossing his head. She examined what Tom was doing with interest.   
He seemed to be biting him.   
She recalled that that had made Lord Voldemort hiss in pleasure when she had done it.   
Harry seemed to be on the brink of coming and was moaning needily, murmuring little curses and compliments when Tom abruptly rose off his prick and crawled up his body. 

Harry bucked at the air once or twice and groaned in agonized frustration. “FUCK!!! Godfuckingdamnit.. get back down there, you utter bastard” he ranted. 

Tom just snorted in amusement, leaning down over his face and kissing him gently. 

Harry looked pissed. 

“I want to fuck you, Harry.. Do you want me to?   
I can make you feel a lot better than that with my cock..” He fixed Harry with a glittering stare and licked the corner of his mouth as if to clean a drop of saliva away. 

Harry’s gaze became stuck on Tom’s lips and he looked at him hungrily. “Kiss me..” he whispered.   
Tom eagerly complied, kissing him gently, meltingly, rubbing his hard cock against Harry’s slick wet one. 

Harry whimpered in lust. “Yes.. fuck me.. I .. I need.. I need you to make me come”   
Tom’s smile was feral and he crushed his lips against Harry’s triumphantly, devouring him violently.   
Harry growled and broke the kiss off. 

“Fuck!!.. please! Do it..” 

Tom made his way down Harry’s body again and cast the colonic spell. Harry barely flinched.   
He eagerly lifted his legs and let Tom slip them against his shoulders. 

When Tom positioned his cock at Harry’s entrance the younger boy shivered. 

Tom grinned nastily. “You know.. it will hurt at first, Harry..” 

Harry turned to Hermione who was watching with something between arousal and morbid fascination.   
“it will hurt a lot at first Harry.” she corrected. “but the pain goes away and then it just feels really..really good.” 

She turned to the ruby eyed adonis. “Can I suck him for the beginning?” she asked tentatively.   
Tom looked thoughtful. “Yes. That would be..acceptable..You will stop as soon as I tell you however.”   
She nodded. 

Tom lowered Harry’s legs and wrapped them around his hips in order to enable her to access his cock. 

Spreading Harry’s cheeks and repositioning himself at Harry’s tiny tight dry little hole he spat into his hand and rubbed it over the head of his prick and around the little star of flesh. 

Harry looked afraid.   
Hermione didn’t know how to reassure him. There was no way – it was going to be horrible at first.   
She gripped his cock and steered it quickly into her mouth, taking it deep. Harry gasped in relief and immediately started to move against her.   
Tom laid a hand on her shoulder. “Slowly.” He said, leaving no room for debate. “Do not allow him to come.”   
She nodded and took Harry a bit shallower, just sucking on him like a stick of rock candy rather than trying to bring him off. 

He groaned, frustrated again.   
At that second Tom thrust in, brutally, the force of his hips driving half his cock into Harry.   
Harry cried out pitifully and then began a litany of “fuck..fuck.. it hurts so bad.. oh god.. stop.. I’m sorry.. i was just curious. I was wrong. Stop..please!! please!!”   
Tom ignored him completely and forced himself the rest of the way in. 

Hermione, concerned at how badly Harry was taking it, started to take him a bit deeper again and suck harder.   
He tried to move in response but just winced when it caused him to shift against the cock in his ass. 

Tom pulled out suddenly, making Harry screech again and then he started roughly pounding into Harry over and over again as the boy’s cries became weaker and turned to sobs.   
Hermione left Harry’s cock and went to him, kissing him and brushing away his tears.   
He whimpered weakly “Oh god Mione.. hurts so bad..”   
she nodded and shhhed him, stroking his hair. “Don’t cry Harry. ...I love you..” she whispered. 

Harry opened his emerald eyes and looked at her hopefully, tears still running down his cheeks. “You promise?” 

She kissed him, gently, playing her tongue over his and when she stopped, he smiled, crying harder.   
He whispered brokenly “I love you so much Mione.. please don’t leave me alone again” 

And somehow when she looked at him she just saw the confused desperate face of Tom when he took her from the cell and called her back to her mind and begged her not to leave him alone. 

Tom stopped moving in Harry suddenly and when she looked at him he looked upset.   
He avoided her eyes but when he started moving again it was with a tenderness that had been absent before.   
He took Harry’s cock in his hand and manipulated it masterfully, while sliding in and out of him slowly, achingly.

Harry started to breathe faster and soon he was moving with Tom and making little breathy moans. 

Hermione leaned down and kissed him again gently. “Better?” she whispered.   
He nodded. “god.. that feels..” He faded out, tossing his head and levering himself against Tom with his legs.   
Tom leaned forward over Harry’s chest, releasing his cock and taking the boy into his arms. 

Changing the angle caused Harry to groan and grind.   
Tom captured his mouth and kissed him tenderly, pumping into him with care. Harry opened his eyes, looking up and seeming surprised at the softness in the serpentine red eyes.   
Tom kissed him again, holding him in a cradling embrace. Harry looked at him in wonder. 

“I never knew.. it would feel like this..” 

Hermione realised with a start that it didn’t actually look like..fucking.   
Perhaps more like having sex.. or..or more like..she bit off the term that her mind wanted to supply for what the two boys looked like together... there was an emotional component between them that she’d never seen in Tom with herself or Severus.   
She wondered what it felt like to be with someone who shared your actual soul. 

Tom continued to kiss and gently move in Harry. Suddenly Harry murmured.   
“if I become yours will we do this again?.. will you do this again.. with me?” 

He seemed scared.   
Tom said low.. “only if you want me to. I said I would never turn you away, Harry.” 

Harry caught his mouth again and kissed him, “I want to be yours. Please! I want you.” Harry whispered 

Tom nodded, acknowledging it and started to move a little harder and faster in Harry. “Come for me..” he murmured against his lips. “come and I’ll make you mine forever.. beautiful.. lonely.. Harry. I’ll keep you.. I won’t ever leave you.. and Hermione will be with us. Ours.“   
Harry gasped and moaned. “Yesss” he hissed something unintelligible at Tom and the boy licked him, hissing back and fucking him hard in response.   
She noticed that Tom spoke parseltongue differently to Harry. Harry seemed to speak it more smoothly than he had in school but it wasn’t quite as natural or elegant as when Tom spoke it. 

Harry started to moan and plead with Tom to fuck him harder.. faster.. more.. don’t stop.. so close..   
Tom was pounding into him brutally now and Harry seemed to be loving it. 

Just before he came, Harry hissed something in parseltongue and Tom seemed to startle, looking at him shocked.   
Then he roughly kissed Harry and the boy tipped, moaning helplessly into Toms mouth as he released him and groaned out his own nearly simultaneous release.   
They slowly ground to a stop, Harry panting and Tom gulping in air. 

He looked at Harry strangely for a moment and then lowered himself to rest lightly on him, his forehead on Harry’s chest. Harry reached and stroked his hair absently.   
Hermione tried not to breathe or move lest she disturb them. 

Tom panted, recovering and raised his head to look at Harry. he hissed something that sounded like a question in parsel. Harry hesitated and looked away, embarrassed.   
“yes..” he said softly. 

Tom looked unsure what to make of this. He looked at Harry for a moment and then summoned his wand from the floor beside the bed.   
The actual casting of the binding spell went very quickly and when it was complete Hermione felt a strange faint dizzy sensation. 

Tom on the other hand tipped his head back and seemed to exult. Relief flowed off him in waves.   
Then he seemed to remember whatever Harry had said to him that had bothered him and returned to looking at him with a concerned speculative look on his face. 

“You will have to find some way to make peace with Severus Harry.” he said slowly 

The thought seemed to darken his expression considerably. He wiped his hand over his face in exasperation.   
“He is not going to like this.” 

Underfuckingstatment of the year, thought Hermione. If Tom really was thinking of keeping Harry, Severus was never... ever... going to understand.. or rather – he would understand exactly immediately and be utterly destroyed. 

She bit her lip, worried.   
Tom pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered “I need to think” 

Harry sat up suddenly, bringing himself a few inches away from the Dark Lord.   
“..I want to call you Tom..” he said softly, pleadingly. “let me call you Tom, like Mione.. please?.. I..I Lo-“   
“Silence!” Tom hissed. “Say it aloud and I will rip your tongue out! Damn it.. I need to think!!”

Hermione suddenly had a pretty good idea what it was that Harry had said to Tom just before he came.   
It was guaranteed to sow a massive shitstorm between Severus and Tom if he found out. 

Tom got off Harry and slid off the bed. He scourgified them both and summoned his robes.   
Dressing and pacing, he looked around the room absently and banished all the torture equipment. 

Hermione thought this was probably not the best sign of a de-escalation of the shitstorm to end all shitstorms. 

Harry looked ecstatic and seemed to be biting his lips not to say anything that might ruin the state of affairs he found himself in which no longer necessitated a torture chamber in his bedroom. 

Tom looked upset and worried.   
Every so often he would look back at herself and Harry and purse his lips and then something or other else would occur to him and he would return to pacing.   
Finally he summoned Hermione’s lingerie from the floor and robes from wherever he’d banished them and told her curtly to get dressed. 

While she was doing so he cast a spell which seemed to provide him with some kind of floorplan in white lines with a round room in the centre.   
He attended to it and then turned to the wall to the left from the bed and placed his hand and his wand tip upon it, focussing intently until slowly a door appeared.   
After a few minutes he let go of the wall and opened the door peering inside and then closing it again and stalking back. 

He seemed a little..off.. as if he’d had a large shock and was still dealing with it.   
He looked at them both, frowning. 

“No one but myself and house elves will be able to apparate into this room for the moment.   
I will send a house elf with food and drink later. ...and bedclothes..” he added as an afterthought. 

Harry swallowed and looked at him hopefully. “..May I call you Tom?” he asked mildly. 

Tom looked unsettled. “No. you will call me your Lord.”   
Harry looked down, saddened. “ok” he said meekly. 

This seemed to bother Tom even more for some reason. He hesitated and looked away. 

“Hermione. Come to me. I will take you to Lucius now” 

Hermione flinched slightly. She..she shouldn’t go to Lucius right now.. like this.. she was barefoot and her hair was a mess and her robes were wrinkled. Lucius would take it as an invitation to string her up immediately. 

“Please To..my Lord.. I need to go to my room and tidy myself up first. Please don’t send me to him like this.” 

Tom looked at her in irritation. “I will instruct him he is not to harm you.” He said impatiently. 

She looked down, a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach. “ok” she whispered. 

Harry seemed to become distressed. “No!” he shouted in a pleading tone. “Don’t take her to him! Look! Can’t you see she doesn’t want to go?! He’s going to hurt her.. even if you tell him not to. She knows it, I know it – even YOU know it.. you just don’t care!” 

Tom flicked his hand lazily at him and Harry collapsed in pain, crying out pitifully.   
“it is not your place to contradict me Harry.” Tom said uneasily. “Hermione knows why it is necessary that she see Lucius.” 

Hermione grimaced.. She realised suddenly that Tom had taken for granted that her going to Lucius would probably mean some discomfort on her part, if not outright torture. It was why he had been so pleased and proud of her when she had asked to go. 

She went to Tom and bowed her head submissively. He wrapped his arm around her distractedly and apparated them.


	45. Chapter 45

She was in an entirely unfamiliar environment when they reappeared. 

Looking about herself at the pristine marble foyer in white and gold she started to feel the first faint tremors of fear.   
The surroundings were opulent and it reminded her of the man she was about to see. 

“Tom..” she squeaked desperately.   
He looked at her but she could see his mind was elsewhere. “nevermind..” she said despairingly. “it doesn’t matter.” 

He turned away immediately and marched across the room to large double doors. Glamouring himself unthinkingly to appear like Lord Voldemort he flicked his wand at the doors, flinging them wide. 

She followed after him barefoot with trepidation. 

Inside the room were..women. A lot of women. Many many women. Women sitting on sofas, lounging on chaises, standing in groups talking.   
There seemed to be no unifying factor in their appearance. They were dressed all very differently. Most were in some degree of undress, but others wore expensive dresses and a few were in costumes. 

This was.. most certainly some kind of harem or brothel. 

Almost immediately Lucius appeared at the top of a wide marbled staircase at the left of the room. 

He wore robes of midnight blue velvet and black trim. His hair was glossy, the front side pieces drawn behind his head while the silken white length cascaded over his shoulders like liquid.   
Impeccable. 

He descended swiftly and elegantly to lower himself on one knee before Voldemort. 

“My Lord. We are honoured by your presence here.” He began. “How may I be of service to you?”   
Lucius’ eye drifted covetuously to Hermione, sliding up her body, taking in every detail of her appearance. 

Tom responded dryly. “My faithful servant, rise. Upon learning of your concern for her health, Hermione requested that I allow her to visit with you to thank you personally.   
I am certain you will take excellent care of her in the time that she is with you. It would be ..unacceptable to discover that she came to some harm while with you.   
Do not disappoint me Lucius or we shall have to have another conversation about your behavior.” 

Lucius, had risen. He seemed to be paying attention to Hermione even while he gazed serenely and respectfully at the Dark Lord and nodded agreeably.   
“Of course my Lord. I shall take care of her as if she were one of my own.” 

Voldemort gave him a long even stare. “See that you take better care of her than you do your own flesh, Lucius”   
He turned on the spot and disapparated. 

Immediately – Lucius’ polite obliging manner disintegrated and he leered at her openly. “Come, mudblood” he spat, obviously overjoyed, turning and marching back to the stairs. 

She swallowed and trailed after him unhappily. 

Some off the girls in the room watched the entire event with interest, but most seemed otherwise preoccupied.   
She supposed that Lucius Malfoy was probably often walking around with some poor unfortunate female following after. 

When they reached the upper landing Lucius paused and allowed her to catch up. 

“You never did come to me for the tour of my domain the Dark Lord promised you.” 

She looked at him uncomfortably. “I decided that I wanted to work in the lab with Severus” she said softly. “Your domain is..outside my expertise. I am of more use preparing potions for the Dark Lord.” 

Lucius looked at her in mock surprise. “and yet you arrive at my door looking decidedly post coital.   
I do believe your areas of expertise have shifted since we last..spoke”   
He reached a door and opened it, ushering her inside. 

Within, she halted shocked about a half a metre from the door. He had led her to a bedroom.   
She turned to leave but he was already closing the door. She highly doubted it would open for her now.   
“Please Lucius!.. you said..” she began, not really believing it would do any good. 

He smiled nastily. “Yes.. well – the Dark Lord is perfectly aware that there are broadly varying degrees of harm. I’m quite sure that if I hand you back without having whipped, bled or burned you, he will be satisfied enough.   
And if he is not, he will unlikely be irritated enough to end me  
..I believe I may be willing to accept a certain amount of punishment to finally sample your wares, mudblood.   
Where have you been hiding?.. I’ve looked for you. Tell me..” he started to advance on her and she backed up quickly

“I was indisposed. I was recovering. I only woke up yesterday. I’m sorry.” She squeaked desperately.   
“please don’t hurt me Lucius”   
He had backed her up against the wall in the meantime and she wrapped her arms around herself and tried not to shake too much. 

Lucius reached a perfectly manicured hand out and cupped her face, tilting it up toward his own and inspecting her judiciously.   
“You appear to be uninjured. What was your ailment?!   
You seemed..essentially fine...delicious in fact..when the Dark Lord brought you to Potters cell while I was assisting Lestrange. The vampire runs off with you and suddenly you are unwell..for a very..long..time.” 

She swallowed.   
“I ..fell and injured myself.   
Severely.   
I.. I fell to the rocks at the bottom of the grounds by the lake.” 

Lucius looked at her with disbelief.. “Is that so? How did you manage that? There are no windows that open to that side, the castle is sealed and you have no magic.” 

She swallowed grimly. “There was a hole in the wall. The Dark Lord blasted a hole in the wall when he was angry and when I woke up it was still there. And I fell.” 

Lucius looked sceptical.. but he did not ask her anything further. Instead, his hands wandered down her body and he began to unfasten her robes.   
She shivered, afraid.   
Swallowing and trying to breathe without shaking she put her hands on top of Lucius own. 

“If I do what you want.. will you be gentle?” she breathed hopefully. Lucius laughed loudly. 

“No.. mudblood.. I will not be gentle but..if you do what I want.. I may graciously refrain from punishing you.”   
He paused and looked thoughtful. “although you do look so much more appealing when you wear my marks”

She looked down and nodded mutely. 

“Look at me” Lucius demanded icily.   
She obeyed. A silvery tear sliding down her cheek.   
He caught it on his finger and licked it away with satisfaction. She shuddered.

“Don’t you dare look away from me when I am with you.” He warned “I want to see your eyes..” 

He had finished with the fastenings on her robe and pushed it off her shoulders impatiently, pulling it off her and inspecting her body.   
His sneer was undermined by the sharp tang of lust in his eyes.   
He reached behind her and unfastened her bra, pulling it off her roughly and didn’t even bother taking down her panties, tearing them away painfully instead. 

She recalled he had done that before, the first time he had turned up in her room and beat her.   
Perhaps he just liked ripping off girls’ underwear. 

Lucius put a hand on the small of her back and pulled her away from the wall shoving her into the middle of the room and walking around her, appraising her naked body. 

“You are quite passably attractive mudblood. It is a pity about your lineage...or lack thereof. If there were a spell I could employ to transform you into a real witch...   
regrettably you are unredeemable. Fit only for slavery.   
If you belonged to me.. I would drape you in silks.. Give you jewelled collars and keep you chained to the bed.   
...Perhaps I might acquire you from our Lord.   
I am certain there is some service I might offer.. some virtually unobtainable object I might procure for him in exchange for you. Wouldn’t you like to be mine, hm?” 

He had stopped behind her at this and his hand glided over her skin, brushing down her back and over the cheeks of her ass smoothly.   
“Wouldnt you?” he asked again and there was a threatening note in it. 

Her mouth had gone dry.   
If she said she didn’t want to belong to him then he would almost certainly punish her.   
If she said that she did but the Dark Lord wouldn’t want her to then he might start to conspire against Tom when he refused to give her up to him. 

“I am sure that it would be a magnificent thing to belong to you, Lucius.. but I can not. I am sorry. It is my duty to serve the Dark Lord. In gratitude for him sparing my life- I have pledged myself to him and he has bound me.”   
A hand grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back.   
“What is that? You lie! The Dark Lord would never..ever..join with a mudblood. How dare you impugne his name with slander.   
...You insult my intelligence. I happen to know you are already bound to Potter. I’ve been interrogating the brat for weeks trying to get him to reveal what binding ritual he used.   
But Potter’s binding is no barrier to your becoming my slave. I don’t intend to join with you after all.”

Hermione whimpered and tried to bend her back further to take off the strain on her hair   
“please Lucius.. I am bound to them both. I swear it!” 

Lucius released her hair and stalked around to stand in front of her, glowering furiously.   
“if that is so, why did the Dark Lord leave you with me? If he considers you so valuable. He would simply have informed me-“   
“I begged him to” she responded quickly. 

Lucius snarled and stepped right up to her.   
“You wanted to be with me again, mudblood, didn’t you.. you wanted to feel my hands on your unworthy flesh”   
He wrapped an arm around her and palmed her breast with the other hand, his face only inches from her own.   
His roughly kneading hand hurt but she tried not to wince. 

“I wanted to thank you for your-“   
Lucius put his fingers over her lips, narrowing his eyes.   
“Quiet.. ... hold your deceitful little tongue before I sever it” His pale silvery eyes glittered in a face too perfect, too smooth and unlined to be natural.   
“you are tempting me to punish you, slave” he said silkily. “is that what you want?” 

She shook her head frantically. His lips twisted into a cruel smile.   
“Then I suggest you adjust your attitude, my filthy little mudslut.” He lingered lovingly over the word filthy and her mind drifted to the brand on his chest.   
He seemed to realise where her thoughts lay as his hand retreated to brush down his own chest lightly, as if smoothing his robes.   
“Disrobe me” he commanded.

She looked into his eyes. There was absolutely no chance that he was going to let her go without at the very least having sex with her, she read there. She had no doubt that if she didn’t appease him, he would immediately fall back to torture and then he would fuck her anyway.   
Tom was clearly too busy worrying about how to sort out his lovers – a calculation which she apparently did not figure in. 

No.. she was a given. And..she considered, hurt, as she begain to unfasten Lucius robes, Tom seemed to prefer the male anatomy.   
She was only valued by him because she was a powerful possession – like an object to collect.   
Or because she was a drug and he was unwilling to break himself of the habit at the present time and risk upsetting his lover.   
He almost certainly knew what Lucius would be doing and didn’t care.   
Severus may or may not know what was happening. He probably did. She wondered if he was cowed by both Tom and Lucius. 

“Lucius..” she said softly while she moved behind him to slide his robes down his arms.   
“yes, slave?” he answered, apparently mollified by her supplicant tone of voice and obedient disrobing of his person.   
She moved to the front to unbutton the midnight blue shirt Lucius wore under his robes over his black satin boxers. 

She tried to look into his eyes as often as she could while unbuttoning him. He appeared pleased.

“I was wondering..if you might tell me about Severus...” 

Lucius seemed surprised.   
She continued. “-When you were in school, I mean. How you met him” 

The elegant aristocrat before her involuntarily smiled darkly at the memory before the look was wiped away and he looked surprised and suspicious again.   
“How do you know about that, mudblood? Has Severus been telling tales? I doubt the Dark Lord would bother to talk to you, much less discuss his servants histories” He frowned slightly. 

She had reached the last button and swept the shirt open gently with her fingertips on his skin.   
Already when she was halfway through the buttons she had noticed the smooth unblemished skin on his chest. 

She tried not to stare at the space where the word filth was written in her mind.

He smirked and took her hand, running the fingertips over the skin where the brand should be, his eyes diamond sharp on her face.   
She felt the grooves in the skin that she could not see.   
“A permanent glamour” Lucius spat softly. “What lies beneath is..our little secret..my slave” 

She swallowed as she looked up into his cold features. He pressed her palm to his chest.   
“I think of it as your name.. whenever I feel it I remember you.. screaming and begging so attractively..and how you tasted..” he murmured, his eyes narrowing slightly. 

She bit her lip and forced herself not to struggle. Presently he released her.   
She reached for the buttons on his cuffs and when they were freed helped him out of his shirt, placing it with the robe on the chair.   
Objectively seen, Lucius had a good body – however compared to the well-trained youth of most of her partners and the extreme unnatural muscularity of Rodolphus, Lucius body was merely.. good. Excellent for his age.. but not perfect.   
There was a softness to him that her other partners all lacked.   
It was almost paradoxical when considered in juxtaposition with his manner and appetites. 

Nevertheless.. it was not unappealing in and of itself. The unappealing part about Lucius was mainly the fact that he might severely hurt her if she displeased him in the slightest. 

The shape of his boxers informed her that he was at least somewhat aroused, although, to judge by her memory of his apparatus, she estimated that he was only ..somewhat.. aroused at present.   
She returned to him and got down on her knees to slide fingers into his silky boxers and lower them reverentially.   
His satisfied smile indicated that she was performing to his tastes at present. 

She began to reach for his semi hard phallus but stopped herself at a microscopic twitch in his eyebrow and eager anticipation at the corners of his mouth.   
She retracted her hand immediately and gushed. “Sorry. I’m sorry! I would never presume to touch you without permission Lucius” 

He looked at once pleased as punch and slightly disappointed. The manicured fingers stroked her head like a faithful hound and he praised “Very good, mudblood. You do take instruction well after all. Stand up”

She got to her feet as quickly as she could and stood waiting. This was not a good thing. If he’d ordered her to give him a blowjob, perhaps if she’d been good enough she might have gotten out of doing anything more. 

“Go and lie on the bed” Lucius instructed. 

She obeyed immediately, positioning herself in the centre of the mattress and trying to think about something else.   
This didn’t matter. It was such a little thing. It wasn’t like she hadn’t done it before.   
Lucus had already had his tongue inside her. It wasn’t a big deal. She repeated it over and over to herself trying to still the sick little trembling feeling in her abdomen.   
‘I want to go to my room.. I want Rodolphus or Draco. Someone come in and save me!’ 

Lucius did not climb onto the bed but pulled a chair to the foot of the headboardless bed and sat, leaning back and crossing his smooth naked legs, making himself comfortable.   
He had released his hair completely and it fell like a curtain of satin down onto his chest. 

“Sit up..prop yourself up more on the pillows..” he demanded. “spread your legs. “ 

She felt horrible and embarrassed as she did so. This felt worse than having him touch her. It felt more vulnerable than merely being naked. 

“use your fingers to open yourself, show me your pink little pussy” he purred, enjoying her discomfort.   
She blushed and only just managed not to look away from him. His eyes flickered briefly and he smirked. 

She used her first two fingers to part her nether lips and bare herself to Lucius’ interested gaze. 

“Very nice, mudblood... Masturbate for me” 

She gaped slightly, mortified. “I.. I can’t do that..” she whimpered in horror.   
Lucius eyes darkened.   
“You will do it, slave.. or I shall discipline you for your disobedience. As it is, your refusal is impudent. Begin!” 

She tried to wrench her face out of the rictus it wanted to assume and partially succeeded. Lucius seemed to enjoy her struggles and aversion as she slid two fingers down and started to rub her clitoris half heartedly.   
She was bone dry and not at all turned on so the effect was practically null.   
Lucius sneered derisively. He retrieved his wand and pointed it at her. She felt the lubrication charm settle on her and now her fingers slid over her sensitive flesh slickly. It felt..better.. and worse at the same time.   
Now if she played with herself enough she might come and that would be godawful. 

Lucius smirked slightly and leaned back again, toying with his wand and watching her fiddle with herself for his amusement.   
She was starting to inch toward a climax now. 

“Insert your fingers.. “ he directed quietly.   
She bent her knees and slid two fingers into her quim uneasily. She had never done this before when she was masturbating in her bed at Hogwarts with the curtains closed and a silencing charm blanketing her.   
It felt..different. more uncomfortable to lie in this position but somehow satisfying to have something inside there. 

“Three fingers” Lucius voice floated across to her.   
With slight logistical difficulty she inserted a third finger and pushed them in. They wouldn’t go in as far now but the feeling of being stretched was somehow pleasant. She rubbed her clit faster, hearing Lucius’ small entertained sniff. 

After a half a minute or so he extended his wand and pointed it at the bedside table, opening a drawer there and levitating out a black dildo.   
It was very slender and long, far slimmer than any of her current partners. He put it on the bed beside her.   
“Use that instead of your fingers, mudblood. You look like you need... something more.” 

She didn’t bother to dispute at this point. She was feeling quite willing to bring herself off as quickly as she could now.   
She took up the dildo and carefully eased it inside herself.   
It slid in with little problem. She was quite wet now and it was not just the lubrication charm. 

It didn’t bother her as much anymore that Lucius was watching her. 

She started to move the dildo slowly in and out of her body. It felt so much better than her fingers, he was right. 

His grey eyes fixed to hers seemed to glitter in anticipation. She thought incongruently how similar their colour was to Draco’s. He too had silvery mirror eyes that became stormy when he was emotional or aroused.   
Lucius smiled in a way that worried her.   
“Taleo Amplus” he said clearly. 

The dildo in her hand suddenly started to grow in girth. She tried to take it out completely but that no longer appeared to be possible. It simply would not be removed any further than the last couple of inches of its length.   
She panicked, abandoning her pleasure and tugging on it with both hands but it was obviously a magical affixation and not a physical.   
Lucius laughed softly. “consto.”   
The now much wider object ceased growing. “continue, mudblood” Lucius said scornfully at her continued distress.   
She didn’t want to and looked at him pleadingly. He raised his wand and muttered a charm and the dildo forced itself into her of its own accord.   
She felt unfamiliarly stretched. 

“Do not make me tell you again” Lucius warned. 

Gingerly she gripped it again and started to move it inside herself. It felt colossal.   
And.. it became clear soon.. also very pleasing when she applied her other hand to her clit again.   
Quite stupendous in fact. Far far better than it had felt when she lay alone in her bed rubbing at herself tentatively.   
Her breathing sped up and Lucius uncrossed his legs, making visible his erection. He started to stroke it with his fingertips, not masturbating, merely teasing, caressing.   
She found her eye drawn to his fingers moving slowly over his length. Her finger on her clit sped up and she felt her climax a hair’s breadth away. 

“Taleo dolor” Lucius cast and she screamed in agonizing electrifying pain that streaked up her nerves from the dildo in her quim.   
But the pain didnt stop her climax that had been already in the process of tipping. Rather she fell into a turbulent wave of horrible pleasure mixed with the pain.. a satisfaction and release coupled with the sharp urgent trauma of her sensitive tissue.   
She clenched her eyes closed, screaming uncontrollably. It went on for a long time, the feelings seeming to feed off each other till the pleasure lessened leaving only agony and she heard Lucius murmur, from quite nearby “taleo quies” 

She panted, feeling her cheeks were wet and her throat sore.   
The dildo was pulled from her tight cramped muscles gently and she cracked her eyes open to see Lucius lowering himself to lie beside her.   
He looked down at her in approval and stroked a hand down her damp body. “Gorgeous..” he murmured and brought his hand to his lips, licking her sweat from a fingertip tentatively. “You suffer so prettily” he complimented her. 

She looked up at him, exhausted. “Coming from you.. Lucius Malfoy... that’s probably a great compliment” she quipped half heartedly.   
He chuckled, amused. “it is, mudblood. I’m glad you recognise that at least”   
She sighed. “Tell me about when you were in school, Lucius. I really am interested.”   
The guarded expression returned to Lucius’ face.   
“It was the Dark Lord who mentioned it. He said you and Severus had some kind of special relationship. I was curious but he didn’t say any more. I wanted to ask you.” She looked into the eyes that had become silvery mirrors again.

Trying once more she said “I wanted to know what you were like when you were my age. I want to know more about you”   
A faint glimmer of interest flickered behind the mirrorlike eyes.   
He leaned down and hovered over her lips for a moment, as if about to kiss her and then pulled back, his eyes dark. Sighing in a long suffering manner he rolled away onto his back.   
“Put your mouth to good use at least while I tell you then.” 

She climbed up onto weak limbs, forcing her body to bow to her will and drag her down to kneel at Lucius hips.   
He parted his legs generously and she urged her body a bit further. 

Irritated with her sluggishness he retrieved his wand from the bedside table and cast an enervate. She shivered as the unnatural energy flooded her.   
It didn’t undo sore muscles or damage, it just forced adrenalin through the body, making one jumpy. 

She began to lick the cock before her to get it suitably slick so that she could begin. Lucius watched her with interest. 

After a while he spoke   
“I don’t know why I’m indulging you, mudblood. It is certainly not your place to ask me questions in such a familiar manner.   
Enough of that – start sucking now.   
If you really want to know, however... I was in sixth year when Severus arrived in his first year.   
He was a skinny untidy little wretch dressed in a threadbare uniform and it was quite a shock to everyone when he was sorted into Slytherin. His blood is..tainted. he had a disgusting muggle father – a factory worker no less..   
He was.. he is..refuse.   
deeper..ahh better. theres a good girl.   
Everyone in Slytherin knew who he was.. He was extremely unpopular for daring to pollute the noble house with his muggle stink.” 

Lucius put his hand on her head and pushed her down a little deeper on his cock, gripping her hair and guiding her for a second to set the rhythm he wanted her to follow. He liked her to pause with him in her throat before drawing back up his shaft again, then immediately drop back down.   
She did her best to oblige him, sucking harder. 

“You know.. you really aren’t bad at this..” he remarked, releasing her head and shifting slightly against the pillows, settling himself more comfortably.   
“I first noticed Severus” he continued “when I came upon him in a duel with several older boys. He was in a bad way.. he could not stand.. but he kept casting back at them. He refused to give up. I thought he was-“   
Lucius smirked. She strained her eyes to look at him. He looked..fond   
“-a tough little begger. I shooed the others off.   
Malfoys have always had the highest standing within Slytherin.   
Well.. I say always...There was one who stood above my father, obviously.”

He looked down at her and rocked his hips up at her slightly. “Try to reach my balls with your tongue when you’re down there” he instructed.   
She did. Trying to squeeze her tongue past her teeth hurt but if she lifted his balls she could just touch them with the tip of her tongue. Lucius frowned.   
“Well that’s certainly not good enough.. but leave it.. you can work on it another time. Just suck for the moment.”   
She went back to the motion he had set her in before and he smiled approvingly. 

“Good girl.. ...As I was saying.. Severus.. that little bastard, wasn’t even grateful that I had saved him from the others, he drew down on me immediately. I had to stun him to get him to stop trying to curse me.   
It wasn’t as easy as it should have been with a first year. I actually had to work to subdue him...”   
Lucius made a face of utmost concentration as he started to breathe more deeply through parted lips, bucking his hips very slightly in counterpoint to her movements. His voice when he spoke was still mostly controlled however   
“Yes...so..I levitated him.. back to my room and restrained him.   
We had a long conversation..about him trying to curse me and how he was to act to his superiors.. in future.   
He wasn’t such a tough little bastard anymore when I fucked him..” 

She furrowed her brows with his cock in her throat. Lucius had raped Severus when he was just a first year?! he would have been bloody eleven!   
Perverted fucking rapist asshole!! She felt sick. And the sicko in question’s cock was sunk deep in her mouth at present.   
She considered biting it off but doubted she’d manage it before he stunned her and he’d just reattach and heal it and then he’d probably get extremely inventive on her. 

No.. she just had to do whatever he wanted and get the fuck out of here as soon as she could.   
Knowing this changed nothing! He was a bastard before and this was more of the same.   
She thought sadly about Draco.   
Lucius was going on, as if in explanation for his molestation. 

“Well.. I had to fuck him, really – I wasn’t about to put my cock anywhere near his teeth.   
...Afterward we agreed.. Or.. I informed him while he spat and hissed and swore at me, ...that in future I would protect him ...from Slytherin house ...and he ...would come to my room whenever I called ...and show his gratitude ...however it suited me.   
He was....oh..yes. a bit faster now.. goood.. he was.. under...whelmed. with the idea...”   
Lucius was starting to have difficulty speaking so smoothly now.   
“Stop now. ...Stop I said mudblood!” he pulled her up by her hair. 

She wanted to keep sucking and hopefully when he’d come he’d let her go. But he dragged her off him.   
“Good.. get up here and ride me now.”  
She crawled up his body reluctantly and obeyed him. It upset her somehow to find that she was wet enough to take him in.   
He only smirked and fondled her ass, looking at her in a superior knowing manner that made her want to punch him in the mouth.

“Mmm.. yes mudblood.. your place is serving me. You know it, don’t you?!” he purred and nudged her with short thrusts till she started to move independently, once again hoping she could just bring him off quickly.   
He sighed in satisfaction and relaxed, letting her do the work.

“After the lestrange brothers put him in the infirmary the next week.. Severus reconsidered my..generous..offer.. and we became fast friends in no time at all.”   
Lucius tightened a muscle in his abdomen beneath her and it seemed like his cock stood up like a pole inside her.   
When she dropped down upon him her clit rubbed against his firmness. She guiltily surreptitiously adjusted her movements to brush against him like that more.   
He noticed however. “Good girl” he praised tightly. “fondle your breasts.. lick them..”   
His eyes seemed to darken when she obeyed automatically.   
When he released his muscles again after a minute she almost whined in frustration.. She had been close.. 

Lucius was panting. “Beg me ..to let you come.. mudblood” he growled, smug pleasure on his face. 

She remained silent and continued gyrating and bouncing on him.   
He laughed breathlessly “You won’t.. will you..” he grinned nastily and pulled her down on him, rolling them both effortlessly till she lay on her back beneath him and starting to fuck her hard.   
“Not.. quite..broken.. are you..mudblood” he growled at her, laying into her, making her squeak and gasp.   
He pushed himself up onto his knees and lifted one of her legs, pulling it up and twisting her onto her side, putting it against his shoulder.   
Now when he fucked her, slamming into her roughly, he went so deep that he seemed to stab right up against her womb and she yelped with every few thrusts.   
“Gentle enough for you, slut?” he hissed through gritted teeth. 

While she panted and whimpered and tried to accommodate him he twisted her into a number of positions, lowering her leg and shoving her onto her knees,   
lifting her legs and wrapping them around his waist while holding her up by her hips,   
sliding back down onto his heels and dragging her by her hair up against his body to straddle him backward in a sitting position.   
He didn’t stop fucking her for a second as he manipulated her from place to place.,   
As he pumped into her, his arms around her squeezing her tits viciously while his cheek pressed very nearly to her own as he held her to his chest, she found herself moaning helplessly, hating herself for the pleasure that her body was finding in this truly horrible man. “  
That’s a good girl...” he panted into her ear. “Now.. beg me.. Beg me and I’ll reward you.” 

She moved against him automatically. “Please Lucius.. please..” she whined breathily. 

“Please what, slave? Say what you want.” he muttered, turning his head and nuzzling his nose against her ear, fucking her even more roughly.   
She whimpered.   
When he lifted one hand from her breast and raised it to grip her throat gently she started to beg desperately. 

“Please Lucius.. please let me come.. please..please..”

He bit her earlobe gently, satisfied, but his hand tightened on her throat anyway. She found she could hardly breathe.   
He spilled them both forward onto the bed, dragging her legs wide with his own and forcing her flat down into the mattress.   
One hand held her throat tightly and the other now slid down under her body till he could flick her clitoris.   
She could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck, panting and he grunted as he slammed into her brutally.   
She whined in unaccountable pleasure, light headed and helplessly bucking against his cock. She felt she was suffocating. 

When he pinched her clit she suddenly lost it and her scream was choked by his hand around her throat as she came hard around him.   
He sniggered behind her smugly and after a few strokes came too, deep inside her, his hand holding her pelvis to his own hard, emptying himself in her with a grunt of satisfaction. 

He released her throat and held himself up on his arms over her, looking down at her gasping boneless form.   
When he slid out of her he was still fairly firm and raised himself up on his knees, falling back onto his heels.   
“Not bad.. but you lack endurance, mudblood. When you are mine I will see that you run daily.”   
He seemed barely fazed by the strenuous bout of fucking he’d just engaged in. 

She turned her head slightly, against the resistance of her body, which was insisting that lying very still and concentrating on restoring oxygen flow was more important than anything else.   
She was, despite herself, quite impressed.   
The man was older than Severus had been. Lucius had to be..probably in his early forties, if he was in school with Severus.   
Although wizards aged slower.. and purebloods slowest of all.. his level of fitness, despite his slightly less toned appearance than all the others she knew, was phenomenal. 

“Can’t..be..yours..” she panted. “belong to... dark lord... loyal.. owe..”   
she gave up and just closed her eyes and panted. 

Lucius scourgified himself but did not perform the charm on her. She felt his hands take her and turn her effortlessly, placing her on her back and then his body lay against hers and he lifted her with one arm, pulling her against him. 

Her own skin was sweaty and flushed while his was fresh and smooth and warm.   
And faintly almond scented she noted.   
She lay in the crook of his arm, half turned toward him with her face up against his chest. His hand rested just on the upper swell of her buttocks. 

Although she hadn’t opened her eyes, he hadn’t demanded she do so yet. She slowly recovered. 

“My final year at Hogwarts was..difficult” Lucius said out of the blue.   
She cracked her eyes open in surprise, looking up at him. 

He looked.. absolutely pristine. Not a hair out of place. Not even pinked with exertion. She felt pissed off at him somehow for being so immaculate and controlled when she was such a mess.   
He looked down at her, and there was something..almost doting.. in his eye for a second. 

He seemed to reassure himself that she was watching him and was not questioning him in any way.   
Apparently satisfied with her docile receptiveness he went on  
“My father introduced me to the Dark Lord the year before.. shortly after I acquired Severus in fact.   
He was a demanding man..   
I refer to my father, although the man he introduced as Lord Voldemort was demanding in other ways.   
My father, Abraxas, expected me to be.. to achieve.. at least as highly as he himself had in school.   
No.. actually he expected me to exceed him.” 

“I did not see why it mattered. My grades were passable. As a Malfoy one does not require NEWTs to move through the world. Movement is, so to say, assured.   
I therefore spent much of my time with friends, or toying with Severus, or fucking whatever happened by that took my fancy.   
I became a prefect as he wished but I didn’t see why I should bother with it really. The students in other houses were not worthy of my time and those in Slytherin knew to behave as I desired. I did not have to float around rounding them up like sheep.   
But in my final year I did not become head boy and my father was furious.” 

Hermione swallowed and watched the slightly pained expression drift over the aristocrat’s face like clouds over the moon.   
He glanced at her briefly but looked away again, somewhat bitterly. 

“He had not been head boy because he had had a far superior wizard in his year. He expected me to regain the Malfoy honor.. as he put it.. as if being head boy in school made an ounce of difference in the world.   
When I was passed over in favour of a hufflepuff, he was not to be reasoned with.   
He threatened to disown me if I did not redeem myself in my NEWTs – he wanted all O’s.   
He threatened to Disown me..   
Have you any idea what that means to an ancient family?!” Lucius looked disgusted. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the bureau hatefully. 

“He could threaten this because I had a younger brother at that point – Altair.   
Altair was the..more accommodating son.   
He was a studious little twit, officious and self righteous to a truly intolerable level.   
When he learned of father’s threat he taunted me that I shouldn’t worry. When he became ‘first son’ he would not toss me to the street – I could muck out his thestrals.”

Lucius looked momentarily enraged and stilled, gathering his composure once more. 

After a minute Hermione placed her hand tentatively over his heart , drawing his surprised face to look down at her.   
“What happened?” she whispered, fascinated. 

Lucius snorted, amused.   
“What do you think happened, my naive little mudblood, I passed my NEWTs with two Os and four E’s, the moment I got my results I went home and killed my father.   
Only hours later I pledged myself to the Dark Lord and took the mark.   
With a memory charm and a bribed witness I pinned the murder on Altair. He died in Azkaban.” 

Hermione gasped, horrified.   
Lucius seemed to find it greatly entertaining.

“My father should have known better than to threaten me. He was a Slytherin himself.   
The Dark Lord understood well that the accolades and accomplishments of schoolchildren are of no relevance in comparison with the ability to exert one’s will upon the world.   
He was not concerned that I had murdered, or that it had been my father, rather he praised me for my ruthless defense of my own interests.   
He informed me that my interests would henceforth always lie in protecting his interests.” 

“Truly.. i have learned that it is almost always preferable to act in his interests.” Lucius paused and narrowed his eyes, looking at her calculatingly.   
“And that is all the more reason why he should be amenable to rewarding me with you, I think, mudblood.   
...I have given him much. You are but a very small prize for my years of service, the fortune I have freely given, the sacrifices I have made.   
You are scarcely worthy of my attentions. Dirt for blood, only moderately pretty, not even capable of magic anymore.   
Nevertheless you do..please me..in some manner.   
I will not be satisfied until I possess you..I shall brand you with the Malfoy crest. You will serve my family until you cease to be of value.” 

Hermione stiffened.. She was beginning to realise that persuading a man like Lucius Malfoy that he could not have something was like explaining the concept of bicycles to fish. He would be a problem.   
As soon as Tom.. uh.. if Tom laid down the law and told him he couldn’t have her, he’d start thinking of ways to gain her. 

Perhaps he would only try to abduct her and feign ignorance to Tom – which wouldn’t work anyway but she’d still be dead if he apparated with her through the wards.   
“Lucius.. I can’t leave this place. The Dark Lord has blood wards keyed to me. I’ll die if I am taken through them.” 

Lucius looked slightly startled. “That is.. rather elaborate.. “ he said uncertainly. “I doubt he would waste so much time warding in a bit of filthy fluff like yourself. How do you know there are blood wards?” 

She looked at him calmly. “Because he told me he had set them. He is paranoid about the order somehow getting their hands on me. He wants to have me guarded.”   
A dawning ray of light flashed onto this long hoped for ice floe of opportunity.   
“But I am afraid of who he might leave me with. When I’m not working with Severus, I am alone in my room.   
Perhaps.. you might..” 

Lucius frowned at her. “Are you mad? I am certain you did not just suggest that I should serve you in a menial capacity, mudblood”   
Hermione lowered her eyes submissively. “No Lucius. I’m sorry. It was a ridiculous idea. I just thought.. you might not like it if other wizards were to do as they wished with me in your absence. I thought.. I’m sorry. Please forgive me” 

Lucius looked pensive, as if surprised that this new thought did bother him.   
“I will have Draco watch you.” He said finally. “He is..around.. somewhere. I presume he is not doing much of worth and when you are Malfoy property you will be available for him to use anyway..” 

Hermione made a great show of protesting and pleading that Draco hated her and she was afraid of being with him after the initiation.

“Enough, mudblood. I have made my decision. You will obey him as you would me, is that clear?!” 

She nodded unhappily, secretly crowing in delight at her success.   
Perhaps she could find a way to resign Lucius to accepting Tom’s primacy over her. 

She frowned slightly, darting a nervous look up at Lucius..   
“I..I really did bond with the Dark Lord Lucius. I’m sorry. He did it to drive Harry crazy. It worked.   
I don’t think he will release me. Maybe..eventually.   
But..he did bring me to you today.   
..Perhaps he will let me serve you when I am not needed for his purposes.” She swallowed and bit her lip hopefully. 

Lucius looked at her with infuriated mien at the knowledge that the Dark Lord required her for something to do with Potter and would therefore be very unlikely to consider giving her up.   
He controlled his expression again and conceded. “Perhaps. It will suffice for the present. I will negotiate with him. I will also want some of your blood.” 

He reached for his wand and summoned a glass from the sideboard, transfiguring it into a phial. Pressing his wand then to her arm he extracted blood woundlessly, levitating a stream of it through the air and into the phial. 

He looked at her calculatingly. “Would you like to take a walk, mudblood?.. outside..”

She was not acting when she jumped up excitedly with wide eyes. “yes!! Yes please! I’d love to go outside!”   
Her enthusiasm was suddenly sprudeling out of her uncontrollably.   
‘Anything! Anything.. just take me outside, Lucius!!’ She thought urgently.

Lucius chuckled at her display   
“Down...mudblood.   
We will dress and then you may accompany me for a walk by the lake. It is where I usually run. But.. I am confident you are ill equipped to endure that much exertion. We will walk today.” 

Hermione almost cried out in sheer joy. Internally parades were being led to Lucius.. the sick, sadistic paedophile fratricidal bastard who also brought outside walks. Hurrah to him and may his loins be ever fruitful.   
She leapt up from the bed and dressed at something approaching the speed of light, causing Lucius to laugh more at her. Then she stood impatiently wringing her hands while he clothed himself sedately and transfigured a pair of his own shoes into something like black trainers for her to wear.   
He summoned a pair of his own socks for her.   
She felt peculiarly honoured by this unnecessary kindness from this person. 

While she was putting them on he frowned at her strangely as if he too was unsettled by his own actions.   
Finally he cast a simple spell, exactly like the one that Tom had used the previous night to sweep her hair back and braid it into a plait. 

Thus set, he stalked to the door, not offering her his arm, but then – why would he. She was a slave.   
He did hold the door open for her nevertheless and she walked a half step behind him to the stairs, down and through the room with the excessive numbers of young girls – there seemed to be a lot fewer now – and out the doors to the foyer. 

From there he led her out the main doors and into the large vanishingly dark ceilinged main foyer she had walked through on her way to the ballroom/great hall when she had first awakened in this place.   
She recognised the exploded crystal light fixtures hanging and the jewelled columns. 

Instead of following the carpet down to the great hall Lucius led her straight ahead to the opposite side of the foyer. 

In the darkness a door was almost invisibly set into the wall.   
He placed his hand upon it and it flashed faintly green and swung outward. 

Behind it were further dark elegant corridors.   
Doors were sparse but wizarding paintings were hung and figures within them seemed to watch them both walk with interest, some of them slipping away out of the frames, probably to inform whoever they spied for. 

Lucius marched her down two flights of stairs and some further corridors before he stopped at a door no different to any of the others.   
When he opened it, it displayed a stone spiral stair with torches hung. 

Now he took her by the wrist and led her down slowly.   
She was suddenly reminded of her father, in a thankfully non incestuous way. He had always held the banister when walking down stairs and he had always insisted she walk behind him in case she fell.   
She wondered, did people just become more paranoid about stairs and falling over when they got older? 

They walked down for quite a while and there were no landings interrupting their descent. Groaning internally she thought about how horrible the trip back up was likely to be. Lucius was right – she wasn’t really that fit. She could move quickly in sprints but she couldn’t run fast for a very long time and climbing and things like sports really irritated her.   
She much preferred more sedentary pursuits, given the choice. Sitting and reading with Draco had been lovely.   
She wondered where he was and if he was ok. The Dark Lord had sent him away when they’d been in Harry’s room.   
She hoped he wasn’t angry with him.

She walked into Lucius’ back. She had reached the bottom of the stairs and not realised until her foot came down on ground where no ground should have been and she stumbled idiotically to fall against the tall dignified man in front of her with an embarrassing oof. 

He turned and gave her a withering look. 

“Pay attention where you fall, mudblood” he sniped and turned back to the wall where in addition to placing a hand on the stone, he drew a complex series of sigils with his wand. 

A creaking and some sifting sounds heralded the opening of the wall and dim sunlight streamed in, lightening the dark sepulchural stairwell.   
She almost jumped up and down in sheer excitement. 

He sneered at her but seemed pleased, almost proud, as if he had personally charmed the sun to shine and transfigured the outside world out of the stones just to amuse her. 

A breeze floated in through the widening gap and she could smell fir trees. It was heavenly. She wanted to jump up and kiss Lucius.   
The door seemed to open just inside a small cave and Lucius walked confidently off, leading her through the door and out of the short cave into the sunlight.


	46. Chapter 46

The sun hung low and orange to the west. It seemed to be late afternoon, on the turning cusp of evening. 

A narrow path wound down the side of the cliff face. The cave was three or four metres above the ground.   
She followed Lucius joyfully, stopping herself from skipping.   
She could hear the waters of the lake lapping and the scrunch of her shoes on the sandy stone path. Lucius’ hair flowed in the cool breeze, glittering and shimmering orangy in the light. 

They reached the ground and skirted the field of rocks. 

Hermione paused for a moment and peered over the expanse.. “hang on..” she said faintly, altering course and walking over the rocks, looking upwards every so often.   
There did not appear to be any holes in what she could see now was a smooth white burg castle.   
It looked a bit like a severe manor house but fortifications were visible here and there and she suspected that the windows were probably mostly glamoured. 

She looked over the stones , trying to find the place where she had landed. Lucius had followed her now and seemed irritated.   
“What are you looking for” he demanded. 

“Blood” she responded. “or something at least. I fell around here somewhere.”   
He rolled his eyes.   
“Are you persisting in that story then?” He cast a charm and seemed faintly surprised when his wand lit. 

Placing it on his palm he had it point him and they climbed over pointed uneven ground till they found a small depressed area closer to the base of the cliffs but further around from the cave. There were very faint brownish stains in the cracks of some of the rocks. Not a lot to see. 

Lucius frowned at her and craned his neck all the way back to look up at the castle, returning his gaze to her with a raised speculative eyebrow, realising that she had really jumped from the castle somehow.   
She was quite impressed to see the distance now.   
They stood for a while looking at the faint marks. They were darker in the cracks between rocks, as if the blood had puddled there. 

Lucius had pursed his lips and looked quite angry. Abruptly he stepped close and drew his hand back, bringing the back of it hard across her cheekbone.   
Her head spun and she crunched to her knees.   
“You will never attempt anything of that sort again, mudblood.” He hissed furiously “you are mine. Your life is..”

He broke off, looking even more furious, and amended. “You will be mine mudblood.. and when you are – I will whip you to the bone for daring to attempt to deny yourself to me.   
Your life is not your own. You have no right to damage your body in any way – it is to be harmed at my discretion, not yours. You will end when I release you from this world.” 

She had her hand to her throbbing cheek and looked up at him wide eyed, nodding.   
For a moment in the excitement of being outside she had somehow forgotten just who she was with.   
He stepped closer and freed his cock from his robes impatiently, forcing her to take it into her mouth. It was not hard and the sensation was peculiar. Like the feeling of Harry’s arm when lockhard dissolved the bone.   
She looked up at him with it in her mouth, frightened by his sudden shift in mood. 

He looked half crazed, the sun setting his silvery hair aflame and his eyes narrowed in anger. 

She suckled as if at a teat and he quickly became hard. He fucked her head roughly till he came, pulling out slightly so that the bitter fluid landed on her tongue. She swallowed the unpleasant taste.   
“Clean me” he demanded and she complied unquestioningly. 

Only after he had put his cock away and straightened his robes did he look down at her and soften slightly.   
“Stand up” he commanded. She did.   
He stepped closer to her and ran the knuckles of his fingers over the bruise developing on her cheekbone.   
“You were punished for harming yourself. You will not do it again. Come now”   
He reached down and took her wrist, leading her back up the rocks, never letting go. 

The sun had dropped lower in the meantime and shadows lengthened. Twice she missed her footing and he reacted before she could, catching her and preventing her from falling. 

‘Insane’ she thought. ‘He really means it. The man clearly likes nothing more than to make me scream in agony.. but doesn’t want me to fall over and stub something apparently. He really does think he should be the only thing to hurt me.’ 

She noticed that while she struggled, Lucius moved swiftly and agilely over the uneven ground. He seemed quite at home travelling uneven ground in shadows.   
For someone of his background and general stick-in arse demeanour it was funny. 

They got back to the path and he led her down toward the lake again, even though it was nearing dark now. 

She was relieved. She had been afraid he would take her back to the castle. 

They walked several metres from the edge of the lake. The grass faded into stones a short distance beyond Lucius feet, as he walked between her and the lake.   
He looked up and, seeming to frown at the fading light shifted her so that she walked on the inside of him closest to the lake, drawing his wand and holding it at his side.   
She wondered at this. Surely they were securely warded in here.

They did not speak but walked quite quickly, at least by Hermione’s standards. The last of the orange was fading on the surface of the lake into dark blues and it was colder. She could hear the wind in the trees far off. There were no birds or other sounds but it was wonderful to hear anything from the outside world. 

“Thank you for taking me out here” she whispered to Lucius. Somehow the darkness called for hushed voices. 

He did not say anything but reached for her small cold hand, enclosing it in his larger, warm one.   
“I may need to apparate us” he stated tersely but the way he stroked his thumb over her knuckles in circles soothingly belied the hard tone. 

When they had walked around the curve of the lake and were starting to reach a point where the lake lay between them and the castle, Lucius stopped.   
“We go no further in this light. Come. It is time to return.” He turned but seemed dissatisfied with her walking on the outside where the fields were open and fading into deep shadowy midnight blues now.   
He uneasily shifted her to his inside and made her wrap her hand around his upper arm.

“You will not let go, no matter what should happen” he instructed her tensely. 

She wondered again what could possibly happen within the Dark Lord’s warded domain. 

They walked on, she almost had to skip to keep up with Lucius.   
Suddenly he halted without warning and she was jerked back by the hand she had curled around his arm.   
He dragged her behind him and grabbed her hand bruisingly hard, holding it at his back.   
“Do not move” he hissed already casting high level shield charms. She peered around his arm panicked. 

What?! What was it.. were there some kind of animals on the grounds? Was the order here? Something else? What?   
She gripped onto his robe frightened. 

“Show yourselves” he said in a low voice.   
His transparent shield flashed pinkly momentarily, someone had cast on him!   
Wizards. The order. Panic rose up in her. ‘help! Help help help help help! She screamed internally. ‘they’re going to take me away again. I don’t want to go!!!’ 

A disillusioned figure melted back into sight seven or eight metres in front of them on the path.   
She peered at it and then groaned loudly internally. She was relieved that it was not the order but it was not good either.   
Avery. Fuck.. Avery.   
She’d forgotten about the initiation when she’d done her mental tally of all the wizards she’d come in contact with.   
The implications of seeing Avery here dawned on her just as a second flash on the shield from behind alerted her to Mulcibers disillusioned presence somewhere around here also. 

“Lucius..” Avery oiled “How nice to run in to you here. Evening stroll?” 

Lucius said nothing but his hand tightened painfully around her own. She could feel the shield charm being strengthened. 

Not receiving the polite form-response, Avery lost patience. “We want the girl. We can come to some arrangement-“ 

“No. We cannot.” Lucius responded coldly. “Leave before you start something you cannot finish.” 

Avery bristled visibly.   
“You’re outnumbered and you have to shield for two. Give her to us.. we won’t damage her.. much.. or-..” he glanced into the dark behind them as if seeking agreement “-we could share her. We don’t mind you joining the fun.”   
A nasty voice from a bare metre behind her growled “More the merrier, I say..”   
She jumped and scooted to Lucius side.   
He wrapped his arm around her waist possessively. 

“Have you secured permission from the Dark Lord for this tete a tete?” he enquired sceptically.   
“The mudblood was brought to me by our lord personally. I do not believe he would be amused if I were to relinquish her without at least killing one of you. Which is it to be?   
Avery, you are currently a softer target. I’m confident I could finish you before you have a chance to disillusion yourself again.“ 

Avery bared his teeth. “Come on Lucius.. we went to school together. You wouldn’t kill me.. not after everything.   
Not over a fucking bit of totty. Just let us have her for a while. You can come along and make sure we don’t mess her up too much. The Dark Lord never has to know. We’ll heal her. Arn is crack with memory charms.” 

Lucius shifted his posture subtly. His voice was cold and absolutely resolute   
“Avery.. you know quite well that you were Severus acquaintance, not mine. Never mine.   
You were a boot-licking second year when I left Hogwarts. We may have served together many times however I am not one of your associates and I owe you no act of disobedience against our master based on your notion of the ‘good old days’.   
I am your superior under the Dark Lord and I will end you if you do not stand down at once.” 

Avery looked past them and grinned broadly. “No.. I don’t think we’ll do that Malfoy.. You should have been reasonable” Avery and Lucius both cast at the same time and a clash from behind her told her that Mulciber had also attacked.   
All three spells crashed onto shields. 

Fuck! She thought. This was a bad situation. Very bad. Why wasn’t Lucius disapparating them or at least calling the Dark Lord?!

Avery had disillusioned himself again and spells were crashing against Lucius’ shields from different directions as the two obviously darted around.   
Unable to locate them to return fire, Lucius had put all of his energy into strengthening his shields. The crashing was terrible, like something trying to smash its way into a building.   
Making them both a smaller target in the dark, he pushed her down to the ground, dropping beside her and scanning the fields, his wand half extended, in hope of spotting Avery or Mulciber. Finding a disillusioned person in a fully dark environment was nearly impossible though, she knew from experience.   
She put her arms around his waist, clinging to him just in case he planned to apparate. Why wasn’t he apparating! 

Lucius tossed aside the sleeve of his robe and positioned his wand over the mark.. She saw him hesitating. 

“Do it” she whispered terrified. “You can’t hold both of them off indefinitely”   
Lucius looked at her infuriated.   
“I should just give you to them, mudblood. What does it matter to me what they do to you? As you’ve pointed out – you cannot be mine.. I could oblivate you afterward.. If I call the Dark Lord I will be punished severely for bringing you out here.”   
She gasped and flinched away slightly.   
“Please don’t!!! Please Lucius.. please don’t let them. Please!” She started to cry.   
“Call someone else. Send your patronus for Rodolphus.. he’ll come. He won’t tell the Dark Lord if I ask him not to. Please..please don’t give me to them!” 

She didn’t suggest Draco. She didn’t want him to call Draco. She didn’t know how well Draco fought but she couldn’t stand it if he were hurt because she had wanted to go for a walk. 

Lucius eyes sharpened at this thought. He nodded shortly and hesitated for a moment, concentrating hard.   
He seemed to find it difficult to conjure the patronus but after a minute a silvery falcon flung itself into the air and winged off at high speed.   
She flung herself on him and kissed his cheek, unsure whether he’d want her to kiss his mouth.   
He looked conflicted and tightened his shoulders slightly as he forced more energy into the shields. 

Avery and Mulciber were flinging curse after curse now, frantically trying to break the shields before whoever Lucius had apparently summoned arrived.   
She held onto Lucius and put her face against his perfectly smooth neck. He smelled of almonds and a sweet dark spicy scent that he must have put on before they left for the walk. She inhaled deeply. It suited him.

“You smell nice” she whispered softly. 

There was a scream suddenly and Lucius became instantly alert, half rising to one knee.   
The scream faded out into gurgling somewhere over to the left of them, perhaps eight or nine metres away.

“Rodolphus” she whispered happily. 

As if in response, a wand lit and Rodolphus reappeared from his disillusionment charm about four metres away, eerily lit from below.   
He held his arm raised at shoulder level, his knife pressed against thin air.   
“finite incantatum” he muttered and Mulciber shimmered into view, breathing heavily and looking like he was about to wet himself. 

“Lucius.” Rodolphus nodded, acknowledging him. “Pet..” this was spoken in a darker..hungrier tone.   
“What do you want me to do with our friend Mulciber?” 

It wasn’t certain to whom he was addressing the question. 

“Obliviate him” Lucius said at the same time Hermione said “kill him” 

Lucius looked down at her as if she’d just vomited up a rather large diamond. Appalled, disbelieving, approving and covetuous at once.

“Yes pet..” Rodolphus purred and sliced smoothly, tilting his face into the spray and catching a lot of it in his mouth.   
He slurped and practically bathed in the blood, seeming quite exultant. 

Lucius watched, fascinated, for a few moments and then dragged her around by the shoulder to look at him. 

“kill him??!!   
I had already gathered, mudblood, that Rodolphus fed upon you from time to time. When, however, did he start obeying you.?! You just had him execute a trained and useful death eater when a memory charm would have sufficed.   
...and how dare you countermand me!!” 

Lucius seemed somewhat frantic with the adrenalin spike of the attack, and now seeing the fountains of blood and soaked jubilant vampire just when the situation had appeared to be under control again, he was not reacting in a controlled logical manner.

“Wanting to take you was not abnormal death eater behaviour. The appropriate response would have been to allow the Dark Lord to discipline them” Lucius faltered.

Hermione blinked   
“Yes but he doesn’t have to know we were out here. We can get rid of them and nobody has to get into any trouble.   
If Mulciber had somehow remembered or worked out what had happened with Avery then..   
It’s just better this way. And look how happy Rodolphus is.” She smiled. 

Lucius looked at the dark stained soaking wet man holding Mulciber as if in a lovers embrace.   
He looked back at her askance as if recognising that he was in a precarious position at present. 

Irritated he pulled her close and growled barely audibly in her ear. “We will discuss this in detail when next you come to me. Pull him together now. If you try to somehow set him against me you will regret it. And there is no way to hide my absence when the Dark Lord tries to collect you.” 

She nodded silently. She hadn’t thought of asking Rodolphus to do anything to Lucius.. although.. obviously – that would be another solution to the problems with him.   
She didn’t know how Draco would feel though. It was one thing to hate your father and another thing to want him dead. 

Frowning at herself she wondered how she had come to the point where killing someone seemed to be a fairly reasonable solution to a problem.   
After she had killed Ginny Tom had said.. something.. hadn’t he? Something about his magic blending with hers or affecting her or something along those lines.   
She hadn’t really listened. Something else had been distracting. 

“Rodolphus!” she whispered happily. He looked up, his face covered in gore. Dropping the large bulk of Mulciber he grinned wickedly and approached her.

“In trouble again pet.. always calling me to save you.” He wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve carelessly, smearing the blood that covered him. 

She smirked. “Did he taste good?” she murmured.   
Rodolphus made a face.   
“Like stew. Thick, salty, not good but lots of it” He drew his wand and scourgified himself. 

“See to Avery, Lucius, I’ll deal with Mulciber” he tossed at the pale hair faintly shimmering in the dim light thrown from his wand.   
He aimed his wand and fired off a small red ball of light that hovered over a mass on the ground, barely illuminating it. 

Lucius looked at them both warily and strode off. 

When Lucius had passed them, Rodolphus stepped closer, pulling Hermione against him.   
She smiled happily.   
“I missed you!! Thank you for saving me.. again.. and thank you for telling the Dark Lord ..when I ..um”

Rodolphus face darkened. “Don’t do that again, pet. I felt you dying.” 

She looked at him regretfully. “Sorry. I won’t. I promise. Everyone else has already said the same thing already.. Tom and Lucius were a bit..more threatening about it.” She smirked wryly. 

Rodolphus pulled her against him and inhaled deeply then pulled back, a wry, displeased look on his face.   
“Busy day? Lots of different men on you.. you reek of their sex” He inhaled more..seeming to concentrate..   
“Lucius..very recent.. all over you. And ..Draco..faint. and the Dark Lord and..Potter?..” he snarled slightly and she flinched.

“Tom was there. He made me.” 

Rodolphus didnt seem mollified. He scourgified her all over, her clothes and her hair too. Then he did it again.   
Finally he seemed satisfied and pulled her close, dipping his face down into the crook of her neck with a purr of relief. 

Lucius interrupted them both, returning out of the darkness. He sniped petulantly “Deal with Mulciber so we can get back. The Dark Lord may seek her out at any time and it would not do for him to find us here.” 

Rodolphus snarled for a moment.   
“What the fuck were you thinking taking her outside. The anti apparition wards are up.” 

Lucius sniffed haughtily. “I don’t answer to you Rodolphus. It was, in hindsight, an error. I wanted to reward her. She was so very excited at the thought of it.”   
Hermione spoke up, feeling a strange obligation to defend the only person who had taken her out under the sky since the Dark Lord.   
“It was my fault Rodolphus. I’m sorry.. I just.. wanted to see the lake. I can see it from my window. I wanted to feel the wind.” 

Rodolphus calmed somewhat, seeming to understand her need on some level, and brushed a gentle hand down her cheek.   
Noticing the bruise rising on her other cheekbone he cursed under his breath and cast a healing charm on it, smoothing the healed skin with the pad of his thumb.   
He turned away and concentrated to transfigure Mulciber into a small stone which he picked up and put in his pocket.   
He scourgified the grass all around and cast a charm Hermione didnt recognise. She wondered about it. 

“Disguises other traces of death that can be spell tracked” he muttered, automatically answering her question. 

Lucius put his arm around her shoulders and tried to steer her away, back to the castle but Rodolphus whirled, snarling at him.   
“I will take her, Lucius” 

The blonde did not budge.   
Rodolphus bared his teeth at him and swept her up, lifting her to his waist and holding her to him with one hand, pulling her thigh around him with the other till she wrapped her legs around him and put her arms around his neck.   
Then he wrapped his arms around her and lowered his face to her neck again to inhale her. 

“Start moving” he growled at Lucius.

The blonde man’s expression could not be made out in the dark but he eventually turned and stomped off back toward the castle. 

Rodolphus carried her as if she were weightless..She rested her head against her arms around his neck, pressed tight to his chest.   
It was a strange feeling. It reminded her of being a little girl and carried by her parents up to bed.   
Except that Rodolphus would periodically dip his face to her skin and sniff her or lick her gently.

Lucius seemed to be extremely pissed off. It seemed that knowing the vampire fed on her from time to time and seeing said man claim her and drool all over her in front of him were very different things. Lucius fairly crackled with fury as he walked. 

When they climbed the long spiral stairs back up to the castle Hermione sang in her head a spontaneous aria of praise for Rodolphus. He was so warm and strong.. and he always came for her. He was the best in bed too.   
There wasn’t anyone.. apart from Ron.. she had slept with who hadn’t been good in bed but Rodolphus was just amazing. He’d made her come so many times she thought her heart would stop. 

The man pressed against her sniggered softly, causing Lucius to turn, startled. “I’m glad you think so, pet. It has been almost a month now.. you have..but days.. “ he sniffed her again. “perhaps one or two. Then you are mine. He promised” 

Lucius stopped..turning furiously and bearing down upon them in the narrow stairwell.   
“What is this?! The mudblood said she was blood bonded to the Dark Lord.   
Have you petitioned for her? Did he give her to you?!”   
in subtext Lucius’ body language was screaming – did the little whore lie to me?!” 

Rodolphus snarled.. “Back off Lucius or I’ll snap your fucking neck and dump you along with Mulciber! I can smell her thrice damned bonds. But she is mine when her blood comes upon her.   
One day I am promised. The first day of her blood.”

Lucius calmed, lowering his shoulders somewhat.   
“That will end when the Dark Lord gives her to me.”

Rodolphus laughed loudly. “He will never give her up.”   
Hermione sighed.

Lucius turned and resumed climbing the stairs. “we will see” he muttered. 

Rodolphus smirked at her as she turned.   
“Am I too heavy” she asked guiltily.   
He pulled her closer and captured her lips, kissing her greedily. He gravelled against her cheek when he broke the kiss   
“I would carry you around all the time if he would allow it.” He grinned again. “But you’d get sick watching me work maybe”   
She thought of Harry again and agreed.

“I missed you pet. I could feel you.. Last time they broke you I could come and watch over you. Snape kept you locked away this time. ...Fucker..” he said the last part with feeling. 

She defended Severus automatically.   
“He was healing me. He had to keep me in T-.. in the Dark Lord’s chambers.” 

Rodolphus frowned. “You don’t think of him as the Dark Lord anymore. That’s dangerous. Never think that he is like other wizards. You are holding a deadly cobra by the tail.”   
Hermione furrowed her brow at him. Knowing he was right and being able to change the way she had started to think about Tom were two completely different things. 

“Lestrange!” Lucius voice echoed down the stairwell.   
Rodolphus face darkened and he pressed her against his chest, then he moved fast. They were at the top of the stairwell with Lucius in under two seconds.   
Lucius raised his eyebrows. When she turned he looked blatantly at her throat as if inspecting for bite marks.

Rodolphus sniggered. “Just talking, you toff nosed git.” 

Astoundingly for Hermione Lucius actually smirked back. “Mind that it stays that way, you sick twisted fuck!” 

Her jaw dropped.   
Both men sniggered together now at the look on her face. 

Lucius explained “Avery was not one of my associates.. Rodolphus however was. We’ve been acquainted since our earliest years.” Rodolphus grinned.   
“It was good to work on Potter with you, Luce. It’s been so long since we played together. You married that damned ice bitch and then you were no fun  
..keeping to yourself. Didnt want to join a hunting party anymore. Taking your claim off to a private room at the revels” 

Lucius made a sour face. “Hardly by choice, Rodolphus. You know she insisted upon a fidelity clause in our binding. Narcissa was a jealous witch.   
But curse me, I was adamant that I would have her. She was the best. Malfoy’s always get the best.” 

Rodolphus looked sceptical. “Was she worth forgoing a decade of fucking, brother? I know she dangled her frozen cunt in front of you like a carrot to a donkey”   
Lucius flushed bright red and glared, his eyes flicking sharply to Hermione’s wide stunned ones. 

She was wondering whether Lucius had always been so cruel or whether he was sadistic because for so long it had been the only way he could enjoy ‘victims.’   
She had never realised that there might be more to everything than the simple explanation of Tom’s ‘Lucius is a sadistic spoiled child who breaks his toys and refuses to share’ 

Rodolphus burst out laughing. “No.. that’s true, pet” 

Lucius snarled   
“What did you hear?!” he demanded imperiously. Rodolphus smirked

“The Dark Lord told her you were a sadistic spoiled child who breaks his toys and refuses to share”. 

Lucius snorted.   
“How flattering” 

Hermione looked at Rodolphus like he had betrayed her. “That was a private thought!” she accused.   
Turning to Lucius, she continued “Besides.. He only said it to frighten me. He wanted to make me frightened of you so that I would see him as a safer alternative.”   
Lucius laughed loudly, genuinely amused.

“I’m more frightening than the Dark Lord. That’s rich.. And by His own insinuation.   
That is very nearly the greatest compliment I have ever received.” 

Rodolphus grinned. “It’s why she refused to let me take her to you. I’d almost think she got herself cruciated just to escape you.”   
Hermione felt outnumbered.   
“You are worse than him. You tortured me. He never hurt me like that.” 

Lucius became serious. “Mudblood. Have an ounce of sense. The Dark Lord specifically instructed me to come to your room and play with you in that manner.   
I had no idea you could do wandless magic. If anything he set me up – you were about to kill me before Severus stepped in. Do you suffer from memory ailments?!   
And then he gave me explicit permission to visit you regularly in your cell. Anything I did to you was specifically authorised by him.”   
He paused and smiled lasciviously. “well.. almost..” 

She actually found herself blushing slightly. That was just so wrong after everything that had happened. Both men seemed transfixed by it however.   
Rodolphus leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth gently. “Still..so innocent, pet.” His eyes turned to Lucius   
“I need to taste her.. come now Lucius, old friend. You aren’t married anymore. We can go to your rooms.” 

Lucius seemed to waver between desire and petulance. After a minute he nodded.   
“We will..share.. then. If I allow you to join us now.. you will return the favour at some point. We are agreed?” 

Hermione looked at Rodolphus, afraid. ‘he’ll hurt me’ she thought, panicked. ‘he always hurts me. It’s like he needs it to get off’   
Rodolphus grinned nastily. “I hurt you too, pet.. you like it. A little pain makes the pleasure so much better.   
And Lucius will not hurt you too much. You are safer with his pain - Sometimes I do not want to stop drinking.   
You taste..so..good” 

She swallowed, looking at him fearfully. “But I trust you. Lucius could just decide to do anything.” 

She felt a pressure behind her and turned to find Lucius pressed up against her back.   
“Do as you are told, mudblood, and I will not need to discipline you. There will be only..pleasurable..levels of pain.”   
He tugged on her braid, gently pulling her head back and applied his mouth to her throat, biting it in a strange parody of the vampire she was curled around.   
It felt good.

“We are agreed then, Rodolphus?” Lucius muttered against her neck in between sucks.   
Hermione had her eyes closed and an expression of reluctant pleasure on her face. 

Rodolphus hesitated, obviously not eager to give up any of his time with her later in exchange for time now. “Bite me” she whispered and Lucius obliged immediately, biting her hard. She whimpered, smiling. 

“Agreed” Rodolphus ground out.   
“I will meet you there.” He pulled her away from Lucius and apparated on the spot with her. 

 

 

They arrived in a large room that seemed to scream ‘opulence’ – probably scream it while chained and held over an ornate brazier, but nevertheless. Understated it was not. 

Rodolphus put her down reluctantly and she looked down at the large white tiger skin upon which they both stood. 

A massive stone fireplace roared and toasted the room. Over it hung a slytherin crest and on either side were the mounted heads of a unicorn and a griffin.   
The lounge suite seemed to be made of some strange black fur. It shone slightly bluely and was not spikey and faux but flattened and silky. It reminded her somewhat of Draco’s fur actually, she thought. 

There were large oil paintings on some of the walls. They were quite heavy and ominous. She recognised caravaggio’s sacrifice of Isaac and wondered why Lucius would have a painting depicting a muggle religious story. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_Sacrifice_of_Isaac_I.jpg)   
Looking around the large room she could see several other caravaggios. Perhaps Lucius merely liked the artist.   
The unifying factor in the caravaggio paintings seemed to be the presence of young dark haired boys.   
Perhaps Lucius simply liked those. 

The man in question appeared beside her as she examined his artwork. She had not heard him apparate in.   
“Do you like it..” he asked curiously. She frowned and nodded finally. “Caravaggio is a bit.. dark for me though. He liked scenes of beheadings and death. Do you know the story behind the sacrifice of Isaac?”   
Lucius nodded absently. “It is of no interest to me. I merely appreciate the expression on the face of the boy lying bound with the knife at his stomach. He reminds me of Severus faintly.” 

She looked to the next painting. It was Titian’s perseus and Andromeda. A naked woman stood bound in chains while in the background a sea monster fought a warrior. She didn’t need to ask why he liked it. He drew her away by the hand.   
“I may show you my art collection another time perhaps. Come now.” 

Rodolphus waited in the doorway to what would undoubtedly be Lucius bedroom. 

“What is your furniture made of?” she asked curiously. Lucius smirked evily.   
“Kitten pelts. Wonderfully soft against the naked body. Another time mudblood.” 

He divestoed her clothing abruptly and she flinched in her sudden exposure. Rodolphus smiled hungrily and walked forward to claim her, picking her up and carrying her swiftly in his arms to the bed. 

When she looked around, Lucius had divestoed his own robes already and was walking around the bed to climb up on the other side of her.   
She looked up at Rodolphus as he performed the charm to remove his clothing. Lucius was sliding near and she turned and looked fearfully as she felt the colonic and the lubrication charm sizzle over her in rapid succession. 

“It has been a..very..long time since Rodolphus and I have shared a woman” Lucius told her. “The last time.. we got a little carried away.”   
Rodolphus sniggered. “Hardly a great loss. Although she did have great tits, if I remember.”

Lucius smiled darkly. “She did. And then she didn’t.” 

Hermione found she preferred not to know any more about what had happened to the girl. Particularly right now when she was definitely about to fuck two men who would not stop if she announced she was having second thoughts.   
Her thoughts on the matter were really only window decoration at best. 

Rodolphus was lowering himself onto the bed, approaching her with slow cautious movements as if she might bolt like a deer at any moment.   
She lay, half on her side, her back turned to Lucius and looked back and forth between the two uncertainly.   
Lucius was watching her with cold amusement. Rodolphus now hung over her, on his hands and knees.   
He glanced at Lucius almost deferentially. “Do you want top or bottom?” 

Lucius smiled thinly “I will be on top.. but you can have her pussy. I am not entirely selfish.” 

Rodolphus eyes glittered. “Of course you are Luce. You’ve had her pussy today and you want to complete the set. Take her ass if you will. My pet has the sweetest little box..”   
He swooped down and kissed her bruisingly, thrusting his tongue into her, his kiss hot and demanding.   
Hermione could never resist Rodolphus’ kisses. When he wanted her they seemed to affect her viscerally, setting off a fever in her blood.   
She moved automatically, needily to get closer to him, her hands gliding all over his naked body.   
He was so hard and tight and strong and mmmm. She could feel him smirking against her own lips. 

He manipulated them both into position. She straddled his hips as he lay on his back, one hand on the back of her neck and the other groping her breast gently.   
Lucius reached over and lifted Rodolphus erect cock and positioned it for him. “Down, mudblood” he demanded softly. Hermione complied and lowered herself gingerly, easing Rodolphus large cock into her quim.   
She moaned in relief as he sank into her slowly.   
Rodolphus was kissing her roughly. He bit down on her tongue, making her yelp in pain and then sucked on the wound, emitting little animal noises of pleasure. 

She dimly registered Lucius moving to kneel behind her, straddling Rodolphus legs. When he thrust inside her brutally and without warning, she broke the kiss and cried out in pain.   
Lucius revelled in it, fucking her harder to make her keen. He wrapped his arms around her body and dragged her back against him, gripping her braid and forcing her head to the side, crushing his thin lips to hers and plunging his tongue into her, tasting the blood from Rodolphus bite. 

Rodolphus in response to having her stolen away, sat up and put his arms around them both, stroking his hands down Lucius sides down to his ass.   
He licked and sucked at Hermiones nipples for a while, making her wriggle and gyrate against the two cocks in her, then without warning he bit down on her breast just below and to the side of the nipple.   
He sucked and slurped eagerly, groaning in enjoyment.   
Hermione gasped when he bit down but returned to kissing Lucius almost immediately. 

It astounded her that Lucius Malfoy would put his tongue in her mouth. It was somehow even more unlikely than him licking her pussy.   
Lucius seemed to be enjoying exploring her with his tongue and fucking her ass gently.   
Rodolphus, temporarily quenched for the moment pulled them both back down, his hands on the small of Lucius back. 

Hermione was forced to put out her hands to prevent them both from falling down onto Rodolphus heavily.   
This seemed to be exactly what the vampire wanted them to do however and in half a second it seemed he had knocked arms and legs out of the way and then somehow rolled all three of them, placing Lucius on the bottom.   
He grinned down at the blonde over Hermione’s shoulder and commenced fucking her hard.   
He somehow knew exactly how to hit her to make her rapidly lose control and start bucking and yelling – or perhaps it was the same effect that made her just about die of need when he touched her with the intent of fucking her. 

Rodolphus movements rocked Lucius cock inside her at the same time. The bigoted aristocrat didn’t seem to have any problem with tasting her flesh as his mouth moved over her neck, licking and sucking her.   
His hands wandered over her body. She felt him find the wound Rodolphus left and then he was smearing her blood all over her, returning to the wound and rubbing more of it over her body till her entire front and her neck was reddened. 

Rodolphus growled, his eyes actually shifting and becoming animalistic. He fucked her violently, as if he wanted to rip her open.   
She shrieked but was lost to the sensations flooding her brain. More! More! Her mind screamed. 

“Both of you” she managed to get out somehow. “want both of you”

Rodolphus wasn’t listening to her anymore. He had lowered himself and was shaking, licking her bloodied flesh.   
“Bite her” Lucius groaned. “tear her flesh.”   
Some tiny part in the back of Hermione’s brain was saying.. wait.. no. no don’t tear her flesh. But her mouth was screaming “YES.. rip me open.. need you Rodolphus.. fuck.. so good.”

Rodolphus seemed to lose grip on whatever small part of himself was keeping the rest of him in check and he fell on her neck like a creature possessed, tearing into her jugular and spraying Lucius face heavily in her blood.   
He plastered his mouth over the large tear he had made and drank deeply, a deep growl of possession emanating from his throat. 

Hermione felt light headed. “So... good” she murmured faintly, her arms curling around Rodolphus body, holding him to her, her hand at the small of his back and the nape of his neck. “love..” she drifted off into unconsciousness blissfully.

 

 

“Enervate”

Hermione opened her eyes and stared blearily up at the form of Lucius Malfoy, covered in blood, leaning over her with a tight, worried expression on his face.   
He was visibly relieved when she woke.

Before she could even get her bearings he was tipping blood replenishing draughts into her mouth. 

He gave her three before he let her catch her breath. 

She shook her head muzzily and sat up. She was sitting on Lucius bed. Everything around her was damp and chilly with blood.   
It was on the walls. The air smelled like a slaughterhouse. 

Rodolphus was standing at the far side of the room looking distressed. 

Lucius sat down on the bed beside her and lifted her eyelids, looking into her eyes critically. He tilted her head to the side, briskly but not unkindly and examined her neck, running his fingers down it and then casting a diagnostic spell.   
He seemed satisfied finally and let out a deep breath he had been holding. 

“Well that was a little more excitement than I quite planned on, dolph.” 

Hermione furrowed her brow, looking at Rodolphus worriedly. He was covered in blood too and seemed both afraid and ashamed for some reason.   
“Rodolphus?” she said uncertainly. 

The man hesitated and then walked over to her, lowering himself to sit on the bed on the other side of her.   
“Got a bit carried away, pet. ..we all did.. Luce has always had that effect on me. Makes it easier to get crazy.. do shit that I shouldn’t do.” 

Lucius on her other side reached out and brushed the bloody strings of hair out of the man’s face.   
“To hear you talk, one would imagine that’s a bad thing..   
Had we been with anyone but..this particular mudblood.. that would have been the hottest fuck I’ve had in years. I came like a bloody express train when she passed out, you growling and biting and blood flying everywhere.   
The feeling was..somewhat ruined though.. by the thought of what the Dark Lord would do if we’d killed her.   
I nearly had a heart attack when she wouldn’t come back with an enervate.   
But all’s well that ends well. We’ll take more care next time.” 

Hermione blinked. Well that was a lackadaisical view of her near demise. 

Rodolphus, however, looked more than contrite. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her over and over as if he thought she’d disappear. “Mine..” he whispered, afraid. “mine. Won’t do it again pet, ok. Keep you safe.”   
He started licking the blood from her face gently. 

Lucius looked at him strangely, his head tilted as if he were trying to understand a puzzle. “You are changed, old friend, aren’t you?” he said slowly “It’s more than just an experiment.. you’re not quite..yourself.. anymore.”   
He looked at them together critically.   
“What is she to you? Are you like this with all girls you feed from? Or all witches?” 

Rodolphus seemed to struggle and pull himself together.   
“She..is different from all others Luce.. Tastes of.. of.. I can’t describe. Like air.. sun.. energy.. magic.. tastes of magic.   
I want her..need her.. Fucking her is intense.. good.. drinking her and fucking her is.. better.   
I will do anything to keep the Dark Lord happy so he will give her to me regularly.   
When she is on her monthly blood.. i could curl up at her quim and lick her raw. So.. fucking.. good..”   
He growled and kissed Hermione harshly, his arms tightening as if he didn’t want to let her go again. 

Hermione looked dazed when he released her finally. She turned to Lucius with a dreamy happy look on her face.   
Rodolphus had some way of unwinding her mind when he kissed her like that. It took her a minute to shake it off. 

Lucius seemed thoughtful. “I want her too. I have since the ministry of magic. Merlin knows why but I just can’t get enough of her. The last month I must have asked after her a dozen times. Severus was almost impolite the last few times.   
In the beginning I thought that I wanted to destroy her.. but I find that I don’t   
...it’s not enough to just visit her either.. I want to have her at my disposal whenever I choose.   
I need to possess her. She should be mine. I want her.” 

Hermione felt guilty and quickly, before her mind could go to the thing that they should not know about, she turned it to the abba song that had kept Harry out. 

Rodolphus looked at her strangely. “what is that, pet? Why are you singing in your head?” 

Lucius was immediately interested. “she is singing? What is she singing.?” 

Rodolphus shrugged. “Something about being defeated at waterloo. ...couldn’t escape if i wanted to.. something something.. be with you..” 

Lucius’ suspicion was almost tangible in the air. “what are you trying to hide, mudblood?” 

Hermione shook her head, fearfully. “nothing!” ‘oh yeah.. and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way’ 

Rodolphus frowned. “still singing..” 

Lucius face turned dark. “Hermione.. you do realise you are in a room with the Dark Lord’s best interrogators, don’t you? You really- Damn!” Lucius gasped and clutched his arm. 

Rodolphus didnt require words, he was already turning and scourgifying the blood from the bed, walls and their bodies. 

Lucius summoned clothes and applied the reverse of the divesto to Hermione and then himself.   
When Hermione turned her head Rodolphus was dressed too. All of this seemed to occur within a couple of seconds.

The clap as the Dark Lord apparated into the room startled her. He was dressed as Lord Voldemort.   
She looked at him warily as he coldly took in the scene. Lucius, Rodolphus either side of her, sitting on a wrinkled bed.   
Then he sniffed the air and tilted his head, turning to look at Rodolphus with narrowed red slitted eyes. 

“Lucius I instructed you to look after her, not invite the vampire over for dinner.   
Rodolphus.. we will have words about this later. Come here, Hermione.” 

Hermione rose and went to him, looking once over her shoulder at the two men. 

He seemed to inspect her as if for injuries, then enfolded her in his black robed arms and disapparated.


	47. Chapter 47

When they reappeared in her room, Tom tossed her away from him angrily, dropping the glamour and glaring at her rabidly. 

She frowned, hurt.. 

He stalked away to the fireplace. She wasn’t sure whether to follow.   
“Rather..chummy.. with Lucius..weren’t you..”he snarked venomously. 

She didnt respond. What should she say?! He had sent her there in the state she was in knowing full well what would happen to her.   
Would he have preferred she was tortured for hours instead? He certainly hadn’t hurried back.. 

She turned away and walked to the window. Outside the moon was high and illuminated the lake, forests and grasses. 

She looked at a certain area of the grounds dully. It was like what had happened to her room now.   
Little invisible markers denoting death.   
Wrapping her arms around herself she wondered why Tom even cared whether Lucius and Rodolphus had been ‘chummy’ with her. He was off, probably twisting Severus around his finger so that he could continue to fuck Harry. 

he.. She didn’t want to say, even in her mind that Tom didn’t really care about her at all in anything other than an instrumental manner.   
Like everyone else.. something to possess.. an object to own. To be at his disposal.   
She wasn’t.. like Severus.. to him. Or even like Harry. She was Just a trophy. A weapon he hadn’t figured out how to use yet and intended to keep by his side forever until he did. 

“Hermione..” Tom’s irritated voice interrupted from several metres behind her. “cease this behaviour now. I am not in the mood to deal with your melodramas in addition to Severus.” 

She sighed. “Fine” turning and looked at him tiredly.   
The young face before her looked as weary as she felt. 

“I need a bath” she said with feeling. “and ..food.. hot tea. Handle the second two and I’ll handle the first. 

Tom yawned and nodded waving her away dismissively. 

 

 

It wasn’t till they lay relaxing separately in the bath, a large tray of assorted sweet and savory treats on the side and a cup of hot tea in each of their hands that Tom spoke again.   
His voice was quiet and although he looked composed he seemed somehow worn. 

“I believe I am finally ready to hear about your time with Lucius, my dear. Please do not leave anything out.. I will know if you do and I don’t have the patience left today to be gentle if I have to pry it out of your mind.” 

Hermione nodded distractedly sipping her tea. She really hadn’t expected anything different.   
She wanted to ask about Severus. About whether Tom really was going to keep Harry..   
He’d bonded with him..   
She wanted to scream out irrational demands for him to care about her. 

Her thoughts were scattered and hurt. 

Since she’d seen how he..looked.. at Harry.. she felt like something sharp and thin was stabbing through her heart.   
He had never looked at her that way and he never would. 

“Fuck..” Tom said softly, turning his head away slightly. “It is as bad as dealing with Severus. HOW does that fates-damned boy DO it?! How does he manage to destroy everything I have..over and over again.   
Hermione.. come here.” 

She looked at him and her reluctance was broadcast on her face. 

If she went to him he’d pet her vacantly and tell her not to be an inconvenience.   
He’d talk her around till she felt selfish and guilty for her own feelings of pain and then he’d get angry with her about some random thing and stalk off, leaving her to berate herself for hours about how she could be better - more of a doormat..   
How she could more efficiently obey him. 

None of this was real. 

Perhaps she should be looking for a way to permanently remove her magic..   
At least in the muggle world she might meet someone and know that they truly wanted her for herself and not some pheremonal effect she produced. 

She might..forget him..eventually. 

Might meet someone who would look at her like he had looked at Harry. 

She heard Tom breathe out fast, as if he’d had the air punched out of him and he swam over to her quickly, wrapping his arms around her and clinging to her.   
“No.. “ was the only thing she caught. He held her so tight she thought he was worried she would evaporate.   
He didn’t seem willing or able to say anything more. He just held her tightly. His head on her shoulder.   
Finally he moaned miserably. “I.. do not want to be here anymore. I ..need you.. to come with me. Will you?” 

She blinked, resigned. She had really had enough of the bath too. She was tired of this day.   
Maybe if they just went to sleep, tomorrow none of this would have happened. 

She sighed sadly “ok Tom” 

He nodded against her and seemed to concentrate for a moment. Then he apparated them. 

 

 

She felt quite woozy when they reappeared.

That shouldn’t have been the case. The bedroom was metres away. 

In addition the bedroom did not have soft mounded sand underfoot. She scrunched her toes experimentally. 

The sun was high in the sky and they stood on a deserted beach. Waves crashed softly and rhythmically.   
Tom slowly started to release her but then pulled her back against him. “I..” He tried again and let her go. 

Gesturing at the sand vaguely he transfigured a mattress. At least he half transfigured a mattress.. it collapsed partially into sand again. He frowned in frustration and focused, transfiguring it properly. 

Lowering his naked form to sit on the blue and white striped mattress and tugging her hand gently to encourage her to sit also he lay back and stared up at the sky. 

Hermione felt slightly sickened. A huge sense of unreality swept over her. This was all too much.. too different.. as if she’d fallen out of the world.   
“Where are we?” she asked quietly. 

“Australia” was the hollow reply. 

“You apparated us to the other side of the planet?!” she ground out through her teeth.   
“Have you done that before?!” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “How do you imagine I engage in negotiations with foreign powers?!   
By telephone? Floo?   
Before I subdued Britain do you imagine I could simply go and book a ticket on a jumbo jet or stroll down to the international portkey station?   
Of course I’ve done it before. I’ve side-alonged others here as well.” 

“I would not have risked you so lightly on something I had never tried myself. What do you think of me?!   
He stilled and the silence was slightly resentful. 

It dragged on and suddenly Tom said..slightly wistfully. “The farthest i have ever apparated..though not, I suppose in terms of concrete distance.. was to the MIR space station. Last year. After you had begun destroying my Horcruxes..   
I did not stay long.. I merely wanted..to see.. just in case..” he trailed off and turned his head away. 

Hermione turned to him in wonder. “What was it like?” she asked curiously. 

His soft reply-“peaceful” 

She lay, watching tiny white clouds wheel overhead slowly. Then she turned and moved closer to him, till she could lay her hand on his abdomen lightly and press her forehead to his arm.   
It was strange to feel so much hot sun beating down.   
And it felt like there was no one else in the world. “Are we safe here?” she asked, suddenly worried.   
Perhaps it was paranoia remaining from the earlier events of the day but she just felt like.. anywhere outside her room someone could spring upon them and somehow take Tom away.   
She was scared of Tom going away. 

He turned to her now. “I will not leave. You are wrong. You are foolish. Or I am foolish.. I am not sure yet which.” 

He turned, wrapping his arms around her, one underneath her head and the other around her ribs, both pressing to her back and holding her close. His calf wrapped around hers.   
She felt..safe... good.. when he touched her. She always felt better when he was there. 

Tom spoke now.. quietly.. barely more than a whisper.

“I needed to bind and mark Potter.. in order to gain the power over him to force him to release his bond on you.” 

He paused and continued with a hollow determination in his voice. “So that I could kill him” 

Hermione’s scattered emotions played over her face.. she had suspected as much before he’d started.. but now..

“yes.” Tom said heavily. “I was ..unprepared for the reality of what it meant to bind him. He is... he feels like part of me.   
When we were both inside you.. I felt completed.   
And more.. look..” 

Hermione startled and looked at her wrist afraid as her mark tingled.. “Harry! Harry has his magic back, we need to go!” 

Tom stroked his hand down her face. “Shhh.. that was me. It is my mark now. At least partially.   
While Harry cannot use his magic, it is almost entirely mine.   
I did not know.. such a thing has never occurred before that I have read about – but apparently when a person who controls one or more marks is themselves marked, the person who marks them has second-hand control over their marked servants. So now.. when you stimulate it.. we will both feel it..   
however only I will be able to respond to your call, of course.”

Tom sighed. “Marking you was one reason.. of many.. for arranging for Potter’s demise.   
Then there is the fact that he might kill me.   
However he is marked and bound.. it is not possible for him to do me harm.   
And while I was trying to convince him how right we were together I managed to unsettle my own views.” 

“He is the only other wizard who speaks parseltongue.   
He.. understands me.. thinks like me in many ways.. despite being so very young and foolish.   
And now.. now I feel him everywhere. Through the soul connection, the mark, the binding.. through you...   
he is everywhere.” 

“He told me he loved me..” 

“...Severus is inconsolable. He would not listen to me.. he nodded and agreed with everything I said but i don’t think he really heard a word I said.   
He is..broken.. I don’t know what to do.   
I should go now and kill Harry.. kill Potter.. Potter not Harry!.. but I am finding myself hesitating.   
I cannot see a way to allow him to live without losing Severus forever. His eyes were so dull... so empty.” 

“And I spent hours..hours trying to reach him.. trying to call him back..   
He knew beforehand what I wanted to do and why.. and he agreed that it was a good plan..   
But when I arrived in his room and he looked at me he somehow knew that everything had changed..   
...I could not reach him.” 

“And I came to find you.. I finally noticed how long I had left you with Malfoy – I apparated there worried I’d find you bled out on the floor and instead I find Lucius has suddenly reconciled a disagreement of years with Rodolphus and the three of you are quite cosy together..”

“and then.. you are full of thoughts about Harry and leaving me for the muggle world..” 

“I must go and kill him. I must!   
But then.. a month ago I needed to go and kill you.. and I’m relieved that I didn’t do that..” 

“And so we are..here.” 

“Nowhere..   
merely somewhere far away that does not remind me of anything familiar. I needed to leave..”   
Tom stilled..a feeling of relief finally surrounding her as he held her tighter. 

“Can you bring Severus here using the mark?” she asked softly. Her lips bare inches from his. 

“Yes.. but-” 

She looked into narrowed red eyes with slits like razorblades against the strength of the sun.   
“Bring him here. I will bring him back to us” 

Tom hesitated. Finally he closed his eyes and concentrated. A pop announced Severus arrival.   
He fell onto the sand a couple of metres away. He had obviously been sitting in a chair. 

Hermione rolled away and crawled over to the boy..man..   
“Severus?” she called.   
He didn’t respond.   
She tugged at him and he moved bonelessly. With grunting and difficulty she dragged him across the burning sand back to the mattress and managed to get him on. She pulled him under the arms to the centre of the mattress.   
Tom lay on his side watching her with mild fascination.   
“I could have levitated him you know” he pointed out annoyingly. She just poked her tongue out at him.

Tossing herself down on the mattress next to him she crawled under his arm and weaselled up to his side, then sat up, reached over and pulled Tom forward, wrapping his arm over Severus too.   
Tom scowled at her. “He doesn’t want me to touch him. I can feel it.” 

“Well bugger him if he can’t have the decency to use actual words. I can’t hear him and since you’re so confused right now we’ll go with my interpretation of things.   
Severus.. if you want to not be hugged and groped and treated like a teddy bear.. or if you want anything more than just hugging and groping.. you’re going to have to respond. Otherwise..   
-Tom stop sulking and hold the man you love.” 

Tom flinched back as though she’d shot him. “I..I ..Hermione.. you know that I..”   
she snorted.   
“Yes yes. Don’t believe in love.. yada yada.   
You just apparated to the other side of the planet because you couldn’t deal with the fact that your lover of more than ten years was upset with you.   
Sounds like you don’t care at all. It’s just a power play. Of course.   
And right now you’re considering going and destroying part of your soul – for the only remaining reason you have – because you can’t stand the thought of losing Severus.” 

The boy between them slowly turned his head to face the rather wrong-footed and confused Dark Lord lying by his side.   
“If I ask it.. will you go now and kill him?” he asked in an bleak low voice tinged in faint hope. 

Tom opened his mouth slightly, unfamiliar emotions passing over his face. He appeared to agonize over the decision.   
“..Yes.” he said finally. 

Determined. Severus responded immediately and with gusto “Kill him then!” 

Tom’s eyes widened and he flinched slightly as thought something within him had hurt. 

“Wait!” Hermione cried.   
Two faces turned to her, one dark and vengeful, the other confused and wounded.. The juxtaposition was almost beautiful.   
Normally each wore the other expression.   
“If you’re going to do something like that anyway – why not bring Harry here.   
It’s a nice place to die, if he ends up dying.   
And if Severus is so intent on killing part of your soul.. let him watch it in person. It will be cathartic.” 

Tom looked at her like she was insane. 

“We’re going with my judgement for the rest of the day, remember?” 

Tom did not seem amused. She raised an eyebrow.   
Severus looked at Tom. “Fine. Bring him here. I’ll watch the brat die. I’ve been waiting to for a long time.” 

Tom looked from face to face and finally turned away.   
“If..you wish.. Severus..” he said brokenly.   
He lowered his head and this time it took a lot longer. 

Several minutes passed and eventually Severus said.. “Not going to do it?” 

Tom raised his head and fixed him with narrowed eyes. “Have you any idea how difficult it is to lower high level wards located an entire world away? To bring you here was a simple thing.. but I have spent the last month or more designing layers of protection to prevent Potter from somehow miraculously staging an escape.. and now I am attempting to counteract and take down each layer from here.   
Be silent. You will have your sacrifice shortly.” 

Indeed after another few minutes Harry suddenly fell down onto his side from a metre in the air with a grunt of unexpected pain. 

He sat up, blearily. Obviously he had been in bed asleep. 

“School night?” Severus quipped nastily. 

Harry blinked at him confused. Then he looked up at the suddenly blue sky “it’s day!..”   
then he started to wake up finally.   
He looked around at the beach and the mattress they all lay on and then turned and suddenly let out an exultant disbelieving whoop of joy. 

“This is what you all do when you’re not in my room torturing, taunting or bloody confusing me?!” 

He stumbled to his feet and raced pell mell down , tossing himself into the waves and coming up laughing. 

Severus scowled. “Merlin I hate him.” 

Hermione sniggered. “He’s.. just.. very young.. But he’s not stupid Severus.   
Harry has been ..far less stupid since he blended with Tom’s soul. It seems Tom has raised his IQ a few points.   
He’s no Tom.. but he is only 17.” Hermione watched Harry dive and play in the waves. 

“Mione.. come in. Its great!” he called. “In a bit, Harry” she called back.   
Severus looked like he was ready to spit. 

Tom sat with his knees bent and his elbows resting on them. One hand was buried in his hair and he seemed bothered as he watched Harry play. 

“Severus.. you know I love you, right?” she said softly.   
Severus turned to her and his expression softened. “Hermione..” he seemed to want to say more but it was too far away from his mood.   
She continued, looking him in his tense black eyes. “Do you love Tom?” She looked at him seriously. 

Severus’ face seemed to crumple and suddenly tears were sliding down his cheeks. “Yes!” he said miserably.   
His voice cracked and he was sobbing out barely intelligibly “I love him so much.. and ..he’ll never.. and. Its..its ok...but. Potter! why him?! little bastard will kill him.. how can he .. I can’t.. Hermione!! Help me!!!” 

Hermione threw her arms around Severus and held him close. She stroked his back as he buried his narrow face in her shoulder and sobbed his heart out. 

‘Tequila and margarita mix’ she thought as loudly as she could at Tom, looking at him over Severus shoulder.   
The red-eyed boy jumped as if she’d yelled at him and turned, looking at her like she was mad.   
‘now Tom!’ she demanded internally. 

She kissed Severus wet cheeks and then placed tiny butterfly kisses on his lips. He kissed her back in the same way, desperately, needing the comfort.   
Placing her lips to his ear she whispered. “I will never leave you Severus. I will always love you.”   
The man sobbed in great gasping bursts.   
“iloveyouHermione” he blurted, unable to get his breath.   
She murmured at his ear again. “Don’t try to make him say it out loud but Tom loves you too. He’s very upset and confused right now because he was confronted with something when he was with Harry that he didn’t want to see and doesn’t know what to do about  
– he was confronted with himself.   
But he will tear his own soul apart for you if you demand it of him as a condition of your love.   
Do you remember when he got down on his knees and begged me.. begged me to save you, after you’d been so daft as to take poison?! Tom loves you more than anything.” She leaned back to look at Severus blotchy wet face.   
“I have to tell you - you’re being daft again now Severus.” She said quietly.

The man boy scrunched his face, unwilling to hear it.   
He whispered “I just want Potter to go away. He’s going to ruin everything.” 

Hermione pressed another gentle kiss to Severus lips, he responded immediately, kissing her harder.   
She pulled back..   
“What do you think will happen after he kills Harry to reassure you?” she asked carefully. Severus looked shifty. 

Hermione frowned at him “Ok.. let me rephrase it..do you think it will hurt him to do it?”   
Severus eyebrows turned inward helplessly.   
Hermione added quickly. “Yes or no. Simple.. Will it hurt him?” 

Severus looked miserable, seeing the shape of the idea take form.. 

Hermione continued. “If you love him so deeply... why would you want to hurt him that way?   
You know he will do it if you force him to.   
Do you need to force him to?” 

Severus scowled, sniffing.   
“yes.” He said petulantly. 

She kissed him on the nose. “You’re an arse sometimes Severus. Stop sulking and have a cocktail.”   
She kissed him harder, teasing his lip with her tongue till he opened to her and let her tangle her tongue with his.   
Pulling away slowly she turned to Tom who was looking tentatively hopeful. 

“Severus..” he asked nervously..

The black haired boy rolled over and sat up.   
“Fine..” he snarled. “You don’t have to kill him immediately.. but I reserve the right to ask for his head on a plate at a later date when he has made abundantly clear what a despicable little blemish he is, unworthy of continued existence...   
Tom I loathe Harry Potter.” 

Tom seemed indecisive himself but passed Severus a margarita.   
“I summoned it from.. somewhere in that direction.” He pointed vaguely.   
Hermione had the feeling he only said it in order to have something to say. 

‘make sure he has at least another three more of those very soon. Summon a lot more alcohol. We are all going to need to get incredibly drunk tonight’ she thought at him. Tom blinked at her slowly. 

“I’m going to go swim for a bit. I’ll expect a drink waiting for me when I get back. ..and for pete’s sakes get an umbrella or a cabana or a lean-to or something – with your pale hides you’ll end up red as lobsters in no time.”   
Thus delegated she whirled and jogged down the sand. 

Harry who had been floating in the water, stood up and watched her as she ran. His jaw dropped slightly.   
She took three or four splashing steps into the water and then dove, vanishing under the next wave and reappearing some metres away.   
Moments later Harry appeared a metre or so away. “Harry..” she started. 

He interrupted   
“When you run like that, Mione.. you make me want to do very bad things to you..” he said low, a smirk on his face. 

Hermione stayed still and plastered a smile on her face.   
“Harry. shut it and listen. Smile and laugh and be friendly – don’t do anything that might piss Severus off.   
I’m serious.. This is life and death.   
He’s already jealous and insecure over Tom. If you touch me now he will flip.   
If you try to approach Tom.. same thing - I promise it.. and then Tom will have no choice but to kill you to reassure him.” 

Harry smiled but he looked worried and disappointed. “but he said..” 

Hermione nodded and dove and swam a bit further out. “RACE YOU!!” she shouted gaily and started swimming out deeper.   
Harry laughed and dove after her, swimming faster than she did and soon overtaking her. 

“Too much time reading, Hermione” he taunted from far ahead.   
She poked her tongue out. 

“So what do I do?” Harry asked, facing out to sea. 

Hermione sighed.   
“if you want to join us.. you have to accept Severus.   
Tom cares very much for him ...and I love him too.” 

Harry looked stricken. “But he’s Snape.. no matter how he bloody looks now.. and besides, it doesn’t matter what I do.. he hates me.”   
Hermione pursed her lips. “It was kind of mutual, Harry. But it depends on how much you want to be with Tom and with me.   
Severus is brilliant.. loyal.. bloody awesome in bed.. he’s great..  
He hates you for lots of reasons.. better than your reasons.   
You were prophesized to kill the man he loves, for a start. Even now he’s afraid that you’ll hurt Tom.   
Also.. when he was our age he kind of fancied your mum and your dad ended up with her – you look just like him.   
Then he hated that professor Dumbledore led you around by the nose and never told you anything important.   
And of course we did treat him like the devil in person when he was a teacher. We always suspected him of everything.” 

Harry frowned stubbornly. “but he’s Snape!” Harry said again as if she hadn’t been listening. 

Hermione was unamused. 

“Alright then – but just so you know.. Tom said on a different occasion that Severus was the best cocksucker he’d ever met.   
And I’d say that’s probably a long list.   
Look at it this way.. if you and Tom like so many..things the same way..  
...including in bed..   
and Severus is so hot that the most powerful wizard in the world wants him as permanent lover..   
...exactly how much do you think you might enjoy Severus.. if you are able to use your new found charm long enough to snare him?!” 

“And it won’t work if you try to sell him ‘Harry’ - he hates Harry. He will like Lord Potter though.   
And isn’t that what you’ve been wanting me to want all along?   
Severus will eagerly disembowel hapless victims with you. .. I’m a bit weak stomached for that kind of thing at the moment..   
..although.. its funny how it gets easier.” 

Harry looked like this argument had gone a lot further to convincing him of the value of making friends with the long haired boy they could see was now snogging the Dark Lord, half full glass of something in his hand. 

“We’re getting drunk?” Harry said amused. 

“We are.” Hermione smirked back. “We’re going to all get nice and sloshed and see who ends up where.” 

Harry nodded as if this was a perfectly logical plan.   
“Speaking of where – where the fuck are we?”   
Hermione told him.   
Harry seemed a bit awed. “He didn’t even come back for me..he just brought me here.” 

“Through at least a dozen complex wards too” she threw back and then started swimming for shore.   
Turning and backstroking she called... “Come on.. I’m thirsty. Let’s go and see whether we can join the party.”

 

 

As they loped soaking wet and salty up the sand toward the Dark Lord and their potions teacher, both of whom ogled their bodies the entire way blatantly, Hermione could see that a large cache of various alcohols had been somehow gathered and lay in the sand behind Tom.   
No umbrella or anything like it had materialized however. 

The two black haired boys had full glasses.   
Another two mixed drinks sat propped in the sand by Tom. 

When they reached them, Hermione dropped down to fall to her knees in the sand in front of the mattress.   
She rested her arms folded on the edge of it and stretched her body behind her to dry in the sun. 

Harry stood beside her looking down on her with an afflicted expression. He swallowed and looked up at the other two who seemed to be looking at her too.   
Uneasily, Harry shifted his gaze to Severus, who looked back at him coolly with only the merest hint of narrowed eyes. 

Seemingly making a decision, Harry dropped to his knees in front of the mattress. He swallowed and started to fumble for words. 

Hermione looked across at him irritated. “Ugh. You’re playing at being Harry again. Stop it. Being shy and well meaning is just a cheap act and I’m already on to it. It’s just going to piss Severus off. Be yourself.   
Severus.. be warned! He’s a conniving sadistic self absorbed bastard.” She paused and added considerately   
“Who has fewer neuroses about the word love than the conniving sadistic self-absorbed bastard sitting next to you.   
Drink please!”   
She held out her hand and made gimmie motions. 

Tom smirked down at her and passed her her glass as if he were rewarding her. 

Harry scowled, looking off balance.   
Hermione passed her drink along to him and got the other from Tom. Sipping at it she made a mmmm face. 

“This stuff only tastes good in the sun somehow.” 

Severus raised a sceptical eyebrow. “It doesn’t even taste good in the sun. We have regular whisky - single and double malt, vodka, rum and some kind of schnapps. Looks suspect. Couldn’t get any firewhisky.   
We must be deep in muggle country right now.” 

Tom made a ‘go on’ gesture and smirked.   
Severus shot a raised eyebrow back at him and looked at Hermione pointedly. 

“We also have pot” Tom added with a lascivious grin. “Severus is convinced you will disapprove, Hermione. He was going to hide it and keep it all to ourselves when you fall asleep after half a glass of weak margarita.” 

Hermione made a “How flattering!” face and tossed a handful of sand at Severus. 

Harry sniggered at this but also looked quite excited. “I’ve never tried pot.. “   
Tom sniggered. “You’ve never tried a lot of things, Harry.” 

Hermione tried very hard not to look disapproving. She spoke up, in defence of herself, seeing as Severus had all but declared that she was straight laced and/or a lightweight.   
“I just... for so long I didn’t do anything that could get in the way of the perfect NEWTS score.. That’s all..   
and now.. that doesn’t seem to really matter anymore. – will it ever again, Tom?” 

The red eyed boy looked unsure. “Do you wish it to? Are you going to start a campaign about doing it all on your own steam and insisting I do not simply put you in the place you most want to be?   
Do you want to go through all the fuss of applying and competing – or is the work itself more important to you?   
You may work on whatever you desire, Hermione, within reason.   
Inform me as to what you need and I will procure it, or do my best to at least.”

Hermione nodded and considered. She had always been raised to make her own way...but was that really a useful perspective to take? Wasn’t the work truly the important part?   
And she knew well enough how to learn. Given resources she would work on whatever she could without magic.   
And perhaps she could even work on magic.. she would just need to work on it with someone who could actually use it.. There was nothing stopping her creating spells.. if someone else tested them. 

She suddenly became aware that Severus was rolling a rather slick and professional joint and refrained from pursing her lips disapprovingly.   
Harry was practically chomping at the bit to go nearer. She lifted her leg to the side and kicked him in the butt.   
He turned and looked at her with dark green mischievious eyes and pounced, tickling her till she screamed and nearly dropped her drink. 

Severus had stopped what he was doing and looked up at them both.   
She pushed Harry away, smirking. ‘oh go and ogle him some more. You know you want to” she snarked smugly. 

Harry frowned at her and looked at Severus uneasily.   
Severus in turn looked a bit unsure and wrong footed. 

Tom sighed and looked out over the ocean, smiling and looking pleased. “I am glad I decided to come here” he said softly. 

He seemed to remember something and his eyes shifted to Hermione. “You were going to tell me about your day. Come.. let us walk.”   
Harry and Severus both jumped and looked at each other and then at Hermione and Tom, each beseeching their friend not to leave them alone with the other.   
Hermione stood up and walked around to Severus, crouching down and kissing him deeply.   
He closed his eyes and hummed in pleasure as she explored him.. 

They broke off to see Tom kissing Harry. The younger boy was on his knees, his head tilted back as the Dark Lord held his hair and snogged him hard.   
When they stopped Harry swayed slightly with a dizzy little grin on his face. 

Tom moved to Severus and kissed him even more passionately, running his hands down the boy/man’s neck and biting at his lips teasingly.   
Severus eyes had darkened by the time Tom released him and he trailed after his lips as he drew away. “you could leave after-” he suggested..   
Tom smirked and shook his head lightly. 

Hermione knelt to bring herself to a lower level than Harry and silently willed him to be Lord Potter when he kissed her. 

Harry seemed to know what was needed. He captured her lips roughly, dragging her hair back and dominating the kiss. He did not hold her long, but when he let her go she did look a little half lidded.   
She looked at Severus and said softly “Harry is.. very like Tom.. in some ways” 

As she was walking away she turned and reminded Harry “Severus is the best ever!! EVER!!” she giggled and jogged a little to catch up with Tom who was a few metres down the beach, walking sedately. 

She peeked over her shoulder and could see Harry and Severus sizing each other up.. 

Tom smiled when she turned back. “I should listen to your advice in all things my dear.” He said softly.   
“Thank you... I was.. very confused and unsure what the best course of action might be. You may have opened a way I did not perceive before.   
Perhaps.. perhaps if I had taken you with me to Severus things might have been easier.” 

Hermione hummed noncommittally. “But then we wouldn’t all be on the beach in Australia far away from the order and the death eaters, drinking margaritas and possibly smoking illegal substances and probably about to have very sandy sex.   
I hope you’ve come up with some solution for that by the way. The beach is great but I’m sure sand in your crack is not.” 

The Dark Lord sniffed amused. “You have become quite expert in avoiding subjects you do not want to broach, precious one. I suspect you were doing something like that to Lucius and Rodolphus when I arrived.   
Unless I am very much mistaken Lucius was on the brink of subjecting you to some of his milder interrogation techniques when I arrived. He occluded very quickly.. I only heard the direction of his thoughts as I apparated in.   
He was angry that I had interrupted before he could interrogate you.” 

“Tell me about your evening. Start at the beginning if you please.” 

Hermione sighed. “You left me with him barefoot in rumpled designer clothing and bed hair. What did you think he would do.?!” 

Tom frowned. “I was somewhat distracted. I regret my inattention. What did he do?!” 

She spoke quietly. “He took me to a bedroom immediately and stripped me. Then he said he would make me his slave. He would find some way to get you to give me to him.   
I told him i was yours and you’d bonded me and he didn’t believe me.   
Then he made me masturbate – with a dildo that caused pain at his word. And then he slept with me..”

“I..I used his more accommodating mood in the afterglow to get him to tell me about how he met Severus .. I...feel so terrible for Severus.. he was eleven! It’s like Draco! What is wrong with that man?!” 

“He also told me about how and why he killed his father and joined you..” 

Tom looked extremely interested   
“Lucius is not the most forthcoming man.. and those two facts are among his more closely guarded. You must have done something quite special to loosen his lips. I will.. -may I look?” 

Hermione nodded after a moment. 

Tom stopped them and pulled her close, looking down into her eyes. She pushed the memory from the time she entered the bedroom till the time Lucius offered to go for a walk into the forefront of her mind. 

The gasp of pleasure from Tom made her feel a little proud in a strange way. 

He obligingly pulled out of her mind when he reached the end of the memory she had set apart and kissed her spontaneously.   
“it is a pity you are so dear to me.. You would do well in Draco’s line of work, my dear. What happened next?” 

Hermione bit her lip. “Oh! Speaking of Draco – I got Lucius to agree – well actually he suggested Draco guard me ...on account of his ambition to persuade you to give me to him and his displeasure at the thought of some random Death Eater touching his property  
– as opposed, obviously to his son who he considered no problem at all since once I ‘belonged to him’ I’d be branded Malfoy property.   
Probably much like a horse or a bull I imagine.” 

“So I was pleased with that outcome. I get to keep my pet ferret.” 

“And then I managed to persuade him to think that you probably wouldn’t give me up at all actually, at least not anytime soon, because you needed me for something to do with ticking Harry off.” 

“He still seems to think there’s a chance, which is good – it means he’ll have Draco watching me just in case.” 

“He was upset at the idea of the blood wards – I’m sorry, but I told him because the way he was acting, I thought he might try to grab me and apparate with me at some point.   
He took some of my blood.” 

Tom looked pensive at this. Hermione steeled herself for the next bit. 

“and then.. please don’t be angry.. Lucius took me for a walk by the lake. He said he jogs there.   
I was so desperate to see it.. I see it from my window all the time and I wish I could smell the trees and hear the water. So..we went for a walk. “ 

Tom looked infuriated. “That was a foolish thing for Lucius to do. I have anti apparition wards up outside. He knows that I would not have approved you going out there.”   
He appeared to be planning a nasty punishment for Lucius’ error.. 

“Wait Tom!.. It worked out well” she explained. “Lucius was very alert and protective. I think he noticed a problem long in advance and wanted to go back.   
It was Avery and Mulciber. I forgot I was close to them at the initiation.. and Avery.. -you said he brought me to you in the battle. I didn’t think about them.” 

“Sorry...but they jumped us and tried to get Lucius to give me to them. He refused and they attacked us.   
Lucius protected me. I didnt get a scratch.   
He sent his patronus for Rodolphus and.. um.. they’re dead. Uh.. sorry...  
It was..kind of my fault...” 

“Rodolphus killed Avery off the bat but I ordered him to kill Mulciber cause I thought if he didn’t the man would just continue to be a problem and-“ 

Tom stopped her and turned her by her shoulders to face him.   
“you ordered Rodolphus to kill? For convenience’s sake??!” he seemed both pleased and fascinated. 

She brushed it off. “Yes and then we got rid of the bodies.   
I’d appreciate it if you pretended not to know about what happened to them. It would be easier to deal with Lucius if he thought he could trust me and Rodolphus will probably tell you himself I suppose – he is so very desperate to be in your good graces in the hope you’ll grant him more time with me.” 

Tom looked delighted. 

“How did you become so wonderfully Slytherin, my dear?! It’s quite astounding the degree to which you have changed...” 

She smiled at him. “I think you’re a bad influence on me.” 

Tom gestured for her to go on. She took a deep breath   
“So when Rodolphus was carrying me inside” she responded hurriedly to Tom’s angry expression   
“No.. I wasn’t hurt.. He’s just very..physical when I get close to my period it seems.” 

Tom looked worried again. 

She swallowed.. he wouldn’t be reassured by the end she supposed.   
“I found out that Rodolphus and Lucius were actually friends..or something..   
the idea was presented that we go to Lucius rooms and..   
um..  
well Rodolphus wanted a small taste of my blood and Lucius agreed provided Rodolphus invited him along the next time he had time with me.   
So .. um.. it seems I will probably have to do that again at some point in the future..”

“OH! But I did hear about Lucius. Narcissa doesn’t sound like she was nice at all.. I can kind of understand a little how he might have-“

“No.” Tom interrupted her flatly   
“It’s true, Narcissa Black..Malfoy.. was always a cold calculating bitch.. but Lucius was a sadistic boy before he married her.   
While they were still at Hogwarts Rodolphus and Lucius got into quite some trouble with a girl who ended up in the infirmary with dreadful injuries   
It was all made to disappear by Abraxas.. he was always rather tolerant of Lucius’ little needs.   
After that Rodolphus would simply stay at the Manor with Lucius on weekends and they’d have less traceable subjects on hand.” 

“Lucius and Rodolphus have been.. difficult to control in the past ..when they worked together.   
When Rodolphus younger brother Rabastan was still alive it was even worse.   
Lucius seemed to enjoy inciting the Lestranges to ever greater deviance. It was far easier to manage them after they fell out with each other.” 

Hermione walked more slowly. “Are you angry that they are getting along again? I’m sorry. I didn’t even realise they didn’t get along particularly. I just thought it was because Lucius was a prick. Why did they fall out in the first place?” 

Tom smirked. “Lucius is just a prick.. that’s why they fell out really.   
As far as I have learned, Lucius said he wanted them to swap wives but due to his fidelity clause in his marriage this was not truly possible for either party.   
So he had Rodolphus switch hairs with him in order to utilise polyjuice.   
Narcissa went along with playing her sister in bed in exchange for something.. I forget.. some item of jewelry I believe. But when Rodolphus gave Bella the polyjuice, it was just some cheap whore Lucius had found.” 

“Rodolphus went to him angry and Lucius essentially informed him that he would never let him fuck any version of Narcissa because Malfoys don’t share. She was too good for Rodolphus or some such rubbish.   
Narcissa was a terrible lay, incidentally.” Tom smirked nastily. 

“So after that, Rodolphus dedicated himself to finding the choicest examples of young womanhood and shy black haired boys and fucked them seven ways from Sunday in Lucius’ presence whenever he could.” 

“His marriage with Bella wasn’t the healthiest by then anyway.   
She had married him at my insistence, of course, although she had actually had ambitions of gaining my own hand..   
I would not have her. Not even as an erstwhile amusement. She was not worthy.” 

“I thought she would be a suitable match for Rodolphus due to their mutual pleasure in harming others. Indeed, they were suited.. for a time. But Bella was too headstrong and too ambitious for her own good.   
She might have done well with Rodolphus.   
Still.. these things can’t be helped.” 

Hermione thought that a lot of things between Rodolphus and Lucius were starting to make sense. Little digs that she hadn’t really understood completely at the time. 

Tom’s voice, hard now, interrupted her musing. “I want to see for myself what happened in Lucius rooms, Hermione.   
I am not asking. I cannot allow Rodolphus around you if I cannot trust him.” 

Hermione wanted to protest but he was right.. and he needed to know that Lucius might suspect there was something strange about her.   
“Ok.. but.. please Tom. It’s exactly how you said.. Lucius just.. somehow had a bad effect on Rodolphus.   
It wasn’t Rodolphus fault. Please let me see him again!!”   
She stepped close and opened her eyes to him willingly. 

He was looking through the memory in seconds and when he pulled out again he seemed pissed.   
“You should have told me of this immediately!! The situation is far more dangerous than I anticipated. It is probable that Lucius will try to temp the vampire to assist him to acquire you, in exchange for the promise of unlimited access.   
Naturally it will be a mere promise and those mean nothing to Lucius. But Rodolphus may be tempted.” 

“This is unacceptable.   
It is not so much the worry that he might succeed... although with unlimited finances and patience much can be achieved, believe me. .. but the prospect that he might fail and kill you in the process.   
You cannot see Lucius Malfoy again.   
I may need to eliminate him.   
I need to think on this. He is the worst possible candidate for this kind of situation. He is ruthless, relentless, absolutely deceitful, unwilling to bargain or negotiate for less than the full measure he seeks. Inventive...   
All the qualities which make him useful to me essentially.   
He could sway significant numbers of my followers.. and many ministry officials and foreign leaders perhaps.” 

“This could be volatile.   
I had hoped that he would be pacified by having you in his grasp briefly ...but it seems that we are all.. all of us.. driven to possess you in the end. The need is too great. Draco-.. “ he snorted “Draco is actually very clever. Far more intelligent than his father ever was.   
Unable to challenge me to possess you, he has opted to try to be possessed by you.. the net result is, of course, the same.. perhaps even greater..if he is allowed to remain in your presence virtually continuously.” 

Hermione took a breath.   
“Tom.. Do you wish I were male?” she blurted. 

Tom stopped dead and looked at her utterly confused. “What?!”

“Do you wish I were a boy... like Severus and Harry and Draco.   
Do you prefer men?   
Would you rather I were male?!” she explained simply.

Tom still looked fundamentally confused. “..No.. and I’m finding it difficult to see the leap of logic between the two topics” 

Hermione looked away.   
“Draco seemed.. maybe to wish I were..a bit.. and..Harry marked Ron because I couldn’t give him what he wanted on some level perhaps..   
He really wants Draco.. and... all the other people you seem to fancy are male.   
You liked it a lot when I was polyjuiced in your body. I just thought... maybe you would have preferred I was male.   
If you want I’ll be it. I..” 

Tom pulled her against him and put his arms around her. “No.. no Hermione. Stop.. you’re wrong. I am very..very attracted to you. I do enjoy women.. girls.. also - but I tend to be.. quite cruel..normally.   
Their softness brings out something very dark in me.. I like to make them fear me.. I like to hurt them..   
I enjoy them most when they are suffering. Especially when i force them to enjoy it.   
That is..obviously.. not the case with you.   
It is interesting.. however that it was how I wanted to use you when you were male.” 

Hermione nodded..unsure whether she believed him. 

“What did you do with Draco.. what did you say to him? In Harry’s room.. he seemed afraid” 

Tom snorted amused. “You do jump wildly from topic to topic don’t you.. little one.” 

She frowned. “Avoiding the question?” 

He laughed and kissed her forehead. “Precious.. you captivate me more each day. I swear you are truly becoming more Slytherin.   
I told Draco that I would allow him to stay with you only if his father allowed it, that if he lived in my chambers with you, he would serve as a concubine to myself and any other within those walls who I saw fit to gift with him  
– it is his choice whether he wishes that fate.   
If he chooses not to remain with you permanently, he knows I will not use him for his previous purposes.   
I will ..leave him in peace.. as one says.” 

“Then I punished him for kissing you in the manner that he had by excluding him from my chambers until I summon him to return.”   
Tom raised an eyebrow. “I considered this fair, honest and merciful. ...Was I wrong?” 

Hermione shook her head and kissed him gently.   
“How will you know what his answer is?” 

Tom furrowed his brow. “I will ask him?!” 

Hermione smirked – “Ask him then”   
She stepped away and peered back down the beach. The mattress was tiny but it looked like the two figures on it were very close together.   
“We’re missing out!!.. damn.. Apparate us back!!” 

Tom smirked at her wickedly. “No.. let them bond.. hopefully they will rut like nifflers and all my problems will be solved.”

Hermione looked down the boy’s body in front of her. “Are we going to rut like nifflers too then?” she asked, tongue in cheek.   
Tom tilted his head. “Impudent wench!” 

Hermione turned and started to run. Tom easily caught her.   
“Damn it..” she swore, laughing   
“Lucius was right. I need to run every day I think.” 

Tom started to kiss her.


	48. Chapter 48

When they walked back down the beach hand in hand to the mattress, Hermione felt like everything could be just wonderful.   
She was certain Tom was probably only holding her hand to reassure her as she had been somewhat insecure earlier.   
She wasn’t complaining however. 

He had laid her down in the warm sand and even remembered to cast a repelling charm after her crack about sand in ones crack earlier.   
Unlike in the shower he had taken her slowly. 

It wasn’t that it was..gentle exactly.. but he had stared into her eyes with an expression of tenderness, he had pulled back and pushed her easily over the edge into release five times.   
First with his mouth..which had been wonderful.. glorious.. under the sun.. with hot bare skin..the waves.. like something out of a fantasy.   
Then twice he had urged her to a climax with his cock in her pussy, fucking her once slowly on his lap and once fast and hard as hell from behind, kissing her and stroking her as she moaned and undulated her bliss. 

Then, before she could really exert much strength to oppose him he’d cleaned and slicked her and slid himself carefully into her ass, in the same position he’d taken Harry, looking down into her eyes with her legs wrapped around him, kissing her and taking his time to make her comfortable.   
He had hissed beautiful silibant phrases in parseltongue into her ear, making her shiver and pull him to her.   
Best she had liked it when he had hissed a word and told her it was her name and what she was   
“Hermione my precious. Hermione my precious.” She begged him to say it over and over again. 

He’d told her once before that was what serpents called their mate.. she loved it when he said it. It felt like..he was announcing her to any passing Australian snakes. 

He fucked her harder till she was laughing and groaning in pleasure. She realised she liked him there better now.. he was amazing.. skilled.. passionate..in her pussy but when he took her ass it tingled all over her body and she could feel him so close it was like he was inside her.   
Obviously he was inside her but it was more.. it felt like he was part of her. 

He told her that she made him happy. It was different to saying that she pleased him. 

She kissed him and the sound of his soft moans broke her apart to splinters of joy. He held on through her fluttering and massaging of his cock but just when she was starting to come down he shattered, groaning loud in pleasure.   
He whispered against her lips almost silently and she was propelled forcefully into another immediate orgasm, her channel clenching on him and prolonging his own release till he keened, every muscle stretched above her. 

When he was done he collapsed, knees bent and tucked either side of her buttocks, his arms wrapped around her and face on her breast, breathing fast.   
As he recovered he raised himself to look at her once again, painting her lips in soft tiny kisses. 

She brushed his hair out of his eyes and gazed peacefully up at him. They stayed for a long time curled together. Unmoving.   
Tom didn’t try to pull out of her body, even though he had long gone soft, he held her and sighed. 

She had the feeling that he felt peaceful as well. 

But eventually he had kissed her, almost sadly and gotten up, scourgifying them both and offering her a hand, and they had started back for the mattress.   
His hand in hers felt warm and hard and like the most solid thing in the universe. She felt tethered to it like a helium balloon that might fly away if he let go. 

The sun was moving out of its zenith now. When they got back to the mattress it was clear that some world shaking change had occurred here too. Harry lay against Severus chest, seated between his legs and the long haired boy had his arm around him, gently stroking Harry’s flat belly while smoking a joint in his other hand, his eyes lazy and heavy lidded. 

He passed it down to the ruffle headed boy, placing it at his lips and Harry took a puff, never removing his hands from the outside of Severus thighs but mmming softly. 

When Hermione snorted in amusement both heads drifted in their direction slowly and Harry smiled a beatific dazed smile.   
“He’s amazing Mione!” he said in a childlike voice. “The ocean is beautiful” as if the two thoughts were connected, the second deriving from the first.   
Severus looked at them and smirked lazily.   
“Apparently I am responsible for making the water sparkly” he explained, amused. 

Obviously Severus had some experience with pot. Although extremely ..mellow.. he was clearly not out of control in his own mind. 

Hermione looked at Harry with an expression she might have used for a Christmas kitten with a big silk bow around its neck.   
Tom drew her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. “You are a wonder, Hermione.” He said gently. 

“Been off canoodling without me...us.. I see” Severus drawled with only a touch of envy, taking back the short joint and inhaling with satisfaction.   
Hermione dropped to her knees on the mattress and smiled.   
“Yes. But now we’re back and available for your canoodling needs, my love.” 

Severus eyebrows raised slightly and his eyes went soft, narrowing in pleasure as he grinned.   
He nudged Potter slightly with his leg “did you hear..?!” he said slowly.. “m’her love” 

Harry tilted his head up to look at the narrow long haired head upside down. “I love Mione” he said, as if sharing a secret. Severus bent his head down to the boys ear “so do I”   
Harry gasped and looked at him as if wounded. “but-“ 

Hermione had let go of Tom’s hand and crawled over to them. Placing her hand on both of their calves, they both turned to look at her with identical expressions of surprise and awe.   
“Mione!” Harry said desperately. “Touch me more! It feels so great when you touch me!”   
Severus hand on his belly slid up and started to stroke from the top of his chest to the start of his groin.   
Harry gasped and tossed his head back. Severus did it again.. slower. 

Hermione turned and looked up at Tom, still standing, with a fascinated expression.   
“If you want to ask your proposed concubine to attend.. you better summon him before you get stoned.. if the idea starts to seem like a good one later on you might splinch him..   
Tom looked at her thoughtfully.   
“Do you think we need the boy? It seems like we are getting along marvellously without him.” 

She shrugged. “If he’s going to be around in the future, he might as well be here now. This is too good to miss out on.   
You can always send him back. besides.. Can’t you just see the look on Harry’s face if he suddenly turns up?   
And also – did you know that he can perform? He did tricks for me!” 

She smirked looking back at Harry who was in heaven. Severus had started to stroke his hardening cock with a carnivorous pleasure at his helpless gasps and whimpers.

Tom looked like this idea had gained merit. “I wonder if he can juggle..” He lowered himself to the mattress.   
“What say you Severus? Do you want your godchild here?”

Severus looked at Tom with surprise. “You know he and Potter don’t get along..” He looked at the boy in his arms with interest and smirked. “Get him!! We could make them wrestle.” His eyebrows raised at the groan from Harry as his cock sprayed white milky juice onto his chest, spasmodically.   
Severus jerked him till he started twitching and yelping at the sensation and then released his cock and rubbed the pearlwhite fluid into the boy’s abdomen and chest.   
“Aagh..” Harry said at the action. “Damn it.. making me all sticky!” 

Tom seemed delighted.   
“Harry..” he said gently. 

The black mop turned toward him like a flower to the sun..   
“Your eyes still look like Voldemort” Harry pointed out, half smiling, pointing uncertainly as if he’d caught him out. 

Tom raised an eyebrow. “That is because I am Lord Voldemort Harry.” 

Harry gasped and his entire body jolted in Severus arms. His expression became stricken. “Are you going to kill me now! Mione said you might kill me. I don’t want to die.. I.. I ..”   
Severus, shockingly wrapped both his arms around the shaking boy and rocked him.   
“Shhhhhh shhhhhh” he whispered into his ear. “He’s not going to kill you. It’s alright, Harry. Everything is lovely.”   
He turned to Tom and said, “It is, isn’t it?” with only a faint hint of insecurity in his voice. 

Tom smiled and crawled over to them both, kneeling beside Severus chest as Hermione knelt at their feet.   
He brushed the hair out of the long haired boy’s face and leaned in, kissing him softly. 

“Never fear that I do not want you Severus. Never. It has always been you.” 

To Harry who was staring up at him wide eyed and fearful, he said “Harry.. you and I will not be enemies anymore. You do not need to worry. I am not going to kill you. I am going to protect you.   
And Severus and ..Mione.. will be here..always.” 

He said something then in parseltongue to Harry and Harry gasped, reaching out with his fingertips for the smooth white face, his expression confused and full of awe. 

“Now..” Tom said, smirking. “do you want Draco to come and perform for us all?” 

Harry drew back for a second as if this idea was a physical object pushing at his mind.   
He blinked and then he nodded rapidly. 

Tom turned his gaze back to Severus. “Actually..you’d be surprised at how well Harry wants to get on with Draco. If we have them wrestle.. I daresay it’ll end up a rather more explicit kind of show”   
He snorted and moved back to the other corner of the mattress. 

Severus lowered his head to sniff the boy’s hair. “You smell of salt” he observed. “I think I will swim now. Do you want to come?”   
Harry looked at Hermione and then up at Tom.. “We could all go” 

Tom shook his head. “No.. I am going to roll a joint and then I will summon Draco to entertain me while I smoke it.   
But do go ahead.”   
Hermione shook her head, smiling. “I’ll watch you, Harry.” 

Harry seemed to hesitate. “You won’t go away again?” Hermione shook her head. 

“You will be able to see me the whole time, Harry. I’ll wave at you!” 

Seeming convinced, Harry rolled and with some difficulty got to his feet, swaying slightly and putting out his arms in an exaggerated manner, bending his knees for balance.   
Severus climbed slowly but surely to his feet and grabbed one of the flapping arms dragging Harry down the beach against his protestations to go slower. 

Hermione laughed and turned to Tom, who was carrying out step one of his announced plan. His fingers moved swiftly and with practiced ease, shredding the green plant matter into a bowl he’d transfigured from his glass.   
“I wouldn’t have thought you’d use drugs..” Hermione said softly. 

Tom glanced up at her.   
“Were it not for Severus.. Its probable I would never have even bothered to try. I’m rather a paranoid man to begin with..   
but with his interest in potions... – Severus has always had an inclination toward various forms of experimentation.” 

In the background there was a yell. Hermione turned her head to see the long haired boy trying to coax Harry to step into the waves, which he seemed to be scared of and was running back from backwards, the fizzing water at his toes.   
Severus grew impatient and simply ran to the boy, picking him up and carrying him squealing and struggling out into the water.   
When he lowered him into the cold there was another yell and then Harry calmed down and splashed Severus in temper.   
Severus was grinning and seemed quite pleased with himself. 

Tom continued with a snort. “He has enjoyed pot since he was younger than you are at present. Occasionally.. I will join him in his state.   
When I feel certain that we are safe.   
It is very..difficult for me to feel secure enough to risk dulling my awareness. But at present.. I believe I will chance it.   
I have been layering wards and shields around us virtually constantly since you and I first arrived, my dear.   
...With the exception of when I dedicated my attention to your pleasure...   
Suffice it to say the amount of shielding around us presently is really rather extreme. Even for me.  
You will smoke this with me, you know. I wish to see your reaction.” 

Hermione raised an eyebrow. “are you sure you just don’t want to allow anyone else to be more clear headed than yourself?”   
Tom smirked. “that too.” 

She turned and Harry was standing up in the water looking at her. She waved and he brightened and waved back, turning away and swimming to where Severus was floating. 

Tom frowned for a moment and then raised his hand, pointing at the boys in the water and casting two bubble head charms.   
Hermione watched, entertained, as Harry stopped and panicked, screaming and slapping at the bubble as if a jellyfish had attacked his face.   
Severus dove and swam to him quickly, restraining and calming him and then Harry seemed alright again.   
After a time, they both dove together and did not reemerge. 

“I will refresh it periodically” Tom said with pensive expression. “If they remain gone too long I’ll apparate them back.” 

Hermione smiled at him. “You were worried they might drown?”   
He shook his head distractedly, seeming to be listening to something faintly. “I thought they might enjoy exploring. The undersea regions off these coasts are supposed to be quite pretty.   
There are..sharks..and other..things of course. But I’ve put up a form of protego horribilis around them.. They should be fine..” 

Hermione gaped at him, shocked and concerned. “If there are sharks, bring them back!!! What if something happens! You should have told me when I went for a swim before. I can’t believe you let me go into the water with sharks around!!” 

Tom laughed. “You are safe.. calm down Hermione. They are safe too. Trust me.”   
Tom listened again, distractedly, smiling. He raised his hand and cast another charm. 

She turned and looked at the blue undisturbed water worriedly. 

“Waterproof lubrication charm” Tom smirked and turned his attention to the papers in his hand. He had made a kind of short cardboard filter tube and was now enlarging the paper in his hand. He filled it and rolled it expertly, licking the sticky strip to seal it and twisting the end, ripping off the paper after the twist.   
He held it up as if seeking a compliment. 

Hermione frowned at him. “I don’t know what that’s supposed to look like. Well done?” 

Tom shook his head wryly. “It’s a ‘ducktailed joint’.. they’re supposed to be-.. nevermind.” He sighed.   
He gestured at the water absently. Hermione figured he was refreshing the bubblehead charm.   
It touched her that he was concerned for the two. 

“And now for our entertainment..” he murmured. He placed the bowl to the side and handed her the joint.   
She took it hesitantly. “I...I’m not sure about..” 

His vague exasperated headshake stopped her. “Just hold it for the moment then.” He placated her. 

Concentrating and closing his eyes he took a deep breath. She waited..   
It took two minutes before there was a pop of apparition and Draco, wearing black boxer shorts, fell onto the sand to their right.   
He fell onto his stomach from a distance of half a metre.   
“Futon” Tom snickered. 

Draco, unlike Harry was awake instantly, curling himself into a prostate position of supplication. “My Lord!” he said, fearfully. 

“Draco!” Hermione grinned. The boy did not move. 

Finally Tom said “Give any thought to my offer, boy?” Draco seemed to flinch slightly.   
“Yes master. I..I will serve you. If-..“   
Tom nodded as if this was a given. “Get up then and make the drinks” 

Draco raised his head and looked around for the first time, startling. “Where are we?” 

Hermione smiled again “Australia.”   
Draco looked at the Dark Lord, sitting cross legged naked, leaning back on his hands on a blue and white stripey mattress on the sand.   
Tom gestured smirking at the bottles. “Well? get to it”

Draco sputtered slightly for a moment, looking between them both.   
She could almost see the thought broadcast above his head.. ‘The Dark Lord goes on outings to the beach with Granger?’ 

“I’ll have a white Russian, Draco. Hermione will have-“ he looked at her witheringly “a margarita?” 

She nodded. “I like them.” 

Draco nodded curtly and walked to the large array of bottles and objects lying in the sand behind and to the right of Tom. Apparently there was a cooling charm on them.   
Hermione was once again amazed at the man who called himself the Dark Lord. He must be so powerful..   
he could juggle all these spells, keep them all refreshed.. and it looked like he wasn’t even breaking a sweat. 

Tom turned to her. “Flattering, my dear. Most of them do not require constant attendance once cast, as you know.   
If you pass that to me I’ll light it and we can see whether you are an introspective type or a giggler.”

Draco’s eyes seemed to widen as he noticed the joint. He turned and paid close attention to the white Russian he was mixing.   
“Fix yourself something too, Draco” Tom tossed flippantly, placing the joint between his lips and flicking his thumb to light a tiny bluebell flame. He inhaled hard, puffing slightly till the end of the joint was well and truly lit then lay back slightly, turning his face up to the sky. 

He took another two puffs on it and then passed it toward her. 

Hermione looked at the smoking joint in his hand suspiciously, gingerly taking it from him.   
He lowered his head and watched her with interest. “Do not pretend to inhale either” he scolded. “It’s a waste of good pot” 

She heard Draco choke slightly and bite off a snigger. He clinked as he stirred her pale green drink.   
She raised the joint nervously to her lips

“Slowly..” Tom said, encouragingly. 

When she inhaled a little, it didn’t taste that bad. It made her lungs feel scratchy though and she released the breath again soon.   
“Keep smoking it. I will tell you when you’ve had enough” Tom said distractedly and gestured at the waves, turning then to accept his drink from Draco. 

Draco scooted forward, watching her with fascination as he placed her drink in the sand by the side of the mattress, screwing it down into the sand slightly.   
He took his own translucent liquid and, rising, walked around to the other side of the mattress, sitting when Tom nodded and gestured for him to. 

Hermione continued to take small lungfulls of the strangely sweet tasting smoke, feeling a bit embarrassed as the other two boys watched her so closely. 

“Alright. You may pass it to Draco if you like” Tom said in a low voice. 

Draco looked pleased and Hermione snorted, coughing slightly. “Here” she said, amused. 

The blond boy took the joint eagerly, sucking on it in a practiced manner. He smiled approvingly. It was apparently good. 

After a couple of puffs he passed it back to the Dark Lord, looking somewhat unnerved to be doing so, as if a paradigm in his reality were cracked. 

“What are you drinking?” Hermione asked curiously.   
“Vodka lime and lemonade” the blonde answered. 

Tom snorted, smoke coming out of his nose as he sniggered slightly scornfully. 

Hermione frowned at him. “what?” 

“its..a bit of a girl drink” Tom explained, grinning in a relaxed manner. “But that’s quite alright. You may drink as girly as you like, Malfoy. Your father enjoys shandys.” He passed the joint to Hermione, who took it automatically and went back to careful measured puffs on it. 

“It’s not.. that.. girly” Draco protested weakly, looking away and trying not to grin. Tom laughed. 

“I said it was quite alright. You can have a pink umbrella for it though if you like..” he transfigured one from sand and levitated it over, dropping it in Draco’s drink. The boy blushed.   
Hermione tapped him and passed him the joint.   
“I’m hungry.” She told Tom. Both boys started laughing for some reason. 

“I didn’t really feel in the mood for anything when we were in the bath, you know.” She explained defensively. 

Draco smoked and sipped his drink, avoiding the little pink umbrella in it. 

There was a splash and a cry from the waves and Draco just about threw his drink everywhere in shock. 

“OH my GOD that was fucking awesome!!” Harry yelled at the top of his lungs, having just surfaced. “FUCK!!” 

Hermione tilted her head at the two, curiously.   
“Shark” Tom explained mildly.   
She gaped and started to panic a little. 

“Do they look injured to you, Hermione” Tom ridiculed. “Trust me. They are fine. They fucked and a shark swam around them. It was.... I believe the word Harry is repeating is intense.” 

Hermione did a retake. 

Draco was sputtering although, to his credit he was attempting to do so as low key as he could. 

“Severus fucked Harry while there were sharks around?!” Hermione said slightly upset with him. 

“No.” said Tom. 

She looked back at the two boys in the waves. Harry was kissing Severus now. Severus head was tilted back slightly, almost as if his hair were being tugged.   
“Oh.” She said. 

Draco offered the joint back to Tom. Only an inch remained of it. 

Tom tsked half heartedly   
“Greedy Malfoys. You can roll the next then, since you decimated that one so efficiently. Make sure you make a filter for Hermione to hold”   
He smoked the dregs of the joint and watched Harry and Severus, looking extremely relaxed.   
Harry turned toward them all now and pointed. He said something to Severus that was too quiet to catch at this distance and they both started to drag themselves energetically out of the water, running up the sand till they got to the foot of the mattress and stood, panting and dripping profusely. 

“Stop!” Tom demanded. “You are too wet. Stay where you are” 

Harry’s face took on an almost pained expression. “Dry me.. and..and make more room. I want-...” 

Tom dropped his head back in mock exasperation. “Yes. Yes. I know what you want. Make yourself a drink first.   
And one for Severus too, while you’re at it.” He cast a drying charm on the pair.   
Severus seemed undecided where he wanted to sit. He looked at Draco slightly nervously. Tom passed the blonde the pot, papers and bowl.   
At that, Severus seemed to decide and walked around to sit between Draco and Tom. 

“What do you want to drink, Sev?” Harry asked and Hermione almost fell over at how easily it rolled off his tongue. 

Severus started and looked at the other three a bit sheepishly. “Whisky, single malt.” He answered. Harry nodded. 

Severus was watching Draco roll, with a slightly raised eyebrow. “That would be an A.. if I were grading it” he muttered.   
Draco looked at him with a slight frown.   
“Whats wrong with it?! Its fine!” 

Severus reached out and Draco reluctantly gave up the half rolled paper and bowl of shredded pot. Severus tipped the joint it out and refilled it then rolled it with a swift and obviously automatic motion, into a fat tightly packed tube.   
Hermione could see the difference. This one looked much more solid.   
“That is an O.” Severus said instructively. “Do it like that next time. Loosely packed joints burn faster.   
Waste not want not.” 

Draco scowled and then his eyebrows drew up self-pitingly as he seemed to realise that he was now to the right of the joint and would have to wait for it to go all the way around before it got to him. 

“Oh don’t cry” Tom said snidely “Pass him the blasted thing, Severus.”   
He lit his tiny bluebell flame and it floated across the intervening space hovering in front of Draco.   
The blonde looked intensely relieved. “..Thanks” he mumbled.   
Hermione snickered. Draco moued at her reproachfully, lighting the joint on the hovering flame and puffing with visible satisfaction. 

Just at that moment Harry dropped down onto the mattress between them, juggling two drinks carefully. He passed the half full ginger coloured one to Severus, who sipped it with enjoyment.   
“what are you drinking” she asked, looking at his black concoction. “Rum and coke” he replied, sipping with relish. “want some?” 

She shook her head, wrinkling her nose in displeasure. 

“Try this..” Tom said, curiously, passing his own glass over. 

Draco, sucking on the joint as if it were an oxygen tube in the depths of space, watched the Dark Lord sharing his drink with Potter with wide glazed eyes.   
“Surreal..” he muttered. 

Tom looked at him and scowled “Oh for fucks sake, Malfoy! Severus.. roll another. He can keep what he’s left of that one.”   
Severus frowned. “It must be genetic” he grumbled, reaching for the bowl again.   
Tom rolled his eyes. “You have no idea.. Abraxas was just as bad. Never share a cigar with him.” 

Hermione snickered. “Well that would be a bit hard now, really wouldn’t it.”

“This is good, what is it?” Harry interrupted. Tom looked at him approvingly. “White Russian. If you like that – you will probably like mojitos too. What a pity I can’t summon a bartender to serve us” he complained, slightly mournfully. 

“Daggo!” Draco called imperiously, puffing out smoke in the process. 

There was a silence as the other four looked at him. 

“We’re in Australia Draco..” Hermione started to say and then there was a pop.   
A small house elf appeared, looking around curiously. 

“Master Malfoy?” it squeaked. 

Tom shot upright, swallowing. “Damnit. I forgot they could do that. They shouldn’t be able to get through these wards though..” He looked around himself suddenly, alert and paranoid. 

Draco flinched, confused at the dramatic reaction. “Malfoy elves are blood-bound. Daggo can find me anywhere.” 

Tom nodded slowly.. “Your father also?” he enquired, something like veiled horror behind his eyes.   
Draco nodded, brow furrowed. “Why? I thought you knew” he recollected himself and added hurriedly “My Lord.” 

Tom looked at Hermione and she thought he looked a little afraid. It seemed wrong on him. Tom should never be afraid – he was the most powerful..clever..sexy..’ her thoughts got lost, trailing down his body. 

Tom suddenly flicked his wrist and his wand jumped out into his hand from nowhere. It was quite impressive. She smiled in wonder.   
He began casting a rather complex looking spell hurriedly, pointing at Hermione’s wrist.   
After he finished he pulled his own hand back and Hermione felt her arm tugged toward him as if she had a rope around her wrist. It felt funny. When he let go, the feeling dissipated. 

He breathed out, relieved.   
Then, looking around at the others he seemed concerned again. He cast the charm on Harry and Severus quickly, testing to be sure they were ‘tethered’. 

“Ok.. ok... “ he repeated finally..visibly trying to calm himself. “He won’t take you. No one will take you from me. We are safe here.” 

Hermione smiled. 

Draco looked upset and fearful. “I’m.. I’m sorry my Lord. I didn’t know it would bother you.. I thought you would be happy..”   
Tom looked at him with something between vexation and gratitude. “It is quite alright, Draco. Do you know of a way to shield yourself against your own elves? Have you ever needed to hide from them before, perhaps as a child?” 

Draco shook his head slightly. “sorry.” 

Tom half sighed. “It doesn’t matter.. send the elf away, Draco. We do not require service.” Draco did so immediately. 

They all sat for a while in silence, the atmosphere suddenly oppressive on the hot sunny beach.   
Severus had laid aside the bowl and pot and was watching Tom worriedly. Draco held the joint in trembling fingers but did not smoke it.   
Hermione was biting her lip and looking uncertainly at Tom who seemed to be upset. She didn’t really understand why he was so upset but she knew that she wanted him to be happy again. She didn’t know how to make him smile and relax like he had before. Something had happened and now everything felt bad. 

Harry broke the tension by taking the joint from Draco’s fingers and smoking it, snorting at him. “If you’re just going to hold that, Malfoy!” 

Tom stared at Hermione and she thought she knew how to make him happy again. She got up and crawled over to him. He parted his legs and held out his arms to her and she readily crawled up and wrapped her own arms around him, lying sideways against him with her head on his chest, eyes closed and a serene expression on her face.   
He ducked his head and kissed her forehead. 

The other three males looked at them both with various expressions of envious possessiveness and fear – mostly the former for Harry, mostly the latter for Draco and Severus somewhere in between.

“Roll, Severus. We are safe. He will try to negotiate first.” Tom murmured, holding Hermione with low burning gaze.   
He stroked over her warm skin with his fingertips.   
Severus seemed to become even more worried at Tom’s comment. 

Harry passed the joint he was sucking on back to Draco and crawled over to Hermione’s legs, a determined, guarded expression on his face.   
Draco smoked and watched him. 

Harry stroked her calf, bending low and blowing a breath over her skin when she opened her eyes and looked up, startled by the sensation. Tom tightened his fingers on her minimally, fixing Harry with a long even stare. 

Harry was not bothered in the slightest. His eyes were predatory as he gently shifted her calf, touching her and soothing her with his fingers, sliding it off her other leg, gradually parting her legs. 

“Harry??” Hermione queried, unsure. 

“Mostly Harry” Harry responded, with a small smile. “let me taste you, Mione..” 

She lifted her head to look up at Tom, who was looking down at her protectively. “Only if you want to, my dear. I will toss him back in the ocean if you are not in the mood.”   
He placed another kiss on her forehead and turned threatening narrowed eyes on Harry. 

Hermione wasn’t sure whether she was ‘in the mood’. It felt strange when Harry touched her. He had started to brush his lips over her skin, moving up her leg and easing them further apart as he went. 

“Hey, watch this!” Draco called out. He was on the sand, Hermione had never even noticed him move.   
Harry turned his head away for a second too, surprised, to see what he wanted. 

Draco raised his arms and, hesitating slightly, pitched himself forward and did a handstand, his legs bent at the knee, balancing himself and looking down.   
Hermione sat up, amazed. 

“I didn’t know you could do that!! That’s brilliant, Draco!” 

Draco, with slight difficulty began to walk forward on his hands, his legs cycling slightly as if he were walking with them too. After a couple of metres he stopped walking and let himself fall backward, bending his back and catching himself on his feet, standing up, only to curl backward immediately and do three slow hand flips backwards across the sand. 

By this point Hermione was laughing and clapping in joy.   
Tom sniggered and looked down at Harry with a wry smirk. “looks like you’ve been ...what do they call it these days?” 

“Cockblocked” Harry growled, sitting up and backing off, disgusted at how he was missing out.   
Tom’s face showed a veneer of mock sympathy.. 

“Draco! Can you juggle?” he called out. 

The blond nodded, panting and tossed himself into a sideways cartwheel which went a bit wonky. He fell early and knelt in the sand, getting his breath back.   
Tom tossed coloured balls at him transfigured from sand. “Juggle!” he commanded, and looked at Severus sideways.   
It seemed that the man had started to roll again after all and was just licking shut another well made joint. 

Tom confiscated it from him wordlessly and lit it as Draco gathered up three of the balls and, biting his lip in concentration, began to juggle them.   
Guiding Hermione to lean back against his chest, Tom pressed the joint to her lips. She sucked on it readily and he told her to hold her breath.   
She was utterly transfixed by the balls moving through the air, watching them hypnotically. 

Draco smiled, flashing his teeth predatorily at Harry. “Relax Potter. I know what she wants and I can give it to her.. watch..”   
He added another ball and started to cross them as he juggled them.

Hermione puffed out her smoke. “Where did you learn to do that, Draco? That’s brilliant!!” 

Draco rose very carefully from his knees, his eyes on the moving balls, and walked to the side of the mattress close to her, lowering himself slowly till he knelt in front of her.   
Her eyes were wide as saucers and darted to follow the balls, occasionally slipping to Draco’s face or his chest and then back to the red, blue, green, yellow spots dancing in front of her.   
“Wow..” she gushed. Tom sniggered behind her. 

Draco tossed one of the balls at her very gently mid juggle and she fumbled, grabbing it and squishing it gently.   
They were small soft leather full of stuffing. 

With an expression of intense concentration Draco continued juggling the three remaining balls with one hand, wringing a gasp from Hermione.   
With his free hand, keeping his eyes mostly on the moving balls, he reached out and brushed the hair away from her eyes. 

Even Tom seemed to be impressed. 

“Granger..” Draco said low. “Will you let me kiss you?..” 

She nodded, quite hypnotised by the pretty silky blond boy in the sea of black headed faces, so cleverly causing the coloured balls to fly for her.   
Draco caught the balls and leaned down, slowly, nothing threatening or hasty in his movements as he pressed his lips against her own, tilting his head and gently deepening the kiss.   
She reached up and stroked her fingers through his long hair. 

He ended the kiss reluctantly and sat back on his heels looking at her with soft eyes. “Thank you, my Lord” he acknowledged the Dark Lords implicit permissiveness with a cracked voice. 

Tom gazed upon him appraisingly. “You deserved her kiss, Draco. Even I was impressed.   
I wonder what you might have done to entertain if you had had your wand.” 

Draco flicked his wrist, much like the Dark Lord had earlier and his wand slid out of the air into it.   
“My Lord. You asked that I juggle.”   
Tom reached out suddenly, catching the boy gently by the jaw. He tilted his face up till their eyes met.   
Draco lowered his deferentially. Tom sighed slightly. 

“I should have expected that you would sleep with a wand. Severus did for years. Lucius has a lot to answer for.” 

Tom brushed the back of his fingers over the blonde’s jaw as Draco clenched his teeth and angrily fought the blush spreading over his cheeks. 

Harry snorted “You mean-..” and Tom’s head whipped around at him. “dermo dolorum” he hissed and Harry cried out, falling down and clutching at his skin, moving his hands all over trying to relieve the pain. 

“Thank you my Lord” Draco breathed again faintly. Tom stroked his face again. 

“You will sleep safely from now on, Draco. I guarantee it. I regret that I pulled you from your bed so abruptly in summoning you here.” 

The hope and relief on Draco’s face was painful to look at. He tried to thank Tom again but no sound came out, he looked down quickly, hiding his face.   
Hermione’s heart broke, looking at him.   
‘I want to hold him. May i please?’ she thought clearly at Tom. He unwrapped his arms from around her and allowed her to get up. 

When she got on her knees and put her arms around Draco, he clutched her and buried his face in her neck. She could hear him breathing in tiny silent gulps and soothed him, stroking his back.

“finite incantatum” Tom muttered at Harry.   
Harry panted and looked up at him from his stomach with an expression of shock and betrayal. 

Tom was unfazed. He sighed and spoke quietly, seriously. 

“Harry. As terrible as your life has been.. you have been lucky in comparison with many. Many.   
The muggle family you were foisted off on were animals, I have seen your memories..   
but your own childhood was less painful than Draco’s. Or Severus’ for that matter. I won’t even go into my own.   
You lived in a loveless home and were treated as a servant.. but you had the dream of parents that had loved you, that would have protected you.   
And you were never..truly.. hurt.   
You never lay in your bed under the stairs unable to sleep, terrified that someone might come as soon as you closed your eyes and hurt you some more.” 

Harry snarled at him, climbing up from his belly, his eyes narrowed. “Yes I did!” |  
“From my fourth year I lay awake for hours most nights... thinking of you, worrying you could come for me at any time.” 

“You were inside someone I’d been in a classroom with for an entire year and I hadn’t even known!   
It just got worse with the horcrux and Ginny – you could be anywhere.. could take over anyone I cared for, make them do things. -   
you were in my dreams..  
in my head when i was awake! I practically didn’t sleep at all last year, in the woods, with Hermione only metres away and your damned horcrux whispering disgusting things at me, threatening to kill me, kill everyone I know,   
threatening things I’m not even going to describe,   
or, especially after Ron had left us, trying to convince me to just get into her bed and take her – that was the worst perhaps.   
And then we’d get up in the morning and I’d have to act normal.. as if I wasn’t thinking those things about her.   
Otherwise...   
..otherwise..she might leave me too..” Harry looked at Hermione desperately. 

She had half turned from Draco and was looking at him with a shocked expression. 

Harry continued, in a slightly manic voice. “And now I’m on a fucking beach drinking cocktails and getting high with my three worst enemies and the girl I love and I’m not even sure this is real..   
this could just be some new bloody torture and I’m actually back in that round room hanging from the chain and all this is going to vanish any second and they’ll start tearing me into pieces again.   
And...   
and that would be more likely than this.” Harry swept his hands through his hair, getting to his feet and stumbling away. 

Severus and Tom exchanged a glance.   
Tom sighed finally, looking away from him and getting to his feet, walking after the boy trudging away down the beach. 

Draco surreptitiously wiped his eyes and got to his feet. “I.. I feel like a swim.” Hermione clung to his hand.   
“No... there are sharks and Tom hasn’t put a shield on you.” 

Draco waved his wand. “Hello.. wizard?! Not everyone here is a squib, Granger” 

He disentangled his hand, slipped off his boxers and walked away down the beach toward the waves. 

Hermione watched him go and turned, looking down the beach to where Tom was walking by Harry’s side obviously talking to him. 

“What happened with Lucius?” Severus said suddenly.   
Her eyes darted to him and she flinched. He looked absolutely sober and alert. She wondered whether he hadn’t been simulating his relaxed semi stoned behaviour just to relax Harry.

Sighing she moved closer and sat down opposite him. 

“Well.. he fucked me – obviously.” 

Severus made a sour face but nodded. “That was almost inevitable really if you went to him. One reason why-“

“Yes.” She cut him off, not wanting to hear any version of I told you so - should have listened to me.   
“...He wants me. As in..he wants to own me..as a slave. Brand me with the bloody Malfoy crest and keep me in a cage or something.   
He is really insistent about it. He’s going to talk to Tom about giving me to him. Says he’ll do or pay whatever it takes.” 

Severus looked deeply worried. She continued “I told him about the blood wards because I was scared he might try to just take me. He took some of my blood.” 

Severus shifted from worry to all out panic “YOU GAVE HIM BLOOD?!” She flinched back   
“Are you stupid?! Have you paid No attention in my DADA course? Didn’t your dealings with the vampire teach you the danger of giving your blood to another?!” 

Hermione frowned. “I didn’t give him it. He took it. There was nothing I could do.” 

Severus seemed to calm slightly. “That limits the risk somewhat. It is still a highly dangerous thing for him to possess. He will be able to find you anywhere now. Even...”   
Severus seemed to think of something and flicked his wrist, taking his wand and casting a number of spells on her.   
She recognised none of the first few but the last one was the tethering spell the Dark Lord had cast upon her earlier. 

He then transfigured a glass phial from sand and took some of her blood. Corking it and placing it into the sand by his glass. “I will not lose you, Hermione.” He said seriously. “If he somehow manages to take you.. eat and drink nothing if you can avoid it. Do not make any promises or oaths. Do not sign or mark anything.   
Refuse him, no matter what he does. We will retrieve you.” 

She nodded. 

“Avery and Mulciber are dead too.” She told him, shrugging. “Lucius took me outside and they ambushed us. Lucius called Rodolphus and he saved us both.   
They are..possibly friends again now.” 

Severus looked ill. 

“Lucius.. Rodolphus is less in control when he’s around. He almost killed me.” At this the potions master rubbed his hands over his face in disgust. 

“Could this day get any fucking worse?! All that’s needed now is for the order to turn up with Neville longbottom and the bloody sword of Gryffindor. Oh.. and maybe also..-“   
he froze..   
“Fuck..” he said slowly, with feeling. 

She looked around to see what he could be looking at with that frozen expression.


	49. Chapter 49

“Great Merlin.. is that you Severus?!” 

 

Lucius looked decidedly overdressed as he walked up the sand, his wand drawn and pointing at them, a house elf clinging to his robes.   
“Let go, would you, there’s a good creature.”   
The elf nodded solemnly and stepped away a bit with big brown eyes. 

Lucius walked up and stopped at the foot of the mattress, looking down at the black haired boy..man.. with an expression of extreme interest. His eyes were dark and stormy, Hermione noted, worried.   
She crawled closer to Severus and he put his arm around her, gripping his aimed wand and never taking his eyes off Lucius. 

The nakedness that had been so comfortable and natural before now just left her feeling exposed. 

“Father.” Draco acknowledged guardedly as he stepped up behind him suddenly, naked and dripping wet, his hair in white strings, holding his wand trained on him with a steady hand. Lucius whirled slightly, startled.   
“Draco.. what are you..”   
His head whipped and he glared at Hermione nastily. “Oh I see. Well done, little whore. And to think Draco referred to you as a Gryffindor princess. You are obviously quite adept at Slytherin tactics.”   
She shrank back slightly. 

“Give me your wands, father” Draco said in low voice “Both of them. You are outmatched.” 

Lucius snarled, showing his teeth.   
“Draco.. I am your father. You are a Malfoy. You would betray your line for dirt and half-dirt? Assist me and we will take them both.. We will share them. They will be branded and kept as Malfoy chattel.” 

There was a long caught breath moment as Draco seemed to consider this. 

Then he stunned Lucius. 

Hermione found herself gasping for breath, almost in tears. Severus had launched himself upon the prone Lucius immediately and was removing items from him. He pressed his wand to his mark in the process. 

Draco meanwhile went to her and knelt beside her, pulling her to his chest and stroking her soothingly.   
“Shhhh.. it’s ok. You’re safe. I won’t let him hurt you.” 

There was a bang as Tom apparated to the sands nearby and took in the situation. His face was dark with fury. 

“I had thought Lucius more intelligent than that. I believed he would attempt to feel out the situation before risking my anger..but it seems that rationality-“ he laughed, not sounding particularly amused “-does suffer somewhat when it comes to you, Hermione. “ 

Tom suddenly looked at Draco with narrow suspicious eyes.   
Hermione gripped the boy more closely “Draco saved us, Tom. He had nothing to do with it. You brought him here yourself – he was sleeping, you know that. Lucius and Severus had wands on each other and Draco stunned him” 

Draco looked up at the Dark Lord calmly. “You can look for yourself, my Lord. I will not occlude. My loyalties are to you. I regret ever wavering. It was an error.” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “That is not the reason for your choices and we both know it well, but now is not the time, and provided the end result is the same, it ..barely.. irritates me that your first loyalty is to her.”   
He turned to the tiny trembling house elf on the sand. “Send your house elf away Draco. If any Malfoy house elf returns to this beach, I will kill both you and your father and they will be unemployed.” 

The elf on the sand started to shake violently “Oh no Sirs.. please not..” it squeaked.

Tom continued “As it is, I will be very surprised indeed if you do not inherit the entire Malfoy fortune, manor and elves included, by the end of the night. As such.. You will be their kind and beneficient master and they will not risk unemployment if they remain far from this beach.” 

The little elf looked from Draco down to Lucius and back to Draco. Then it bowed and said “Master.. do you wants Nadger and other elves to stay away as the sir says?” It looked hopeful. 

Draco nodded   
“yes. Return to the manor and ready it for guests. We may have a death in the family in the near future.”   
He added, grudgingly “..Thank you.” 

The elf startled and smiled, nodding, then popped away immediately.   
Hermione restrained a small smirk.   
“Draco..are you normally halfway decent to your elves or is it just when I’m around?” The blonde looked at her.   
“Well.. You seem to like it, Granger – after all that business with vomit or whatever you called it.. and I like it when you look at me as if you’re surprised I’m not a complete bastard.” 

She snickered and kissed his cheek, hugging him to her. 

“Enough, stop simpering, Draco.” Tom sounded irritated. “Severus restrain Lucius. I need to retrieve Harry.” Tom disapparated again.   
Severus, with some measure of satisfaction vanished Lucius robes and underwear and cast a form of incarcerous that Hermione didn’t recognise. 

Lucius lay limply, his arms restrained behind him and rope bound in a loop around his neck. His legs were tied at ankle and knee and a rope connected his ankles to his wrists loosely, also looping between his legs and around his genitals, much like his neck.   
Severis got up and seemed to hesitate, a dark rabid expression on his face. Hermione had the feeling he was considering hurting Lucius in some way. The hand that gripped his wand was white knuckled. 

Before he could do anything further however, the Dark Lord reappeared with Harry, releasing him toward the mattress. 

Harry rushed forward and embraced Hermione from the other side. She turned and put one arm around him too.   
“Are you ok, Mione?” he gushed.   
She nodded and put her cheek to that of the blonde boy with his arms around her. 

“Thank you Draco-” she breathed. “-for saving me again.” 

Harry, hearing this, scowled and tried to pull away. She didn’t let him go.   
“Harry.. everything is fine now so don’t be like that.” He stopped pulling but looked unhappy. Finally he exchanged an ashamed avoidant glance with Draco and mumbled “Sorry. It was just.. you kissing her.. I shouldn’t have” 

Draco nodded dismissively and shifted his gaze to his defeated father. His expression was troubled although it was difficult to determine what exactly was the cause. Faint flickers of guilt flashed through his eyes. 

Tom levitated Lucius and walked up the beach a way.   
Setting him down he raised his arms and began transfiguring walls, the sand flowing up like liquid and becoming pale stone.   
A cabana stood when he was finished. Open on two adjacent sides it faced out toward the ocean with a leafy verdant roof reminiscent of palm fronds and ferns.   
Gathering more sand a long comfortable white linen angular sofa was created, low and relaxing, with a long brown wooden coffee table. The alcohol, pot and their glasses were summoned to the table and, with a wave, tom transfigured the mattress Hermione, Harry and Draco knelt on back into sand. 

“I guess that was a hint” Hermione muttered and got to her feet, pacing after Severus down to the cabana. 

Lucius lay on the sand in front of the table still stupefied and Tom stood beside him looking down pensively. 

Hermione took a seat on the sofa next to Severus and Harry and Draco then tousled for a moment as they each raced to get the seat on her other side.   
Harry won, simply because he tripped Draco and planted himself quickly, looking up at him with a smug expression.   
Draco glared down at him. 

“Allow me to assist you, Draco” Severus offered in an overly generous voice. The next minute he had dragged Hermione onto his lap and held her cradled against him facing away from Harry.   
She shifted uncomfortably, skin on hot skin as Draco smirked at Harry and sat down on Severus’ other side, lifting her legs into his lap.   
Harry growled in irritation and Severus laid a hand on his thigh teasingly. Hermione could see Severus black eyes dance in amusement as Harry threw one of his miniature silent tantrums. 

“Enervate!” Tom’s voice cut through their childishness. 

Lucius gasped and struggled, then gagged and yelped as the unexpected ropes cut off his air and tightened around his rod and tackle.   
Severus pulled Hermione back and she could feel his breath light and fast against her ear as he nudged her into a more comfortable position. She wasn’t sure but it felt a little like he was hardening against her buttock. 

“Welcome back, Lucius” Tom said, standing behind the man out of view. 

“My Lord?!” Lucius seemed shocked and terrified. “You are here with..” his eyes fell on the naked assemblage on the sofa. The three young men draped in Hermione.   
Severus youthful face was twisted in dark satisfaction at the confusion Lucius displayed.   
Harry and Draco flanked him like handmaidens at a throne. Lucius’ eyes wandered among them disturbed.

“I am.. very disappointed.. in you, Lucius” Tom intoned and Hermione recognised it as his ‘Lord Voldemort voice’ even if he wasn’t wearing the snake visage.   
Lucius started to shake but he said nothing. He had had enough experience of the Dark Lord to know how futile it would be.   
Tom went on. “Did you think that I would allow you to betray me?! To take by force what you were informed belonged to me?! Oh Lucius.. I have forgiven much you have done in the past.. but this is beyond the pale.” He walked around Lucius and seated himself upon the coffee table, crossing his legs in a relaxed pose. 

Lucius mouth fell open and he spluttered in distress. “My Lord?! Your.. face!” 

Tom smirked and raised an eyebrow. “You seem disturbed, Lucius. Shall I comfort you with a more familiar glamour?”   
He raised his hand and waved it before him, shimmering into the serpentine guise of Lord Voldemort. 

Lucius seemed to become considerably more afraid but choked out “How long?!.. How long has it been a glamour, my lord?! Why?!! Why would you choose...” 

Tom laughed.   
“Are you insinuating this face is unappealing to you Lucius? How impolite. I am insulted.” 

The Dark Lord did not look particularly insulted, he looked like he was having a lot of fun, Hermione realised. 

Draco used his wand to summon the bowl of pot and the papers and started to roll, Severus gifted him with an approving stare.   
Hermione frowned at them both in absent disapproval and returned her attention to Tom and Lucius. 

“My Lord.. I was merely... I ..sought her in order to question her about something she kept from me earlier. I did not intend”   
Tom burst out laughing. It sounded much crueller when he wore this face.   
She registered Harry’s shiver behind her and Severus comforting stroke of his thigh. “Simply a mask, Potter.” He murmured barely audible to her but Harry seemed to still again. 

“Lucius.. you are a card. Here you are – caught with your hand IN the safe and coins scattered all around and you’re trying to fabricate.   
You used an elf to get to her here – this suggests to me that you realised she was outside the blood wards surrounding my domain, albeit highly shielded and warded, and thought to take the opportunity to acquire her if you could.   
Perhaps you believed her weakly defended - that I would not use such extensive shielding if I were by her side to protect her.”   
“Hermione.. come here” he said quietly. 

She stood and went to him and he pulled her down into his lap. She looked up into the flat alien face which she ...unaccountably.. was finding more of a turn on the less she got to see it.   
He recognised her desire, his red eyes glittering and kissed her hungrily.   
She hummed in pleasure and smiled happily when he ended the kiss and looked back down at the bound Malfoy patriarch on the floor.

“She is mine, Lucius. She told you so herself. The merest possibility that it might be true should have been sufficient for you to back off and speak to me about the matter. Yet you did not..   
In fact I believe you were quite convinced it was true, which was why you opted to try to steal her, rather than even enquire.   
And this after I had graciously allowed you to spend an evening with her, no less. This is how you repay my generosity.”

Hermione heard the sound of smoking behind her and the pleasant pungent odour filled the air. 

Lucius face grew appalled as he stared past them at Draco, passing the joint to Severus while Harry looked on impatiently. 

Tom snorted and clicked his fingers, reaching his hand back toward the oldest boy.   
Severus sulkily took a large puff and placed the joint in his fingers then turned to Potter and captured his mouth, kissing him and sharing the breath back and forth. Draco watched enviously. 

Tom, smirking at them one last time in his Lord Voldemort face, turned back to Lucius with the joint pressed between white fingers. He inhaled deeply and Lucius looked like he could have been pushed over with a feather, if not for the fact that he were already hogtied on the ground.   
Tom apparently found his reaction so amusing that he almost choked and quickly puffed the smoke out, passing the joint to Hermione and grinning broadly. “Oh Lucius” he snickered as if the man were adorable.   
A thought seemed to occur to him... “I wonder..Did your father ever tell you about your grandfather Abramelin?..” 

Lucius looked confused. “He was a merchant of sorts I believe” he answered stiffly. 

The Dark Lord rolled his eyes “He was a pirate, trafficker and bootlegger of sorts, Lucius, as you well know, but that’s neither here nor there – no.. I was referring to how he came to pass away.” 

Lucius frowned and tried to lean back to relieve the pressure on his throat.   
Hermione puffed out smoke inexpertly and Tom gifted her with an indulgent expression. 

“He..was killed in a duel over land rights” Lucius responded, perturbed. 

Tom laughed. “Well technically.. that is a diplomatic way of viewing it I suppose. He was killed over land..money..other holdings.. really.. let us lump it all under the rubric of inheritance rights. He threatened to disown Abraxas for his refusal to work with him in ‘the family business’ as it were.   
Your father, Abraxas, was my man by then and I required his services in other matters.” Tom paused, a nasty little smile on his face.   
“I found it endlessly amusing when you came to me, confessing you had done the very same thing and for such an idle reason. All you had needed to do was study... or alternately bribe and blackmail.. your way to perfect grades.   
Also a quite acceptable means of progression through life.   
...But I am hardly one to cast blame in matters of fratricide and Abraxas really... really.. should have known better.” 

There was a disgusted snort from behind them. “You killed your father?” Draco spat. “over grades?!” 

Severus chortled, amused.   
“I had to tutor him in potions. A second year student!.. and he still got an E.” 

Hermione tried not to feel sorry for Lucius but it was hard. She knew what it was like to have the pressure of expectations weighing down upon you. And not everyone found school easy – Harry for instance had struggled. She noticed that he wasn’t saying anything. In a sense Severus had tutored him too when he’d got his hands on the half blood prince’s old potions text. 

Tom stroked her face. “So compassionate..” he kissed her lips gently, chastely. “...not a trait I usually value.” 

Lucius burst out furiously. “Why are you fawning over a mudblood, my Lord?! She is nothing! You of all wizards should know that - you have dedicated so much to destroying her kind.” 

Tom took the joint back from her and sucked on it deeply, contemplatively, before handing it back to the three at the back where it was reclaimed by Draco with eager anticipation.   
He tried to speak without breathing out. “Do not suck down the whole thing again Draco”   
Draco looked mildly recalcitrant but took a single lungful and passed it on. 

Turning, Tom pressed his lips to Hermione’s and passed her the air in his lungs. She blinked surprised and he turned away, pressing a single finger to her lips while she frowned and tried to hold her breath. 

“Really, such rhetoric was primarily for the pureblood peons that serve me. A muggle used a similar tactic to gather power while I was a young boy. Harnessing fear and predjudice is very effective.   
Personally – I respect magical power and knowledge over all else. I have long known that so called purity of blood was no guarantee of either.” 

“I am a half blood myself, Lucius. Did the hypocrisy never occur to you?” 

“But this is somewhat beside the point as Hermione is not merely a mudblood..   
There is something about her – which is why you wanted to steal her.   
Do you want me to tell you what it is?   
I can see that you do! ...I can’t think of a single reason why you will be leaving this beach alive so I see no real harm in it.” 

Lucius eyes widened.   
“It was an error, my lord.. a slip.. I have served you faithfully for so many years. Surely-..” 

Tom waved dismissively. “You have failed me often and you have invariably served yourself foremost, Lucius.   
At present I am merely unsure whether I shall kill you or whether that honour will fall to Draco.   
It would be a shame, after all, to break the family tradition.” 

Lucius eyes looked past them and Hermione knew that Draco was looking back at him. She felt a strange tug in her heart.   
Lucius had taken her to walk by the lake.   
He was a terrible person..and he had horrible bigoted beliefs.. but he had held her hand.. he had protected her..   
perhaps because he didn’t want to share her.. but all the same she felt a sense of reluctance in seeing him hurt.   
He gave her his own shoes and socks to wear.   
He didn’t have to offer to take her for a walk. ...He caught her when she tripped. He hadn’t hurt her that much. He-..

Tom was looking at her with mild consternation. 

“I am beginning to recall why I abhor compassion.   
If you want to walk by the lake that badly, my dear, I assure you – It will be made available to you. Lucius however.. is a threat I will not ignore simply to indulge your kindness.” 

The man in question closed his eyes and swallowed uncomfortably against the ropes. 

He spoke quietly. “If I am to die.. then yes..I’d know why the ..girl.. won’t leave my mind.” 

Tom hesitated looking him over. “She is a conduit” he said after a while. “A channeler of raw magic.   
It is why her magic is bound. She is too dangerous. Not only to myself..but to the world..to reality.   
The reason you can’t get her out of your mind, my ..once loyal..servant...is that she unconsciously produces an effect on all those that come into close contact with her rendering them less likely to want to destroy her.   
A naturally occurring amortensia if you will. Although it does not appear to be a substance in any way traceable, or I would have had Severus find an antidote. It occurs on a different level perhaps.   
You have been..affected.. by it... as have we all.” 

He turned to Hermione and inspected her, tilting his head slightly with a faintly dreamy expression. She wondered if he was stoned.   
He smirked and kissed her nose. “slightly” he murmured. 

Lucius was gazing up at her with a confused face. He looked almost wounded – disbelief, awe, loss and frustration passed over his features.

Tom went on. “Had you obeyed me.. had you remembered your promises to me, Lucius, I would have had mercy on you and allowed her to visit you occasionally.   
Had you treated her with decorum, I might have let you spend time with her regularly.” 

“But.. it is not to be.  
– you were not content with my generosity – you are incapable of sharing anything you desire.   
I am certain that.. in the impossible circumstance that you had abducted her and made her..Malfoy property, as you wanted.. you would eventually have killed your own son in a fit of jealousy.. or threatened to banish and disown him.. at which point he would have killed you for her”. 

“Draco...I believe Draco would do anything for Hermione.” 

“He begged me to allow him to be her pet – her familiar, Lucius. Can you believe it? I had to allow it.. it was too amusing.   
Last night he slept in a cat basket in my chambers. He walks on a little diamond collar and leash..” 

You look confused, Lucius. Don’t tell me you never even knew your son was an animagus?! Did he not tell you? I wonder why..”   
The Dark Lord grinned. Half turning he cast a speculative eye over Draco. “Do you want to show him? Does it still matter to you what he thinks?” 

Draco looked nervous and unsure. His eyes darted to Hermione and then to Severus beside him. 

“Everyone else here is already aware” Tom reminded him. 

Lucius was looking at Draco as if he didn’t recognise him.   
“That is quite something. ...Few wizards can become animagi..” he said faintly. “I...even so...I am proud.   
I would ..like..to see. Show me, Draco. Please.” 

Draco, extremely reluctantly to judge by his face, got up and flicked his wrist to take up his wand.   
He stepped forward and then shrank down and became a ferret. For a moment, he wavered slightly on the floor, unsure of himself and then he scampered to Hermione’s feet, standing up on his hind paws against her leg. 

She leaned down and picked him up gently, putting him against her breast and stroking him.   
Tom looked into the white animal’s face and, astoundingly, lifted a hand and stroked his head. 

Lucius seemed wistful. “It is a good form, Draco. Useful and appealing. You are fortunate.” 

The ferrets head shot to him in surprise and then he turned away and placed his face against Hermione’s skin. She continued to pet him affectionately.   
Harry groused from the background.. “You can be damn sure she wouldn’t be all over you like that if you were a snake, Malfoy.” 

The ferret seemed almost to smirk and he licked Hermione’s jaw tauntingly. Tom rolled his eyes. “Yes alright. Put him down now. Bootlicking little wretch. Go away again, Draco. You are provoking me.” 

Hermione put him down on the sand carefully and Draco scampered a metre or so then unfolded into his human form and continued forward without breaking a step. He returned to the couch and Severus caught him as he was about to sit down and pulled him onto his lap.   
Draco was surprised but not opposed as the long haired boy pulled him close and began to kiss him ardently, with visible satisfaction in the act.   
Lucius face twisted in anger..within which twisted both jealousy and vengefulness. 

“My son, Severus? You practically raised Draco.. have you no sense of decency?!” 

Everyone else in the room collapsed into laughter.   
Even Hermione had to snicker.

Tom smirked down at him. “Lucius.. you are unsuited to an argument about decency.   
Come now.. I’ve told you about Hermione.. and I’ve even allowed you to witness the magical potency of your son..   
I don’t see that we have anything further to discuss. it is time to finish this.” 

Draco stopped kissing Severus and looked up with a grim reluctant expression on his face as Lucius seemed to panic slightly.   
“Tell me about Severus! Tell me about yourself.. your appearance! You are healed – you are young.” 

Tom seemed impatient. “Yes, yes, and I am immortal too.. as is he. You have a brain, Lucius.. you know it was her. Stalling will give you but minutes more.” 

“Show me your real face again!” Lucius demanded desperately.

Tom waved the glamour away and Lucius looked up at him sadly.

“You are younger than you were when I first met you.   
You are...beautiful.   
With age you became a handsome man.. but when you were young as you are now, but still full of innocence, you must have been something to behold. ...I remember you had striking blue eyes.. ”

Toms expression did not change. “I was never innocent. Be thankful that you did not attend school in my time, Lucius.   
If you had attempted to do with me what you did with Severus, you would not have lived” 

Lucius looked down. “I ...know. But..he-” Tom hissed through his teeth. “No excuses, Lucius! Please. Do not bore us all.” 

The Dark Lord seemed to collect himself again and spoke quietly, respectfully..  
“The fact remains – Had you not brought Severus to me to increase your own position, I might not have met him.   
For that I am grateful. I will be merciful. You will feel no pain.”   
He hesitated..   
“Draco.. do you wish to end him?” 

Draco responded softly. “I’ll do it if you ask me to. But no. I don’t really want to.   
I’m sorry father.. I wish things had been different.” 

Tom nodded and raised his hand at Lucius.

“Wait!!” Hermione said, clutching at his arm.   
“Do you have to? Surely you could just make him take an oath or obliviate him or something...” 

Tom looked at her, exasperated. “No, Hermione. He is a traitor.. he is dangerous.. He makes Rodolphus dangerous.   
If I allow him to live I am certain I will have to destroy Rodolphus in the end.   
Now that they are on favourable terms once more, Lucius would inevitably incite him to unacceptable excesses.   
I could no longer trust him with you and would need to remove his blood bond in the only way possible.   
Lucius has an heir..while the Lestrange bloodline would die with your vampire. Moreover, Rodolphus is more loyal.. more useful..   
But beyond this...Lucius’ continued existence would be a threat whether or not he remembers why he wants you – I cannot remove his obsession, whether he comprehends its source or not, and oaths can be broken if one is determined enough.” “Hermione, he is not a good person or a nice man. You are being silly.   
You may have two minutes to make your peace with him and then he will receive the killing curse.”

There was a shuffle behind them. Severus and Draco each looked like they wanted to say something.

Harry just looked excited and full of anticipation. 

Tom rolled his eyes. “Oh for the love of Nimue.. fine.. Take ten minutes then, you weak sots.   
Lucius.. you’ve quite spoiled my afternoon. They’re all going to be morose now, look at them!”

The blonde smiled grimly. “Yes my Lord. I know exactly how that can be. I would have more sympathy if it weren’t my own neck on the block though.   
Could you..untie me. This is a rather undignified way to go.” 

Tom scowled and waved a flippant hand at him, vanishing the ropes. 

Sliding Hermione to her feet, he edged past her, walking to the back of the room and sitting next to Harry.   
When he ran his fingers through the boy’s fringe, brushing it to the side in a manner faintly reminiscent of the way he wore his own hair, Harry frowned and mussed it up again. Tom smiled at him. “Such a mess..” he chided affectionately and kissed him lightly.   
Hermione watched the look on Lucius’ face. He really did have a huge thing for young black haired boys, clearly, to judge from the raw hunger skewing his features now. 

He sat up and massaged his wrists and then his throat, unable to tear his eyes from the two pale pretty boys now snogging. Tom was pulling Harry onto his lap to straddle him.   
“


	50. Chapter 50

She awoke slowly, with absolutely no sense of the time, in a dark indoor place. She opened her eyes and peered around. 

The contours of things were too vague to really make out but it felt like a large room.   
The orientation was all wrong. If she were in her room her bed would be all the way over by the fire to be this far away from the lines that looked like a window over to her right. 

A soft mumble in the bed next to her made her jump slightly and she noticed for the first time that her body lay between what felt like silk sheets.   
Frowning she turned to the location of the phantom sleep drenched mumble and felt around in the bed with her fingers.

She found a warm smooth body..

it jumped dramatically when she touched it and a quarter of a second later she had a wand pressed against her neck..   
then it was quickly removed and arms wrapped around her urgently.

“Granger!” Draco gasped. “Merlin.. I nearly.. You gave me a fright! I’m sorry. Are you ok?”

She relaxed, relieved.   
“I’m fine. Sorry.. I didnt know where I was.” 

He moved back slightly but didn’t let her go. “We’re at the manor.” He corrected himself. “..my manor. ..We can’t stay long or someone will notice all the extra wards. The Dark Lord is here somewhere – he wouldn’t leave you here and he said you didn’t want to go back to the Burg castle..so we came here.   
Severus went back with Harry last night.. or.. this morning.. or whenever it was.” 

“The time difference is odd. It was morning when we arrived here.   
He..left you with me..   
He has a room here.. or had a room here a long time ago when he was staying with us. I presume he’s there.” 

“I..slept in the bed.. but..but I didn’t touch you.” 

She pressed fingertips to his lips in the dark. He stilled. She pulled him down and just held on to him.   
Draco lay face down, half over her, strong arms around her shoulders, his face on her pillow as she held him, lying on her back. She stroked his bare back lightly every so often and once or twice he shivered and inched even closer.   
After a long time he said..“The Dark Lord said I’m to take my father’s place in the inner circle now. He said I’m not going to be his ..concubine.. or whatever it was.   
But I...just want to be near you. I don’t care about Death Eater business anymore.” 

She turned her head and kissed him between the eyes.   
“You can’t just be a pet ferret Draco. You’re more than that. Everyone else seems to see it but you.   
I want you around too...but do you really just want to sit on my lap while I read? Is there nothing else you want?” 

Draco raised himself up slightly. “It’s not..all I want” he said and leaned down and pressed his lips to hers gently.   
The tip of his tongue just hinted at the curve of her lip. 

She kissed him back.. not sure whether she should be stopping.. His father had just died. After her parents had died she hadn’t wanted anyone near her at first.

Draco..sensing that she was pulling back somehow, ended the kiss and lay back against her..   
“But if.. if it’s all I can have.. I’d rather sleep on your lap while you read for the rest of my life than be away from you capturing or torturing muggles I couldn’t care less about.” 

“You will both work with Severus in the lab” Tom’s voice rose hollowly from the other side of the room, making them both jump.   
Draco slid back from her quickly.

“Hermione is right, Draco. You are wasted as a house-pet. I will not allow it – the amusement is over.   
So you will work together. I assume this is acceptable?” 

They heard him rise and walk across a parquet floor toward them. 

“Yes my Lord”, Draco said, surprised and pleased. “I would like that. Thank you, Master.” 

Tom had reached the bed and walked around it and now he lowered himself to perch on the edge close to Hermione.   
“Are you better, little one? We are at risk here..But I did not like to take you back home when you had expressed the wish not to go.” He reached down and stroked cool fingers over her cheek. “I will see about building new homes for us where you can walk more freely. It will require some time to create the security necessary.   
I regret keeping you so long inside dark rooms. You were glorious in the sunlight.” 

She turned her head and kissed his fingers. He hesitated.   
“I have decided...very much against my better judgement... that I will allow you both the same freedom I have allowed Severus and Harry.   
You may do with each other as you wish when you are together.. I will allow you the boy, but when I require you, Hermione, you will come to me.”

Hermione could feel Draco shift against her as if an electric shock had rippled through him. She felt his attention on her. Tom went on however. “Do not disappoint me Draco... see my generosity for what it is and do not try to take the entire hand if I offer you but a finger.   
Do not forget what transpired with your father last night. ...You have no heirs to survive you.”   
Tom rose from the bed and with a wave the curtains were opened at the far end of the room. They parted for dim yellowish light, the sun going down.

“Rise.. We will leave when you are dressed.” 

She could see Tom now. His red eyes glimmered slightly in the half light. He paced slowly to the door and let himself out. 

Draco looked at her almost shyly. She realised that Tom had just given him explicit permission to sleep with her.   
He looked down.   
“We should get moving. It would be good if he stayed in whatever mood he was just in that made him offer me everything I wanted in the world. I’ve been hoping to apprentice under Severus for years!”   
Hermione smirked..   
“I have too actually. Guess he’ll be busy with us both. At least I know Harry won’t want to work there.” 

Draco snickered, rising up to look down on her again, smirking. “Potter was always balls at potions. I knew he was cheating somehow in sixth year. Severus worked it out when Potter used that curse that nearly killed me. He created it. He didn’t tell me till later of course.” Draco seemed to hesitate over her and his grey eyes darkened slightly. Then he looked down and gently released her, sliding back over the bed and turning, to sit at the edge. 

“Maybe there’s time for a shower though. Do you want to go first or shall I?” 

She was confused. She thought that Draco wanted her.. but now he’d practically been handed a lust potion by the Dark Lord and told to go for gold, he was backing away from her.   
Just minutes before, when he’d thought he wasn’t allowed to be with her, he’d kissed her and implied he wanted to sleep with her.   
What the hell?! Did he only want her when it could get him killed? 

She slid her legs out of bed and sat up, facing away from him as he was facing away from her. “You can go first, if you like” she said lightly. 

Draco hesitated and darted a look over his shoulder at her. He seemed to sigh faintly and got up, walking over to another door in the room, opening it and entering. He did not close it behind him but left it cracked. Almost immediately she heard the shower hiss into life.   
She frowned. This was not the way it should be. She considered going in to the shower and just getting in with him. He hadn’t indicated he didn’t want her exactly.. he just had implied that they were going to shower separately.   
Surely if he’d wanted to shower with her he’d have listed it as an option at least. 

She scowled. She wondered whether Tom meant it really. Did he secretly hope she would just dress and come out and say she wanted no one but him?   
..Perhaps... 

Perhaps he thought she didn’t want him anymore.. No.. he’d never give her up just because he thought she didn’t want him. He’d be furious. He’d punish her in that case.   
Perhaps he didn’t want her anymore..   
but then.. only yesterday he’d made lo...  
fucked she corrected herself  
– he’d had sex with her on the beach and it was wonderful.. and he called her his mate..

Did he call Severus that? Oh God.. did he call Harry that – was that why Harry had gotten so gooey and touched his face when Severus had been holding him after his panic attack about Tom being Lord Voldemort?!. She would never know... No.. wait.. she could ask Harry.. maybe he would tell her.   
Maybe he would lie too. But then, why would he lie?! 

If he didn’t say anything like that, did that mean that she was the only one he thought of as his precious?

Exactly how big a deal was that? 

He just said he would build her houses so that she could be outside and feel happy.. was that a big thing for him to do? She didn’t know what kind of things he did on a whim for Severus. Or in any other area of his life.

“GRANGER!!”

She jumped two feet in the air. “Aargh.. God.. what?!” she panted, her hand to her chest. 

“I’ve been calling your name for over a minute. You were just staring blankly. I thought you’d been cursed or something.” Draco was standing in front of her, damp with a white towel wrapped around his waist that made his lightly bronzed skin look even more healthily tanned. She caught herself obviously eyeing him up and looked up at his face mortified.   
He was smirking, white hair in wet strings around his face, and took a step toward her, sliding his perfectly manicured hand over his abdomen   
“like what you see?..” he purred. 

She blushed and swallowed, biting her lip. 

“I had ..hoped... you might come in to the shower.. – to surprise me... I left the door open..”   
He gripped the towel at his waist, tugging it slightly. She found her eye wandering helplessly down his body again.   
She could smell him.. something spicy and dark. She couldn’t put her finger on any of the notes in it.. perhaps..coffee? no.. not quite..something like burnt wood? Or poppies or..cinnamon.. She found herself leaning into him. 

“Oh God.. what do you smell of” she whispered. “It’s wonderful..” 

He snickered softly and stepped even closer. She looked up the length of his body.   
“Come.. shower with me and I’ll tell you” he tempted.   
He held out a hand and she took it, let him guide her to stand. There was an inch between them, he was standing so close when she stood.   
She tilted her head and sniffed at his jaw and down to his neck. He had shaved. Curious, she licked him.   
God!! He tasted of cocoa! His skin tasted like chocolate- was that even possible?! She whined.

He guided her face back up and kissed her, not shy and tentative now, he dominated her, leading her tongue on a dance, swerving and tempting her back into his own mouth, then sucking on her slick muscle. She moaned and felt him smile.   
He grasped her hand and then he was gone, she fell forward onto air and he was dragging her rapidly through the room back into the bathroom.   
She was under the shower before she even knew what was going on and only when his towel was sopping wet did he pull it off and toss it carelessly out onto the floor of the bathroom. 

He pressed her against the glass wall of the shower and kissed her so deeply she felt her mind starting to unravel.   
She could feel him hard against her. His entire body was perfect and insistent but his cock was harder still.. a steel bar against her hip.   
“I want you, Granger” he growled against her lips and she pulled him back and kissed him some more. He groaned in frustration and turned them, leaning against the wall himself and putting her under the water. She gasped at the warm spray and tilted her head back letting it run down her hair and over her face.   
He stepped forward again into her, wrapping his arms around her. 

“I’ll never take you unless I know you want it. Never. Do you want me to make love to you...Hermione..”   
he murmured her name against her cheek as if it was a thrilling secret.   
She liked the way he said it. 

“...make love?” she asked, slightly incredulously. He kissed her so tenderly and meltingly that her heart ached. 

“Love..” he confirmed and licked the water falling down her jaw. She inhaled happily and turned her face for more of the sensation.   
“Yes.” She sighed as he started kissing and sucking on her neck as if he knew where every single pleasure point was located and was intent on visiting them all thoroughly. 

She gave herself over to the sensations and at some point he turned her back to the wall and lifted her, moments later gently impaling her. He coaxed two slow shuddering orgasms out of her and whispered that he loved her and that she was beautiful..perfect... They came together in the end and she couldn’t prevent the tears rolling down her cheeks as they kissed and gasped for breath against each other – she didn’t know why she was crying exactly but when she finally calmed down and he wiped his own eyes she realised he had cried too.   
It was strange. She put it down to catharsis. Everything that had happened... 

They held each other for a while and then he silently washed her entire body with his hands, rubbing silky lather into her skin. He washed her hair with something that smelled of peaches and caramel while she stood, her hands on his waist lightly and eyed closed.   
Without speaking they left the shower and returned to the bedroom to dress. 

Tom sat on a chair tapping his fingers impatiently. 

“I see I was unclear in my expression earlier. When I said that we would leave as soon as you had dressed.. that should have implied that you were to dress immediately” he said tightly when they froze upon noticing his straight backed form. 

Hermione looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes.   
When she had seen his subdued bristling form she felt somewhat ashamed. As if she had betrayed him in some way.   
It was ridiculous. She slept with Severus... Rodolphus... even L-Lucius without feeling this way.   
It was just something in his manner that made her feel regret that she had allowed Draco to..as he described it.. make love to her.

She lifted the rather lovely lilac dress that Tom had left for her with matching lingerie and heels that were very nearly flats. 

“Sorry” she mumbled.   
Something in her wanted to go over to him and toss herself at his feet and beg him to stroke her head and forgive her.   
How did he always have this effect on her? 

She dressed quickly and quietly. 

Tom moved to her and lifted her head with a finger under her chin. She looked reluctantly into red glittering eyes. He mustered her sternly and slowly enfolded her into his arms, placing his mouth at her ear, murmuring too quietly for Draco to hear.   
“Never forget you are mine.   
I am very aware of Malfoy’s infatuation with you but if your feelings waver.. I will kill him, heir or no.” 

She nodded slightly, wide eyed. He embraced her more tenderly, stroking her hair lightly till eventually, sighing, he pulled away. Draco stood dressed and waited pensively near the door. 

“Draco, do you require time here to plan a memorial or reception for Lucius?” Tom asked briskly. 

The last remaining Malfoy hesitated.   
“I would prefer to return Tomorrow morning to arrange matters, if it would be convenient, my Lord” he requested. 

Tom frowned. “No. I will require you later this evening and may need you tomorrow. I must hold a meeting tonight – I have been ill informed for too many days now. Remain and arrange what must be arranged. I will expect you no later than eleven. Six hours should be sufficient to settle your affairs here.”   
Draco nodded with an expressionless face.   
“Come, Hermione” Tom commanded quietly and stalked out the door. 

She followed him, clacking slightly on the polished wooden floors and then the marble staircase. He swept around to the left and into a small room with a circle set into the floor in mosaic. 

“An apparition point within the manor for those who the wards are keyed to” he explained. 

“The defences around Malfoy manor are fairly advanced for a publicly known address. It is impossible to scry the area within its walls and those who are not recognised by the wards meet with a very unpleasant fate should they try to apparate in.   
Wealth certainly brings advantages”. 

Nevertheless these protections are mainly targeting official ministerial and law enforcement channels – all of which I control now. Less legally restricted enemies may yet find a way to evade them and at that point, the only way to leave is through this portal or for Draco to drop all the ancient wards.   
This would take time and I am uneasy placing my and your safety in others hands. Hence my wish to return you to my own domain as soon as you woke.   
It was not purely to prevent you enjoying the boy – although I would recommend you avoid doing so in my presence.   
I am only so tolerant, my dear. Seeing him fawn over you makes me itch to curse him.” 

Hermione nodded tiredly. “I’ll remember in future.”   
“I hesitated you know..   
I thought you might not like me to do anything with him.. I wanted to go to you, but then Draco was wearing something.. some scent or cologne or something. It was quite..compelling.” 

The corners of Tom’s mouth tightened. “Yes.. I thought I detected something faintly when I returned to the room.”   
His eyes narrowed but then he turned, holding out his hand imperiously. “Come. We will return. It is of no consequence at present.”   
She went to him and instead of taking his hand, stepped close and embraced him. He held her after a moment and they apparated.

 

 

They reappeared in Hermione’s room.   
She exhaled at the incongruity of it. Everything looked the same! Here, nothing was changed at all.

It was dark outside already here, suggesting to her that the base was located somewhere to the east of Malfoy manor. 

Tom stood in thought, not quite releasing her. “...I do not wish to leave you alone here at present, Hermione.   
Severus feels to be in his lab. Perhaps he is in a frame of mind suitable to company.”   
He pulled her close and apparated them once again without warning. They expanded back into being in the back of the potions lab. 

Severus was sitting on a stool morosely. 

Only five cauldrons were bubbling. He was staring at one of them as if it had personally offended him.   
He did not move when they appeared. 

“Severus?” she said, uncertainly. “are you ok?” 

He looked over at her slowly. “fine.” He gritted irritatedly. 

She hovered uncertainly, unsure whether to near him or to retreat. Tom let go of her gently and went to the bitter looking boy. He stood behind him and placed a hesitant hand on his shoulder.   
Severus hunched slightly.   
“I just need one day for fucks sake.” He snarled. “I’ve known him for over twenty years.. he was..many things to me. I require a bare minimum of time in which to mourn him.   
Just leave me alone.. I.. I can’t be... I just can’t do this right now.”   
He got up from the stool and, casting a blanket stasis spell over the cauldrons, stalked away into the back room, leaving them there. Tom watched him go looking both angry and frustrated.

“Apparently.. Severus is not in the mood for any company at the moment. Not even you or I.”   
He turned back to her uncertainly. “Would you rather be with Rodolphus or Harry?” 

“Rodolphus!” She answered automatically. The foremost thought in her mind still ‘don’t leave me alone with Harry!’.

Tom frowned. “As I told you – there will be a meeting later tonight. Rodolphus will need to attend.   
Perhaps by that time I might be able to leave you with Harry?” 

She hesitated, frowning.   
“I could stay in my room alone. It’s hardly more dangerous than being in a room with Harry...” 

Tom took a deep breath.

“You cannot remain afraid of him indefinitely, Hermione.   
And he wants so much to see you. He asked me quite contritely yesterday when he might see you again.   
I have given you Draco.. I wish you to resolve your difficulties with Harry. Perhaps if I speak to him... instruct him in how he is to behave?” 

‘oh sure.. because that worked so well with Lucius’ she thought to herself. 

Tom rolled his eyes. “Oh very well. You do not have to see Harry tonight. I will think on the matter of where to put you.” She smiled, gratefully as he stepped close to her again, waving a glamour over his face, embracing her and apparating. 

 

 

They reappeared in a corridor. Rodolphus who had been walking down it under torchlight spun to face them in a defensive posture, straightening immediately and sheathing his wand once more.   
He was controlled but she had, nevertheless, the impression that he was very pleased to see her.

“Rodolphus. Hermione will be accompanying you tonight. I will instruct you before the meeting what you are to do with her.” The Dark Lord spoke to him quite coolly, but the vampire smiled gratefully. “Thank you, My Lord. I will take good care of her. ...I regret what happened with Lucius. It will not happen again”

“I will destroy you if it does, my servant.” Tom promised him.   
“However, I trust that you will be less easily tempted now” he smirked. 

Rodolphus frowned slightly, unsettled, but said nothing. He nodded. “Yes my lord.” 

Tom released her and she stepped away from him two or three paces in Rodolphus direction.   
“Hermione.. remember your mark!” he reminded her. She nodded. “I will, my lord.”   
The Dark Lord disapparated away. 

Rodolphus had her in his arms before the crack had even ended. “Pet!!” he exclaimed happily. He bowed his head to her neck and sniffed a line up her skin experimentally. “Mmmmm... so close now..” he growled. “very very soon..” 

Hermione hesitated.. “Um.. I have to tell you something. It’s not good.” She muttered. The dark swarthy man drew back and pierced her with his eyes. “Yes?”   
She swallowed uncomfortably and looked away. 

“Lucius is dead” she said flatly. 

Rodolphus’ face twisted slightly. He leaned further back away from her. “What’s that, pet? What are you saying? When? How?”   
Her mouth turned down in unhappiness. “Yesterday.. He tried to abduct me.. or interrogate me.. there was some confusion..   
the Dark Lord sentenced him to death. He was killed.   
I tried to stop it but he wasn’t listening to me. I watched him die.” 

Rodolphus bowed his head, his eyes closed and pinched slightly in discomforted understanding. When he spoke his voice was tight with control.   
“He told me he would not seek you out. He asked me to help him take you from the Dark Lord... I warned him.. tried to make him see the foolishness. He seemed to listen. He said he would wait.   
Stupid Lucius. Wizard was always greedy and wilful.” 

Hermione stood uncomfortably, unsure what to do. Should she hug him? He didn’t seem like the kind of person to take to comfort well.   
Rodolphus was stiff and cold.. when he finally looked up his eyes were empty.. hard.. frightening. 

“I need.“ he growled, trailing off.   
He started again, more decisively. His voice a match for his eyes.   
“You will come with me to the lowest level and join me while I work a prisoner. Do not fuss, pet. I am not in the mood to coddle.” He pulled her close abruptly and disapparated with her, reappearing in a dark cell and releasing her immediately.   
The torch flared to life exposing a kneeling figure with bowed head of red hair. 

Ron she thought shocked. 

“No. That one has no useful information for the Dark Lord pet” Rodolphus gravelled lowly. 

The figure looked up, its eyes tense with pain and she recognised him.   
“Bill..” she mumbled, feeling faintly guilty. Bill had a wife – Fleur. She hadn’t gotten along with her well but Fleur had just had a baby, last she’d heard.   
Bill was always nice to her – He’d been around for dinner at the Burrow many times when she was there. 

She looked down and saw that he knelt in shallow pools of dark fluid. 

“He refused to kneel for the Dark Lord” Rodolphus explained. “So I had to teach him respect” He waved his wand and levitated bill directly upward to the sound of agonized screams.   
She took a revolted step back watching Bill’s knees slide up two long bloodied spikes that must have been embedded in his flesh all the way into his lower thighs. He screamed uncontrollably as gravity straightened his legs. 

“How many were at the last meeting?” Rodolphus asked conversationally. Bill’s screams had descended into heaving low wails of pain.   
Rodolphus pointed his wand at a ruined kneecap and the volume increased into screams again.   
“Tell me before I cut them off.” Rodolphus advised. Bill shook his head frantically, still yelling and gasping for breath. 

Rodolphus smiled. Hermione realised he wasn’t really interested in hearing the truth right now. He would happily torture Bill because of Lucius.   
He cast a spell and Bill’s foot began to turn outward slowly. The eldest Weasley son shrieked as it turned beyond the point a normal limb could reach and there was a gristly crunching sound.   
His foot continued to turn.   
It was facing behind him now. 

“Bill.. just.. tell him everything.. please!!” Hermione rushed forward and begged. “Please!!!”

Bill shook his head weakly, loudly sobbing.

When his foot turned to the point where it was facing the front again - the skin wrinkled and tearing; the twist visible and ugly - he seemed to shudder all over and then his head fell back unconscious. 

Hermione backed away from the scene.   
Rodolphus eyes were dark, his face satisfied as he continued to twist the silent man’s foot in circles till the muscle and gristle tore and it actually fell to the floor. Blood that had been pouring out of the torn skin now gushed down in a stream and Rodolphus sliced his wand, flicking up diagonally and growling a curse. The flesh sizzled and cauterized itself. 

Bills foot lay on the stone and she could see toes twitch slightly now and then like a fish out of water. 

She had reached the wall and pressed herself against it now, slowly sliding down till she sat on the floor with her knees against her chest. 

Rodolphus stepped forward, disinterested in her and healed bills knees in a businesslike manner. He enervated Bill and showed him his stump then asked him again about the meeting. When Bill refused to answer he did the same thing to his other foot.   
This time he didn’t let him slip into unconsciousness, enervating him again and again to force him back into awareness. 

Hermione clutched herself tightly, shaking.

“We can work our way up till you’re just a torso, blood traitor..” Rodolphus offered.”   
Bills sobs and tears prevented him from speaking clearly when he moaned some response. 

Rodolphus cast a curse that started to eat at his flesh at the bottom of his stumped ankles. She watched as it converted itself into sand and fell away from him.   
It was apparently very painful to judge by the unnatural shrieks emanating from the hanging man.   
Rodolphus dropped Bill to the floor and he clutched desperately at the remains of his legs, the curse already having reached mid calf. His fingers scratched at the sandy bottoms of his legs ineffectually as he wailed and sobbed.   
He tried several times till he managed to get out understandably “32”   
The curse did not stop. It was almost at his knees. 

“32! 32! Stop! Please! 32 at the meeting!” he screamed.

Rodolphus reluctantly swiped a wandstroke, casting a countercurse.   
The sand at the end of his stumped knees became stone and ceased to eat away further. Bill cried helplessly, lifting and touching his ruined legs. Hermione felt like throwing up. Rodolphus was a legilimens, why was this even necessary?! 

The dark haired man turned his vicious face toward her, making her flinch back slightly “They have a potion against legilimency. The Order. Potter didn’t take it..didn’t need it.. the rest me and luce..   
the rest ...I have to break” he amended. She nodded helplessly. 

“Can I go? I don’t want to see. I need to leave. Rodolphus please! Its.. please!!” She babbled uncontrollably. 

The man in question sneered and stalked over to her. “No. You stay here. Need to stop pretending that everything’s pretty. Calling the Dark Lord Tom... You need to watch, pet. After- I’ll take you back and fuck you raw.” 

Bill for the first time seemed to be lucid and in control enough to look at her. His eyes narrowed. He didn’t dare to say anything but his face showed his disgust.   
Rodolphus looked at him, seeing where her haunted eyes were focused. 

“Say what you want Weasley. I’ll allow it right now” he growled. 

Bill spat, the gob of saliva landing, shiny, on the floor a metre in front of him.

“You fucking whore!” he cursed. “You’re to blame for all of this. After the battle of Hogsmeade everything turned to shit.   
You’re gapping your thighs for the Dark Lord and all his death eaters, you disgusting filth! I can see it on you!   
...Fucking..MUDBLOOD WHORE. To think you ate at our table. ...Revolting.   
Where’s Ron?! Where’s Ginny, you evil slag? I know you lied to the order about her.   
You gave Harry to Voldemort!!   
You gave your supposed best friends to that fucking evil snake. Did you kill them yourself?!” 

He continued to spit bile at her for another few minutes but she found she felt a bit distant. Didnt really hear the rest of his hateful words. Just felt.. cold. Like giving up on something somehow. 

Her voice was slightly dreamy when she spoke, and Bill silenced to hear her   
“Actually you’re partly right. I did kill Ginny. I’ve no idea what happened to her body.”

Bill seemed shocked, despite everything he’d been accusing her of and launched into venomous vehement insults and accusations again.   
Rodolphus too seemed shocked and walked to her quickly, lowering himself to one knee beside her and lifting her chin to look at him.

“You killed, pet? Show me!!” He seemed excited as a child going to the circus. 

When he viewed her memory he growled in lust, watching her covered in Ginny’s blood, bathed in the fountain of it.   
He pulled out of her mind and crushed her lips to his, devouring her roughly.   
Bills ranting dropped away as Rodolphus cast a silencing spell wordlessly and pulled her to him, lifting her and wrapping her around him, holding her to him and kissing her hard, bruisingly, hungrily. His mouth moved over her skin and down to her throat, licking and then biting her, groaning loudly.   
The slurping sucking and her own panting were the only sounds.

She could see in her peripheral vision that Bill had crawled back and was watching aghast as the vampire fed on her.

Rodolphus tore his face away from her with the utmost reluctance, almost returning to her throat before he used his wand to heal the wound. His mouth and lower jaw were red with her blood. “Want you, pet” he murmured and pressed his bloody lips against hers tenderly.   
She returned the wet warm kiss feeling strange, tasting her own blood on her lips, and leaned back to look into the dark blue eyes. 

“Bill thinks i killed Harry.” she said softly. “and ..the Dark Lord.. wants me to be nicer to Harry. Maybe you could bring him here?”   
She didn’t know why she suggested it. Something perverse inside her wanted to teach Bill for saying everything he had said about her.   
And perhaps if Rodolphus were with her she could feel safe around Harry. 

Rodolphus eyes widened. “No. can’t bring Potter here. The Dark Lord will punish me.   
She shook her head. “I don’t think he will. But if you don’t want to.. we could take him there” 

Rodolphus shook his head again. “Potters room is strongly warded. Dragging the blood traitor through will kill him”   
She pouted slightly, knowing she was putting it on just a bit.   
“You could ask the Dark Lord” she said hesitatingly. Rodolphus looked wary.

“No.. mine.. He’ll take you again.. Mine!” He leaned in, kissing her again, rubbing his face against her almost like a cat, then he wrapped his arms around her and apparated away without warning, reappearing in his own sealed room.   
She was laying in his mountain of pillows in half a second and he tore her clothing from her impatiently, leaning over her.   
When she was naked he immediately began kissing and licking her all over. 

Here and there she felt the scrape of a sharp canine tooth but on the whole it was relatively gentle. Extremely ardent but not particularly painful. She sighed in pleasure as he worshipped her entire body with hands and mouth. 

He passed over the spot on her breast where he had bitten her when they had been with Lucius and he licked that place over and over again.   
His eyes slid up to her face as he bit down very carefully and drank from her there, the expression on her face almost mournful he lapped at the wound. 

She swallowed and sighed. 

“I didn’t want him to die, Rodolphus. I tried to save him. I told him the same thing as you. Even at the last moment I wanted to save him. But.. It happened so fast and then it was too late.” 

Rodolphus raised his head and growled at her unhappily “Show me”. 

She nodded, acquiescing. 

He had cast and was in her mind almost immediately. She showed him the memory from the time Lucius arrived on the beach. She could feel his confusion at seeing her there with Severus and then Draco.   
When the Dark Lord arrived looking like Tom it felt like he thrashed inside her mind for a moment in shock.   
Then when Tom returned with Harry and the boy flew to embrace her, Rodolphus anger was a red warmth in her head. 

The rest of the memory she could feel his confusion and dismay, culminating in the Dark Lord explaining what she was to Lucius.   
She hadn’t intended to show him that but it was too late now.   
He watched her memory till Severus had laid Lucius body down and started to sob and she had run away blindly and then he pulled out. 

They looked at each other slowly for over a minute and she could half see Rodolphus mind working behind his eyes.   
For a moment he looked quite calculating but the expression passed fleetingly and then he subsided into remorse, followed in short order by anger.

“Fucking Snape.. I should have known it would be him to kill Luce.” he looked murderous.

Hermione frowned. “He didn’t want to. You saw how unhappy he was. 

“Doesn’t matter” the man scoffed but continued in a softer voice “I know you didn’t want it, pet. I could feel it.. If you’d had your magic you would have saved him.” He paused for long seconds.   
“With what you are..if you had your magic.. you could bring him back.” 

It was said in quite a neutral tone but his eyes were penetrating and the hands on her had tightened. 

She shook her head frantically. “No! I thought of that too.. I told Draco I’d bring him back but he didn’t want me to. He was right – it’s.. it’s not right to do that. It would be evil. No one comes back. It probably wouldn’t be him anyway.” 

Rodolphus snarled. “The Dark Lord came back. Lucius was my oldest friend. We didn’t speak for fucking years. I just got him back and now he’s dead. I want him back, pet. You can bring him back and I want him back. You’re going to do it for me.” 

She shook her head again more slowly. “I wouldn’t even if I could – but I can’t and I won’t ever be able to. My magic is bound. Tom will never take the necklace off. He said it was too dangerous. And he is the only person who can release it.” 

Rodolphus roared and pressed his wand to her temple and then she felt him tearing into her mind, pulling out any memory associated with the black necklaces, both hers and Harry’s. She screamed in pain at the forceful ripping of different unassociated memories one after another.   
When he found the memory of her and Harry and Tom in bed, and she pulled away and told them she wanted to unmake the prophesy he switched tack suddenly and started pulling memories of the Dark Lord talking about Potter. 

She sobbed in pain helplessly as he rifled through them all one after another before withdrawing. 

His dark blue eyes were hard.   
“Lots of things you haven’t been telling me pet..” he said threateningly.

Her head pounded and stung as if her brain had been stabbed repeatedly with shards of ice. 

“Luce wanted to know what you were keeping secret. I should have listened. Maybe he would live now.”   
He dropped his mouth back to the slowly bleeding wound on her breast and sucked at it, a dark expression on his face. 

She pulled heavy arms up to press against her painful head. It felt like her skull would split open at any second.   
“I wasn’t allowed to tell you” she hissed as quietly as she could. Even so the sound made her head flare in agony. Rodolphus bit into her harder again as if in warning. She flinched.   
Whatever he used to make his bites feel so arousing normally, he wasn’t using it now. Now it just felt like sharp needles stabbing into her raw flesh.

“Quiet, pet” he growled. “Need to think” 

He inhaled deeply and pulled back from her breast suddenly then forced her legs wide apart, dropping his face between them and sucking at her pussy.   
This wasn’t the tender exciting licking and sucking of the last time he had done this. This was simply him sating his own hunger. She had obviously, absent her own awareness, started her menses, she realised.   
He shifted his body till he could lie with his face leaned slightly against her inner thigh and her other leg raised and draped over his body, lying on its side. In this way he could simply lap slowly and comfortably at her dripping blood.

She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the horrid pain in her head. At least it was dark in here.   
She opened her eyes and looked up at the stars feeling the slow warm rough tongue sliding over her flesh slowly.   
After an interminable amount of time she fell asleep. 

She woke suddenly when his hand tilted her face up and his lips descended upon her own gently, tasting metallic and salty, kissing her and probing her mouth.   
She responded groggily, not really conscious, certainly not thinking of what his mouth tasted of.   
He thrust into her smoothly, her knees in the crook of his arms and that woke her up. She gasped and jerked away from his mouth, frowning up at him.   
Dark stains around his mouth and blackly glittering eyes, he knelt over her naked and fucked her a little harder, rotating his hips against her then, pressing deeper. 

She felt angry but then he forced his lips against hers again and her mind started unwinding into desperate arousal.. into the slightly crazed euphoric feeling his touches evoked when he wanted her. 

She responded without thought and he forced her to three somewhat painful orgasms. Painful because when she felt the flood of pleasure it jarred the pain in her head back into flaring sharply. Rodolphus didnt seem to mind and pushed her to climax anyway. After the third such rush he turned her over and rode her from behind, taking her hard and fast as she had seen him take the girl ‘morel’ he’d killed.   
Dimly through the haze in her mind she worried that he would repeat the performance exactly and suck her dry when he came. 

She heard him laugh nastily behind her. “No pet.. I won’t kill you. You’re mine. Taste too good to waste you. But.. “   
She felt the point of his wand trace her spine as he leaned up off her slightly. She realised he was going to cruciate her like he did morel.   
With the pain in her head she didn’t think she could stand the cruciatus right now. She started to plead in her mind, beg him not to do it. ‘Don’t.. please don’t..’ 

Rodolphus leaned down over her again, placing his mouth at her ear and fucking her slow and shallow.   
“You want to please me, pet.. don’t you?” he growled low, threatening. She begged more desperately in her mind.   
‘please Rodolphus.. please! Don’t hurt me.. don’t.. trust you.. care for you. Love! Love you. Don’t cruciate me. Didn’t want you hurt. didn’t tell you cause Tom would hurt you if you know. Didn’t want Lucius hurt either. Please please! Please. Please!’   
The vampire growled angrily and dipped his mouth to her neck. “But it feels good... Don’t be a killjoy, pet. Luce said he used it on you. He’d tell me to crucio you.. He’d tell me to do worse.. I’m being merciful” 

She whimpered pathetically thinking urgently ‘Lucius hurt me... Always. Scared of him. please Rodolphus.. please.. I’ll bring him back for you if I ever can, ok? Don’t be angry anymore. Don’t hurt me. Need you..’

The man behind her changed dramatically, pulling out of her and rolling over, plunging back in and fucking her soft and slow and deep, holding her very close and kissing her. 

“Promise! Say you’ll bring Luce back if you ever get the necklace off. Swear it!”   
He kissed her sweetly, achingly, his hands light and gentle, teasing her skin, playing over her body in a way he had never done before, not even in his softer moments. It was amazing.   
She agreed, pulling him down and kissing him some more. 

“I promise. Don’t be angry” she said out loud although speaking hurt.   
She felt a swirl of magic and realised that it was possible to make a magically binding wizarding oath even as a squib. 

Rodolphus crowed triumphantly.   
The way he took her then was different to all the other times, somehow. This man had never been tender.. he was always hot and exciting and dangerous.. but now he coaxed her gently to the edge and when he saw the pain on her face at her climax he pulled out, although he hadn’t come yet, and brushed his fingers over her forehead soothingly, a tension on his face.   
“sorry pet...I needed to see the truth. ...I’ll fix it.” 

He cast the counter-divesto and, once dressed, disapparated. 

She curled up on her side and wrapped her head in her arms. It felt like the worst migraine she had ever had.   
She wanted to turn the stars off glowing faintly overhead and pulled a pillow down over her face. 

Two cracks made her flinch and then hands pulled away the pillow and turned her cautiously. 

“YUou realise he’ll kill you if you’ve harmed her mind” Severus said dryly, carefully but forcefully unwrapping her arms from around her. 

‘stop.. it hurts’ she whimpered internally. ‘Severus.. he hurt me. Help.’ 

A finger pulled her eyelid up and peered down at her. She saw Severus black eyes in the dim shadowy light. He looked concerned.. Rodolphus stood directly behind him bending over to see past him. It was too bright. She tightened her eyes, trying to force the lid shut.   
Severus was wearing his glamour.

“-knows.” She muttered at him, unwilling to irritate her head by saying any more. 

“Why were you legilimising her?!” Severus demanded hotly. Rodolphus did not respond.   
After a second she felt a rush of movement and then on the other side of the room a crash. 

“What the fuck are you..” Severus voice rang out from far away. 

Fighting the horrible wretched stabbing she forced herself upright and opened her eyes to see Rodolphus, wand at Severus neck, pressing him up against the opposite wall.   
“You killed Lucius, you fucking little snake” he growled. “I saw it.” 

She couldn’t make out their expressions. The men were mere shadows in the starlight. 

“Lestrange..” Severus started warningly. 

“Shut the fuck up, Snape. I saw how you did it. I know why. Do you want him back?” 

Severus was silent. Rodolphus leaned in suddenly, his face inches from the long haired boy’s.   
“Do. You. Want. Lucius. To. live?   
I remember everything Snape. I was there. Do you want your lover back? He can come back. If you want.” 

Severus struggled frantically. His voice when he spoke was thick with emotion. “What in Hecate’s name are you talking about, leech?! He’s GONE.. He’s DEAD.. he can’t come back. There’s no fucking horcrux. There’s no way.   
And the Dark Lord ordered his death so even if there were, he’d just bloody kill him again and Merlin help anyone responsible for resurrecting him.   
Stop! Just stop!   
Let me go. I need to see to-..”

Rodolphus pressed him hard against the wall, suppressing his fighting effortlessly. He leaned in and it looked like he embraced Severus. 

She swayed slightly feeling like all the blood was rushing into her head and expanding it like a throbbing aching balloon. 

“We can’t..” Severus gritted out low. Rodolphus continued to embrace him. “No.” came Severus voice faintly as if in response to a question..but he sounded unsure. 

Hermione let herself drop back down onto the pillows and close her eyes again.   
After a second she turned on her side and curled up into a ball once again, wrapping her arms around her head and tugging the pillow back down over them. 

At some indeterminate point later gentle hands uncurled her again and rolled her to her back.   
A thumb drew down her bottom lip and tipped a small amount of bitter tasting liquid into her mouth. 

She grimaced and swallowed automatically and then felt herself drift off to sleep.


	51. Chapter 51

She woke in bed, arms curled around her and her face against a warm naked chest. 

Lifting her head she looked up to see Tom, his face peaceful and angelic in sleep.   
The lack of other sounds of breathing behind her suggested to her that Severus had slept elsewhere.

Tom frowned slightly and turned more, curling into her. “gba t’slee” he slurred faintly.

She felt a warm wave of love for him overwhelm her and leaned forward to kiss his chest, wrapping her own arms around him.   
“mmm” he hummed. 

She closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. If he woke up then he’d leave sooner and she just wanted to stay right here for as long as possible. Every time she left this bed horrible things happened.   
A slight snort met this thought from above her and then Tom sighed. 

“I feel the same way..” he said unexpectedly, softly.   
“Each time I wake.. I feel I may lose you.. that you might suddenly be snatched from me somehow..taken to a place from whence I cannot retrieve you. ...sometimes I feel it inevitable. unavoidable. You will make a horcrux for me today.” 

She gasped and pulled back, looking up into red serpentine eyes.   
“I.. I thought it wasn’t necessary.. I thought..” 

The beautiful face shook ‘no’. “It was of concern to me before.. but today..today I will disconnect you from Harry. He is not aware of it but he will comply. I have that power over him now.   
He will be angry.. he will be furious in fact.. He will obey nonetheless. He belongs to me now.” 

“And then.. you will make a horcrux to give me peace of mind that you will not be stolen from me by death.   
Tomorrow I have ordered a revel.. You will take my mark.   
Tomorrow we will complete the ceremony and you will belong to me completely.. you will be mine ..forever.” 

He smiled at her and brushed the hair away from her face in an affectionate doting manner.   
She frowned. The sound of that was so final somehow. She realised that she really had no concept of what ‘forever’ entailed. She hadn’t really had a great awareness of time in her seventeen..call it eighteen counting time turner usage.. years.   
The idea of living..forever.. for hundreds of years..unchanging... God.. what if she lived a thousand years as a seventeen year old. Surely there were only so many books you could read.. places you could see. 

She didn’t think she wanted to live forever. Only Tom would want that.   
Why would anyone fear death to that extent, she wondered. It was entirely unreasonable. There were finite possibilities for what one could do in life.. death was a great mystery. How could he not at least be slightly curious?!   
.. imagine.. living for a thousand years just to avoid finding out.   
Tom pressed her back to his chest gently and said nothing. His arms held her close as if she might evaporate any second. He held her for a long time.   
She had almost begun to fall asleep again when he spoke.

“You will work with Severus for the morning and then I will collect you and we will deal with Harry. I have some other business to attend to this morning.” 

She opened her eyes again and looked up at him curiously. “What do you do when you are not with me?”   
he snorted wryly.   
“Many different tedious things, my dear.” He seemed to hesitate, looking at her thoughtfully before he continued slowly.   
“At present I am having difficulty with the American High Ordinate of Magic. The man is a mercenary dog.

The americans are monitoring events here closely and hovering like vultures in the hopes that I may fall into disagreements with the muggle Prime Minister or lose my grip on the magical institutions within Britain.   
Should that happen, they might persuade other national leaders that instability in the British isles threatens the safety of all wizarding domains and that there is cause for international intervention.   
My forces are substantial but i cannot compete with a united European force.   
Even without that.. the Americans are quite powerful alone. The Chinese, in contrast too numerous to suppress, should they attack.” 

Hermione stared at him, absolutely enraptured. Tom never spoke of anything of significance.   
She always just assumed that everything had been managed somehow or other.. she never actually questioned any of the practical issues surrounding his takeover.   
It felt like..like a confidence.. or like an honour that he was speaking to her of these things now. She felt..important to him. He continued on without pause, seemingly thinking aloud.

“I believe I am assured of the complicity of the United Arabian Hatam and Russian Visoky-Sovet although I very much doubt they will rise to assist should the Americans mobilize.   
It is better to circumvent such a possibility by managing affairs here in a manner that defies criticism.   
I have been insufficiently attentive to ministerial matters over the last days. It seems that several Wizengamot ministers are expressing dissatisfaction with my newly instituted policies.” 

Hermione frowned.. what kind of policies was ‘Lord Voldemort’ instituting in Britain?! She had visions of concentration camp like scenarios where muggles and mudbloods were dispatched day after day.   
Another thing she lamented internally, which she had never really dedicated much thought to in the face of her own circumstances. 

Tom snorted at her “Actually my dear, interestingly enough they believe that I am being insufficiently harsh toward mixed and mud blooded witches and wizards.   
It appears that many, particularly within the ranks of my servants, anticipated a massive cull of those they considered ‘lower’ magical beings. This I have not done and have no intention of doing. It is a waste.   
Not only a waste - it would certainly provide sufficient cause for elements in the international community to justify intervention. Grindlewald was defeated due to his genocidal policies. Without them he may have gained acceptance for unifying many wizarding populations.   
I will need to clean house this morning and oversee new appointments. I shall also have to demonstrate to my followers that I will not tolerate dissent.   
I want them to see your admission into their midst tomorrow.. I anticipate a period of rebellion will follow.   
It is vital that I suppress it and demonstrate that I am their master! My decisions, even those they do not agree with, are beyond question. “ 

She sighed and looked away. “It’s not going to just be taking your mark is it..” she asked with trepidation. 

Tom’s silence did not bode well. 

“I don’t know if I can...do that..” she said quietly. “I watched Rodolphus.. um.. with Bill Weasley.. yesterday and it was horrible. I.. I couldn’t do that. If you put me in front of them and ask it of me.. I’ll fail and it will look bad.” 

Tom pursed his lips and looked quite stormy. 

“I require it of you!” He sounded irritated. “you will not fail! You will obey me and demonstrate proper death eater behaviour.”

She shook her head. “I won’t.. you know I won’t. I don’t get pleasure from hurting people. You know I’ll flake if some innocent person screams and begs me to let them go. And .. and I can’t curse them anyway.. I can’t use a knife on a person. It was different with Ron – with that knife, i knew I wouldn’t really hurt him.”   
Her response seemed to infuriate Tom. He looked away irritatedly.

“You can! You will! You have!.. I have seen it..” he trailed off angrily. 

Collecting herself, she retorted, confused and riled “I have not!..when I hurt Lucius Malfoy it was in revenge for what he had done to me..   
Ginny too! I have never attacked an innocent person for no good reason, thank you very much!!” 

Tom took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He visibly calmed himself, although it seemed to be difficult. 

“Of course” he said lightly. “you are right. I ask too much of you, sweet innocent Hermione. ..my precious..   
I will find another way. Do not worry. I will not require you to torture in my name.” 

She let out the breath she had been holding.   
“Thank you” she said softly. 

He turned his face toward her and kissed her forehead. “It is nothing. These trivialities are nothing, my dear.” He pulled her close and kissed her lips searchingly.   
When she responded eagerly he went on to demonstrate to her once again exactly how proficient he was in wringing pleasure from her body. She was drunk on his body!   
Somehow..he was so very different to everyone else.. He was perhaps not quite as tender as Draco had been, nor as rough as Rodolphus tended to be usually...but he was better than all of them put together. Every time he kissed her.. every time he touched her she realised again that he was actually the only one she truly wanted. The one she loved best.   
There would never be any choice between them. It would always be Tom.

Afterward they rose and showered together and Tom ordered breakfast. They ate in the icy blue sitting room, both reading papers – Tom the French and Hermione the American daily papers.   
After she had finished she passed it to Tom and she switched to the prophet. 

It was.. nice..to wake with him and spend her early morning in this manner. It felt.. it felt domestic in some way.   
Tom bent the edge of the paper he was reading inward and peered at her around it. His red eyes glittering in amusement.   
She huffed and looked away.   
“Its not as if I meant it in the white picket fence, 2.5 children and a dog way” she scoffed.   
He raised the paper and she thought she detected a quiet snort. 

When he had finished the prophet he took four or five other papers and minimised them, slipping them into the pocket of his robe.   
“Come.. I will take you to Severus. He has just entered his workroom.”   
She didn’t question how he knew but nodded and went to him, embracing his standing form as he apparated them. 

 

 

Severus was dressed in his standard tightly buttoned black robes, facing away from them both and working at several cauldrons.   
“Good morning, my lord, Hermione” he said in quite a bright tone of voice, for him. Tom smiled, relieved. 

“I am glad you are feeling better. Hermione will assist you this morning. Draco may be along shortly also. I would like for you to..continue..their studies in potions, beyond that which you taught them last at Hogwarts.” 

Severus half turned and raised a questioning eyebrow. “You require more potioneers?” he asked dubious.   
Tom sighed. 

“Hermione’s pursuits are somewhat restricted, as you are well aware...As I recall, you informed me that she was quite capable in potions. I have detected a desire in Draco to pursue potions with you for quite some time now.   
If it is too much, Draco can work elsewhere. I merely thought to do the boy a kindness by offering him his wish.” 

Severus shook his head slightly. “I may have difficulties meeting my other requirements for you, my lord, depending upon how much I can entrust them with at present. I assume you wish me to continue working on all assignments?...”   
“Yes.” Tom replied unhesitatingly.   
“Yes.. and things must remain as they are at present. Find time.” 

The long haired boy’s eyebrows furled in mild irritation. “Yes my Lord.” 

Tom smiled and turned to Hermione. “Have a good morning, my dear. I shall collect you for lunch.”   
She nodded and he kissed her lightly, turned away and disapparated.   
After he had gone Severus stepped close to her quickly. 

“I can only assume from his mood that you did not tell him about Rodolphus.” 

She frowned and shook her head. “Of course not.. Why do you think I didnt summon him yesterday. He’d kill him. He as much as threatened it when he left me with him.   
What happened?!   
Did you obliviate him?” 

Severus looked at her with a blank impenetrable mask of a face. “Yes. Do not worry ...but it would be better if you would not allow the vampire to poke around your mind in future if you can possibly avoid it.”   
She sighed in relief. 

“He was right though. I felt guilty about everything I hadn’t told him. And he was so angry about Lucius. I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to lose your best friend for that long and then get him back.. only to lose him again.”   
Severus looked uncomfortable.   
“Yes, well.. he will come to terms with it. We all will. Let us not speak of the matter further. I would like you to brew for me felix felicitas. It is one of the more complex brews - I do not believe Slughorn attempted to cover it. I will observe you while I work.” 

She smiled widely, excited to be brewing a ‘proper’ potion this time in here. Severus smirked at her and waved his hand to cloak himself in his professor Snape glamour.   
“Perhaps it might assist you if we pretended that this were a class and you were being graded on performance.” He sneered slightly.   
Somehow he was infinitely more powerful and dominant in this form, she realised. His voice.. his carriage.. all screamed judgement. She just couldn’t help the respect and fear in a potions scenario with the man in question looming over her. Whereas young Severus was quite attractive and interesting but not yet truly intimidating. 

“When we are working.. you will address me as professor or Sir, Hermione.” Severus commanded with more than a little visible satisfaction. “And.. I would remind you - in contrast to our time at Hogwarts..there are no overseeing wards here preventing me from disciplining you physically or magically. Do not disappoint me or you will be punished”   
He smiled like something that waits in dark alleys for unsuspecting prey. She goggled at him slightly and nodded. 

“I’ll try not to.” 

He stepped closer, leaning over her threateningly. “What did I just tell you, miss Granger?” 

She swallowed.   
“Sir.   
I’ll try not to..Sir.” she frowned slightly, unsure what to think about this.   
The man smirked darkly.   
“See that you do not. It will be one lash for each subsequent failure to show the proper respect. Begin your potion.” 

He turned back to his cauldrons dismissively, inspecting them and then moving to ingredient preparation. 

She watched him uneasily before taking out an iron cauldron and setting it on the table. Moving to the wall she silently collected the ingredients she would need.   
The pop of apparition made her turn and she smiled as Draco noticed her and brightened. He walked over quickly and embraced her, pulling her close and kissing her cheek. “Morning..Hermione” he said softly.   
She felt strange hearing him call her that again. He normally called her Granger. It was easier.. it was more familiar.. it was less familiar in fact and that’s why it was easier. Granger.. held a certain distance.   
However that distance, it appeared, was forever crumbled away – hence Draco’s immediate assumption that it was correct to embrace and hold her like this. 

Severus.. Professor Snape materialised at their side, looming unpleasantly. “Draco!” he barked. “Unhand her and go and prepare a bench for yourself. You are both brewing felix felicitas. You will assist Hermione with the flame for her cauldron. If I find you hanging all over her again today, you will experience whatever dark arts curse happens to float into my mind first. At the moment I am thinking about the entrail expelling curse. Get to work!” 

Draco, who had flinched when he had appeared like that, now sprang away from her as if she were on fire and snapped off a “Yes Sir”, shifting seamlessly into student mode. He marched off to fetch his cauldron and set up both of their flames, obviously realising that Hermione would bring the ingredients they needed.   
Severus remained and looked down at her with a condemning expression.

“I can only assume that the Dark Lord has sanctioned this unholy little union. – Draco would not be foolish enough to risk his ire” he snarked.   
“Nevertheless.. It will not be disturbing your concentration when you work here. I refuse to waste my time preventing hormonal little twits from exploding their cauldrons.. and if you ruin any of my own brews.. or cause me to ruin them due to your foolishness – I will inform our lord all about Lestrange and allow the vampire to face his fate. It is merely misguided generosity that I have not already done so.”   
He spun on his heel and strode away, robes billowing. 

She scowled and went back to the ingredients.

 

 

By the time Tom returned, they had finished brewing felix felicitas – Severus had showed them how to amend the recipe to produce a perfect result. She had felt angry once again at Harry for having cheated with Severus old school book.   
After that, they began working on the wit sharpening draught. It required overnight brewing without stirring and could therefore be left when Tom came for her.   
She was flushed and happy when he apparated in. It had been very enjoyable to return to an almost familiar environment. 

Despite his threatening attitude.. or perhaps because of it.. Hermione had felt a lot of satisfaction working on potions with her professor. She remembered clearly that when she had been in fifth year she had wished for nothing more than to have the chance to work with only her teacher present - with professor Snape dedicating all his terrifying attention to her alone. 

This was different.. he wasn’t hovering over her all the time.. and Draco was here.. but it was very close to a dream come true nonetheless. Her professor offered her personal feedback while she brewed.. and not merely snide icy critical commentary – actual constructive advice.   
It was amazing. She wanted to leap upon Severus.. professor Snape.. and kiss him.

Obviously she couldn’t.. His very manner prevented her from doing so.. but she was walking on air, nonetheless. 

Tom picked up on her happiness as soon as he entered and went to her, enfolding her in his arms. She grinned up at him jubilantly. “Thank you” she hushed. He smiled indulgently.   
He looked up and took in Severus appearance with mild amusement.   
“I will take her now, Severus. You will continue to work with Draco, if you please. Treat him as an apprentice of sorts, perhaps?” 

Severus looked mildly irritated but this was a normal expression for him. He nodded grudgingly and turned back to his cauldron.   
She had the feeling that he was annoyed about more than the current circumstances. 

Tom ignored his attitude and pulled her close, disapparating them. Before they compressed she caught Draco looking at her in longing and frustration. Then they were gone. 

They reappeared in Harry’s room. 

Harry was leaning up against the wall painting on a canvas he held propped against his lap with one hand. He looked up when they appeared and smiled brightly, laying aside the canvas immediately.   
She saw that it was a beach scene in black and white. An undefined figure reclined on the sand. He hadn’t gotten to that part yet apparently.   
He walked over eagerly and hesitated, seeming anxious to fall upon them both. Tom sighed and opened his arms, allowing Harry to step into them and kiss him hotly.   
After they had kissed Harry turned to her and advanced on her. 

She felt that momentary panic she always felt when he did that and backed away slightly.   
Tom stepped quickly behind her and put his arms around her waist, holding her gently and bringing his mouth to her ear.

“Harry will not hurt you, Hermione. He regrets his past behaviour. You must forgive him and move past this anxiety” 

She gripped his arms around her middle and nodded weakly.   
Harry approached more slowly, his eyes shifting between Tom’s and her own uncertainly. 

“Mione..I’m sorry. Please don’t be like that.”

She cringed and turned her head slightly to see Tom in her peripheral vision.   
Harry stood close to her and pressed a chaste kiss to the corner of her mouth. He looked so desperate to do more, his eyes pleading with her. 

Against her own inner feeling she turned her head and kissed him properly. He sighed in relief and tried to deepen the kiss. She allowed it.   
Soon enough though she felt his hands on her, one pressing to the side of her throat and the other sliding up to cup her breast.   
‘stop!’ she begged internally.   
Tom quickly put a hand on Harry’s shoulder and stopped him. 

Harry’s eyes flashed in fury momentarily. Then he suppressed it and sighed, smiling wanly.   
“Sorry. Slowly. Yeah. I’ll try to remember.” 

Tom kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Never mind..” he said softly. “Let us eat something. Then we shall see.” 

He had a house elf bring them some food and they sat on the sofa and ate quietly. Tom summoned Harry’s newest paintings to look at while they ate. He had painted a few of Tom in both his forms. There were a couple of Severus and one of Draco juggling.   
There was one of Lucius hogtied. 

When they had finished eating Tom lay back on the sofa and looked pensive. 

“Can we go out like that again” Harry asked wistfully. “Or.. will you show me somewhere else here? Your room? Or.. something?”   
Tom sighed.   
“I could take you to my chambers if you wish” he said somewhat reluctantly. He looked to Hermione. She shrugged noncommittally. She knew that he was about to make Harry very upset in the immediate future. Did it really matter whether they did it there or here?!   
Tom nodded and stood, offering his hand to her to rise. 

She followed him as he led them all to a clear area aside from the sofa and coffee table. He drew them both to him, wrapping an arm around each of their waists. A moment later he disapparated them to his study. 

When they arrived Harry looked around in mild amazement.   
“it really is just like mine..” he said under his breath. He wandered to the bookshelves.   
“I have quite a few of these..” he observed. He jumped and dragged a particular book out eagerly. “But not this.. oh i looked for this. The maleficarum was just too rare for me to lay hands on.” Tom smiled, pleased.   
“I have had a lot longer to search, Harry. This is merely my private selection – The castle has a main library in addition, that houses my full collection, including many books which I acquired from the family libraries of my servants when the ministry began raiding in search of dark arts items.   
I was quite grateful to their misguided discrimination at the time. Such precious objects would have never been willingly offered had it not been for them.” 

Harry replaced the book reluctantly.   
Hermione watched him with mild amazement. She had never seen Harry display ‘bookworm’ type behaviour before. Although.. she supposed the great improvement in his depth and breadth of magical knowledge recently had to have come from somewhere.   
Tom smiled. “I will allow you to read from my libraries later, Harry” The boy seemed excited at the prospect. 

Tom gave him a cursory tour of the rest of his chambers. Harry was astounded at the sitting room, so similar to his own, the bedroom also. They only peeked into the viewing chamber although Harry seemed interested.   
He brought them then to Hermione’s room.   
When they entered Harry seemed surprised. “Why don’t you just make her live with you in your rooms?” he asked a bit incredulously. 

Tom rolled his eyes at him. “You are so young. Had I forced Hermione to stay with me, she would have been afraid.   
She would have fought me tooth and nail from the first. It was better to allow her to have her own space.” 

“At present she does stay with me in my rooms most of the time...but that is because she knows that she could leave and go to her own room, if not whenever she feels like it, then often – certainly whenever I am not in my chambers..   
...I do not force her to offer me her affection. Although... I prefer that she sleeps in one bed with me”   
He added the last almost sheepishly. It sounded strange on him. 

“I find it more pleasant to sleep when she is there” he supplied.

Harry looked at him with mild scorn. Tom narrowed his eyes back at him. He ushered them both into the room, his manner becoming businesslike. 

They both stood in the centre of the room and Hermione wandered off toward the window slightly.   
It was overcast outside. The grey clouds hanging low over the hills. 

Toms voice sounded hollow when he spoke. “Harry.. I understand how this will anger you.. I, more than any other, fully comprehend how deeply you will despise me for what I will do to you now” 

Harry, alarmed and uncomprehending jumped back.   
“What are you going to do?! Don’t! Whatever it is.. don’t do it!”

Tom sighed. “I had hoped that Hermione would be amenable to another ménage et trios before I did this. I know that we three will never again feel so complete. It is unfortunate.” 

Harry gaped and dropped to his knees begging. 

“No.. please don’t. Don’t take her from me. PLEASE!! Anything.. but don’t take her.” 

Tom looked away.   
“She must wear my mark Harry. It is imperative.   
Remove your mark from her and I will consider it further.   
It is ..complex.. should I leave her bound to you.”

Harry shook his head weakly. “No.. if I take it away I won’t be able to feel her if she is hurt again..” 

Tom agreed “No. However, after tomorrow I will feel her.” He hesitated and then offered, stony eyed “...If you take it off her I will allow your magic to remain unbound.” 

Harry wavered and looked over at Hermione.   
She sat on the window seat looking uncomfortable. 

“But.. But she’s mine..” Harry whispered desperately. 

Tom stepped close to him, leaning over the kneeling boy. “No, Harry. Hermione is and always was mine. She has never not been mine. She was mine before she knew it herself.. She was mine even before she was born. Destined for me.   
When you stole her from me and forced her against her will to submit to you – it did not make her yours.   
You are lucky I will allow you to live.   
You may have the opportunity to see her again if you obey me.” 

Harry had, astoundingly, started to cry.   
“Please.. please don’t take her away”

Tom crouched beside him and stroked a hand down his face. “I will think on it if you remove your mark.” He promised. 

Harry wiped the back of his arm across his eyes. “..Ok” he sniffled miserably.   
Tom brushed a hand through his hair gently. “Good, Harry. ...Hermione. Come here.” 

She stood and padded over, gingerly sitting down cross-legged beside them both. 

Tom reached into his pocket and handed Harry a wand. He recognised it as his own and clutched it as if his life depended upon it.   
Tom reached behind his neck and pulled apart the necklace he wore.   
From her position Hermione could see that it didn’t break like links of a chain but more like mercury separating into droplets. The two halves pulled apart like taffy and then tightened in a liquid manner into chains with a catch at each end. 

Suddenly Harry fell to the floor, yelping and shaking. 

“Harry!..” Tom chided. “You should know the protections you built into your own mark. I cannot have you attempting to attack me. If you abandon the intent to curse me the cruciatus pains will cease.”

Harry whimpered and shook for an entire two minutes before he stopped, panting, only to start yelping and shaking only seconds later. Tom snorted. 

“It is impossible, Harry. See reason” 

Harry finally stopped shaking and whimpering only to burst into tears. “But I don’t want to lose her. Don’t make me do it. You already have her. You can feel her through my mark. You don’t need to..”   
Tom shook his head firmly.   
“She will wear my symbol, Harry, not that of a deceased discredited rogue organization. It is not up for discussion.”

Harry sat up slowly, looking at her so hurt and longingly that she felt sorry for him. He reached out for her arm and she placed her hand in his.   
Stroking her skin over and over, looking brokenly at her he asked her wistfully.. “Would you kiss it, before I take it away? ...You never even kissed it once..”

She looked at Tom. He nodded understandingly.   
She lifted her own left wrist to her lips and placed a small kiss on the centre of the shield. Harry shivered. 

“Thank you” he whispered disconsolately. 

Taking back her hand he placed his wand in the centre of the shield. He took a deep breath and tears dropped from his eyes again. Then she felt a strange wrenching tugging sensation that seemed to be inside her veins.   
The black lines seemed to be crawling up through her skin and retreating into the tip of Harry’s wand.   
It didn’t hurt exactly.. it merely tingled.. it was a very unusual sensation. 

When it was all gone, Harry fell down , crouching upon his knees, pressing her wrist to his cheek.   
Tom stroked his back, a strange look on his face. 

“I have thought about it Harry and I must force you to remove the bond also.” he said quietly. 

Harry sprang up, his cheeks wet, a look of horror on his face.. “But you.. you said.. no.. please..I can’t!”   
Tom cupped his cheek and Harry pulled away.   
“Don’t! If you do this.. I’ll kill you. I promise. No matter how long it takes.. I’ll kill you.” 

Tom’s eyes hardened. “you Will do this Harry Potter. You are lucky that you still live. I will not allow you to potentially die and take her with you. Conversely.. her death will kill you also. .  
..But then Hermione shall never die. I will see to that.   
Remove it or I will do it through you.” 

Harry jumped back. “That was the only reason you bound with me.. marked me.. wasn’t it” he accused - his eyes looked large and wounded.   
Tom smirked.   
“Of course. However.. it is not the reason that I am choosing to keep you alive. Do not despair Harry. You will still be mine.   
I ...regret asking this of you. I understand your pain. It is necessary, I assure you.” 

Harry shook his head angrily. “I don’t care. You will have to do it by force. I won’t! I won’t give her up!” 

Tom set his mouth grimly. “So be it.”   
He reached out swift as a snake and grabbed Harry’s hand. Harry tried to tug it away and raised his wand, but only collapsed shaking and crying out in pain as the cruciatus effect took him over again. Tom tsked and reached for Hermione’s hand also, gently.   
She complied with reserve.   
She wondered whether this was really the best idea. Harry really would do anything to try to kill Tom after this, she was sure of it. 

She felt another strange feeling then. It was another tearing wrenching, but this time deep within her.   
It felt like some part of her she hadn’t really consciously noticed was tearing loose.   
It hurt!.   
She bent forward, drawing her knees together and putting them to her chest, clenching around herself. She felt tears slide down her cheeks helplessly. Harry lay on his side and looked up at her, heartbroken. 

Finally it was over and Tom released her and Harry’s hands. 

Harry slid around and put his head on her knees, wrapping his arms around her. They both wept silently.   
Tom watched them and then got to his feet, turning away from them both. 

“I am sorry, Harry.” he said quietly.

Harry said nothing, he just held her tighter. 

Tom allowed them to sit together in that way for perhaps half an hour or so, while he sat by the window watching the slow drizzle that had begun, fall over the fields.   
At long last he said “Hermione, come here now. I wish to proceed.” 

She flinched slightly and ducked her head. 

Harry looked up, a dark foreboding coming over his face. “What does he mean? Proceed? What are you going to do now?”   
She swallowed uncomfortably. 

“Is Harry going to stay” she asked uneasily, ignoring his question.

“Do you wish me to take him back to his room?” Tom asked softly. She looked away from Harry’s hurt accusing stare.

“What are you going to do Hermione?!” he demanded angrily. 

Tom stood and paced to them. “I see.. I will return shortly” he informed her.   
Harry reached for her as if he meant to shake her but Tom gripped his upper arm and tore him back from her quickly.   
“No! Foolish boy. Never..never..hurt her. You really lack all sense, don’t you?!” 

They disapparated immediately and it took almost ten minutes for Tom to return. He brushed his hair back as if he had been exerting himself. “My apologies, my dear. Harry really is a boor. Too young and headstrong for his own good.   
But then you’d know that better than any other, obviously.”   
He offered her a hand and she reluctantly took it. 

“What will happen with him now?” she asked uncertainly. 

Tom smiled thinly. “He will live. He will learn to adapt. After we have made your horcrux I will return to him and calm him down.   
Although I really have other matters to occupy my time today, I will spare him a few hours.   
Do not worry, Hermione. He will not kill me. He cannot. His mark and his bindings prevent it.” 

She nodded absently and then raised her eyes to Tom’s red ones uncertainly – “How am I supposed to make a horcrux without magic? You can’t unbind my magic! Really – don’t! Especially not..right now..  
I never wanted to be bound to Harry...but I can’t..explain..how-...  
If you released me now.. its possible I might put it back. I feel..so empty now that it’s gone.” 

Tom smiled thinly and seemed to choose to ignore her reference to Harry.   
“Do not worry. I have another method of creating horcruxes which requires neither murder or magic.   
It is.. so-to-say.. a passive method. A rare potion spoken of in ancient Sumerian texts I located recently.   
I have tested it on..experimental subjects.. and it is quite functional.” He drew a silver flask from his pocket.   
“You take it.. and then you wear or carry the object you wish to imbue with your essence and quite peacefully, while you sleep, a portion of your soul wanders into the object and becomes anchored.”   
He smiled. She did not.   
“I thought we might use a necklace” he said softly, and drew from his other pocket a silver necklace with an large emerald teardrop. 

She admired the necklace, smiling weakly. It was beautiful. If he had given it to her under other circumstances she would have been pleased.   
Tom stepped forward and kissed her forehead lightly. “I know my dear. I will give you other things. This one is..special however. I am glad you like it.”   
He began to unfasten her robes. She allowed it passively. He undressed her till she stood naked before him. Then he took her by the hand and led her into the bathroom and undressed himself, entering the shower with her and first washing her all over with mango butter soap, then scourgifing her twice. He did the same thing to her hair. First washing it with the white creamy shampoo that Severus had made for her and then scourgifying every last trace of it from her.   
He did not bother with his own body, leading her out of the shower and casting drying charms upon both of them. 

She followed him back out to the bedroom and he looked deep into her eyes as he fastened the emerald necklace about her neck.   
She fingered the black bead of the other necklace beneath it uneasily. Tom placed his fingers over her hand.   
“It cannot be helped, Hermione. You will simply influence both objects. The other necklace will never be removed, so it cannot very well be hidden. It will merely be a further protection. Do not trouble yourself. You will not lose much of your essence. A tiny sliver, no more. Not half your soul.   
She nodded glumly. 

He did not touch her overmuch. Instead he gestured and she levitated from the ground a few inches. He passed her the silver flask.   
“Drink, and we will always be together, my precious one.” He encouraged her gently.   
She sighed and tilted back the flask, drinking the sour tingling brew as quickly as she could till the flask was empty.   
He took it back and levitated her further, tilting her in the air till she floated horizontally on her back almost a metre over the bed. High enough for the tips of her hair to hang inches above the blankets.   
He waited with her as she started to drift off to a dazed trance. Then she registered no more.

 

 

She woke again in the dark, with Tom’s arms around her. He jolted awake seconds after her and stroked her hair comfortingly. 

“Did it work?” she asked, hoping it hadn’t. 

He kissed her cheek lightly. “It did. I have removed the necklace for the moment. I will see that it is hidden somewhere considerably less accessible than my own.. apparently poorly kept, horcruxes.   
I have some ideas where I might place it. Certainly nowhere personally connected with either of us, my dear.   
Do not worry. It shall be safe. You shall be safe. You will not die.”   
Again as he clutched her to him she felt he was reassuring himself rather than her, that she would not fade away into smoke at any second.   
“It troubles me that you are so frightened of Potter” he said, suddenly switching the topic and throwing her off balance. “He is..perhaps a little quick to react.. somewhat mercenary and manipulative.. but he is young. He feels things strongly.   
He is... quite lonely and afraid.” Tom spoke quietly. 

Hermione half nodded. “I know..” she said. “I can’t help it. He feels..wrong. It’s not just that I’m afraid of what he might decide to do.. he is wrong. He’s neither you nor himself. He’s like the worst aspects of both. Your power, your ruthlessness, his impulsiveness, his emotionality.”   
Tom nuzzled her gently. She felt a moment of surreal disorientation. He was so affectionate since she recovered from her fall.

“You must learn how to deal with him. Your fear only feeds him you know. He invokes it whenever he wants to influence you to obey him. You must simply refuse to give him the satisfaction.” 

She rolled her eyes. “You try saying that when you have no magic to draw upon. If I had my wand, I’d hex his balls off and he wouldn’t try it again..”   
Tom smirked against her skin. She could feel it.   
“In terms of pure wandwork.. He is already far more powerful than yourself, Hermione. He would win in a duel if you did not use your ability.   
His knowledge of curses, both dark and neutral, is comprehensive. Almost as broad as Severus.   
Not as broad as myself but if I allow him to access my library.. in time perhaps..” 

“Then how exactly am I supposed to stop him from doing whatever he damn well wants?!” she demanded irritatedly, scowling. 

Tom sighed.. “You already know he loves you. Surely you can work it out.” he yawned. 

“I am not sure whether you are suggesting that I emotionally manipulate him or fuck him into compliance.” 

Tom yawned again and muttered “Whatever works... Go to sleep again Hermione.. it is the middle of the night.”   
She was not content with this suggestion but the slowing breaths from Tom strongly suggested that sleep was the order of the moment.   
She furrowed her brow in irritation and curled against him once again.   
The feeling of his arm around her was comforting, warm, strong, a certainty. She burrowed her face into his chest and struggled into a more comfortable position.   
He made a sleepy noise of contentment. She closed her eyes.

 

 

 

She woke in bed alone. Feeling around for Tom the bed was empty. 

She sat up and looked around the room. He was not there. No shower ran. 

She got up and wandered through the rest of the chambers..   
No. No Tom. He had obviously left early without waking her. She complained under her breath and went to the bathroom in her own room to throw herself under the shower. 

When she came out and went to her room to dress Draco was lying comfortably sprawled across her bed, his robed arms out to the sides as if he hadn’t a care in the world.   
She frowned at his easy domination of the space, so different to his supplication and begging when he wanted to be her pet ferret. 

He rolled his face toward her, gifting her with an admiring look as he scanned up the length of her towel wrapped body. “Good morning, beautiful” he smiled. “Come here” 

She shot him a sidelong glance. “Aren’t we going to Severus lab this morning?” she asked uncertainly.   
He rolled his eyes slightly.   
“Of course.. but he said to bring you after you woke up. He has no way of knowing when you woke up, does he. Come here..”

She turned back to the wardrobe and rifled through the clothes discontentedly. “When is the revel?” she asked, changing the subject.   
Draco, in her peripheral vision looked up at the ceiling and banged his head against the mattress lightly in irritation.   
“Not till later. Other people.. people who don’t live here.. have commitments during the day. It is a Tuesday, you know!   
The Dark Lord normally at least waits till the weekend.   
Still.. it’s been a while since there was a revel and it’s not as if anyone can just decide not to turn up.   
I guess tomorrow will be a slow working day in the ministry.” 

“It’s a Tuesday?” she asked absently. It had been such a very long time since days of the week made a lick of difference in her life. 

Draco, apparently tired of her refusal to come over to the bed, slid fluidly up into a vertical position and joined her at the wardrobe. He perused the contents and selected a black and embroidered gold robe and dress set, then opened the other side and pulled out pale cream satin lingerie to suit and black silk thigh stockings.   
“I’ll transfigure you shoes.” he stated “Now come to bed for a while.” 

She hesitated. She really didn’t feel like it this morning. Tom had been gone and she had felt disappointed that they wouldn’t sit and read the papers together like yesterday.   
“Draco..” she started. 

His face took on a very familiar petulant pout and she felt like she was back in school suddenly. “Fine..” he ground out and turned away, striding off to the window. His back was ramrod straight and his hair shone in the pale yellow morning sun streaming through the window.   
His posture reminded her of his father suddenly and she felt guilty again. 

She went over to him, tightening her towel around her slightly as she walked. “Look.. I’m sorry” she began. 

“Forget it” he interrupted. He turned and she saw him struggle to suppress his upset. “I just thought that.. now we’re both working together we would be able to be together. But Severus obviously doesn’t want me touching you.”   
He turned away and muttered “He’s got no problem touching me after you leave.”

She startled slightly. “Did he.. does he make you do anything you don’t want to do?!” she asked, worriedly.   
Severus wouldn’t.. surely. But..he did get off on control and she had seen the way he looked at Draco in a collar.   
But really.. it was Severus.. he wouldn’t force Draco into anything! 

Draco folded his arms more tightly. “No. I was willing enough. It doesn’t matter. I just..wanted to be with you Herm..   
...Granger.” The last word was said grudgingly. 

She stepped close behind him and put her arms around him.   
“Sorry. ...I just.. wasn’t...am not.. in the mood this morning. It wasn’t a reflection on you.   
Yesterday was a bit unpleasant and now Tom’s gone off wherever and tonight is probably going to be horrid too and I just don’t feel like sex right at this moment.” Mentally she added to herself – and I’m also on my period. Give me a break.   
“Please don’t be like this!” 

Draco turned in her arms and wrapped his own arms around her shoulders. “What happened yesterday?” he asked tentatively.   
She told him and he made a sickened face and pulled her closer. He didn’t offer any empty reassurances or words of comfort.   
“Ok..” he said finally.   
He kissed her on the side of her forehead and released her. 

Leading her back to the wardrobe, he cast drying spells, then sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for her to dress.   
After she was dressed and he had transfigured some very low black and gold slingback heels for her that she proved able to walk in, he pulled her close gently and kissed her chastely on the lips. 

He looked down at her and seemed slightly conflicted. “I...” he started and broke off. He looked away.   
“You don’t need to worry about tonight, Granger. You..you won’t have to do..anything. The Dark Lord already told me I’m going to take your place with polyjuice.   
You won’t even have to watch.   
It’ll be alright. I’ll do what’s necessary. They’ll all see you’re not to be messed with.” 

She took his face and turned him toward her. “Draco! He’s forcing you to do it in my place?! That wasn’t what he said – he said I wouldn’t need to do it at all. It’s not right to make you kill. It’s bad enough that he already forced you to do..other things for him. You don’t do that kind of thing either, do you?”   
He blinked and looked away, turning his head against the pressure of her hand. 

“Every Death Eater has to do that ‘kind of thing’ if only to get in, Granger. I’ve killed. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”   
He swallowed and his adam’s apple bobbed in his slender tanned throat.   
“I just wanted to tell you so that you can relax. You don’t need to think about it all day. You’ll go, you’ll take the mark and then you’ll leave. Don’t..worry about it, okay?!” 

She shook her head. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll do it, ok?! I don’t want you to have to-..”

Draco shook his head decisively. “No. even if you can force yourself to cut someone up a little on his orders – you have no magic. They can’t know that.   
And you won’t be able to look like you enjoy it. I’ll take care of it for you. Tomorrow it’ll be over and we don’t need to talk about it.. alright?” 

After a minute, she nodded solemnly. “Alright. We won’t discuss it again.   
...thank you Draco. You’re always saving me, somehow. I..don’t know what to say.” 

He looked at her pleadingly. “You don’t have to say anything. I shouldn’t have been demanding before. I’m glad just to be with you. ..   
...Severus said we’d brew veritaserum today when we’re done with the wit sharpening draught.” 

As if the matter was concluded, he wrapped his arms around her and disapparated quickly. 

 

 

Severus was an absolute git all day. 

She fumed into her cauldron as he stalked around, hovering over them and inserting pointed remarks at the quality of their cutting, dicing, grinding, stirring and attitudes.

Hermione seethed and felt somehow irritatingly unable to just yell out her anger at the man.   
It was ridiculous.   
She had seen him fucked by the Dark Lord and she knew that he’d been Harry’s bitch too... she had saved his bloody life and yet when he used that tone of voice and looked like that she just wasn’t capable of standing up to him like she should. 

Draco was calm and noncommittal all day, responding to Severus directives in a non confrontational manner.   
It seemed to piss him off even more. 

They had been at it all day. After veritaserum Severus had had them peeling pickled niffler testicles, desliming sea cucumbers, sorting newt eyeballs into popped and whole. All the kind of tasks that she might have faced in detention at Hogwarts. Not the sort of thing she would do in class.   
When she pointed this out he asked her snidely how she imagined all these ingredients got into their jars. Did he have an invisible army of dunderheads at the ready to task with their preparation? Was she too good for jobs that he did himself regularly without complaint? Just what did she imagine a potions master’s life entailed?! 

He ranted on and on for ten minutes and then he had her press bubotuber vines for their puss. 

Of course she burnt her robes and her hands and he had no sympathy whatsoever, simply healed her skin and told her the robes were unflattering to begin with.   
At that Draco snorted but said nothing.

When Tom finally came to retrieve her in the evening she was ropeable. He apparated them back to her room and she didn’t even speak, just stripped and stomped into the shower and boiled herself for half an hour while she muttered under her breath and imagined doing horrible things to Severus.   
If it was him she’d have to torture she was certain she could do it all with aplomb and enjoy it. 

Tom left her in peace but when she came out of the bathroom she saw that he had selected robes for her and left them on the bed. 

They were black and made of silk. Red embroidery lined the bottom hem and managed to look like she had been dipped in blood. There was a rather brief red lace lingerie set placed with the robes.   
Boots were laid to the side rather than heels. They laced up to her knees.

She dressed and admired herself in the mirror.   
In her reflection she saw Tom step up behind her. He wore severe black robes and his glamour. 

The red of his eyes matched her robes well. 

He seemed to sigh unhappily when he looked at her in the outfit. She frowned, worried that she did not look good or that he was displeased.   
“you are.. ravishing.. my dear” he complimented. 

He cast a drying charm and then a further charm which seemed to straighten and gloss her hair till it fell in shining mahogany waves over her shoulders. Stepping close he swept it to the side with one hand and kissed her neck, making her smile.

“We must be off soon. My servants are gathered in the great hall already.” 

Worried, she turned to look at him. “Draco told me that you’re having him impersonate me. Is that really necessary? It’s-... you said you wouldn’t force him to do things for you like that again.”   
Toms face became closed and resolute.   
“It is necessary Hermione. You will trust my judgement in these things. Draco is pleased to do this for you.   
He is pleased to do anything at all for you, as you know” 

The last comment sounded slightly acidic, she noted. 

He continued “and since you created a horcrux yesterday as part of an agreement to protect him it is really only fair.   
We will not discuss it further.”   
He spun her around delicately and pulled her to him. “You will arrive with Severus and wait in the mass. It would not do for us to arrive together.” He leaned down and kissed her deeply.   
He held the kiss for a long time, heating her and teasing her tongue with his own and she started to wonder whether he might want to remain and do ..other things.. rather than go. She responded eagerly. 

When he finally pulled away slowly he seemed almost afraid. He kissed her again, urgently and tugged her over to the bed, divestoing their clothing and thrusting into her almost immediately. He pounded her into the mattress, kissing her and teasing her with slender fingers till she was screaming her release. He hadn’t dropped the glamour but she really didn’t mind. She had grown to like the strange serpentine features and when she closed her eyes she could feel his nose and hair and knew he was Tom.   
When he came himself, he gasped and clutched her tightly, hissing the parseltongue phrase that she now recognised.   
“my precious..”   
Afterward they held each other, coming down from their high.   
He made no move to rise. 

She felt more than a little worried now and turned, curling into his marble white chest. “Are we not going after all?” she asked softly. 

He frowned conflicted. “Yes.. we must go. I..simply wish we did not have to. I am very tempted to take you to a remote island and enjoy you for forty or fifty years.. damn everything else.” 

She prickled in alarm. This was out of the usual for him..he seemed almost melancholy. He had been wanting to give her his mark for.. well.. since she first arrived really, she supposed. And now he wanted to leave?   
The red eyed serpent she lay against tossed his head in self critique   
“Foolish. Come, my dear. Let us bring it to end”   
He sat up and scourgified them both thoroughly, then cast the countercharm to the divesto. 

When he had straightened and smoothed and preened her to his satisfaction and she had made a short trip to the bathroom he apparated them both to Severus chambers.   
The man in question, they found sitting in an armchair drinking firewhisky. 

“Well.. about time” he slurred. 

Tom frowned at him suspiciously. “Severus.. starting the festivities early?” 

“Yes” came the sulky reply. “...my Lord.” 

Tom’s frown deepened and he pinched the bridge of his nose as if in realisation.   
Hermione wondered what it was. Had he upset Severus? Was that why the man had been so horrible all day?   
She shifted uneasily from foot to foot as Tom waved his hand dismissively as if to say ‘no matter’.   
“Bring her immediately. I will call upon her early, before the revel begins.” 

Severus nodded and finished his drink in one gulp. 

Tom turned her and looked searchingly into her face. She felt strange again. He was behaving very unusually today.   
He started to say something but then shook his head and simply kissed her gently. 

A moment later he was gone.


	52. Chapter 52

Severus pulled himself out of the chair slightly unsteadily.   
She wondered for the first time exactly how much he had drunk before they arrived.

“Come here then. Let’s get this over with.” He slurred in annoyance.   
She didn’t move.

“Have I done something wrong?” she asked in a small voice. He narrowed his eyes at her.   
“Oh I don’t have the patience for this right now” he bit out. “Come here now.” 

She took a step away from him. “Why are you upset with me?! You’ve been angry with me all day. What did I do?!” 

The glamoured face of her professor darkened dramatically. “You didn’t do anything. There’s nothing wrong. We must go. Stop playing around now.”

She sidled behind the couch and continued to back away.   
“You’ve been..angry.. with me.. since the beach. I didn’t want anything to happen to him you know.   
YOU were the one who did it. I would have stopped you if I could have – I’d fix it if I could.” 

Severus visibly struggled to contain himself. She saw him fist his hands at his side. “We are not having this discussion right now. Later. After the Dark Lord marks you.   
I will be watching over you tonight while the others enjoy the revel.   
We can discuss it then. Is that acceptable?” He avoided her eyes.   
She wondered whether he was so pissy because he would miss out on the revel which.. apparently.. he enjoyed, according to Tom. 

“You won’t splinch us?” she asked uncertainly. 

Severus seemed to have to suppress another burst of rage and ground out through gritted teeth. “No. I assure you. I have side along apparated others in far more dire states than my present mild buzz.” 

She went to him cautiously and he grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her close, ignoring her squeak of protest.   
She felt the squeeze of apparition immediately and then they reappeared in an empty room with a single door.   
Severus dragged her bodily through the door which opened out into the vast dark expanse of the great hall. 

Black robed and hooded figures were everywhere. It was entirely different in atmosphere to the feeling of her initiation.   
For a start she was among the robed threatening figures and secondly, everyone seemed very excited and jovial.. in a vaguely lewd and threatening manner.   
The tone of the low murmur circulating was very much within the nasty laugh and vicious commentary register.   
She went almost entirely unnoticed in her black robes. 

Severus pulled her through the throng to the side of the hall near the front. 

On the low stone dais before her with four steps, as in the ballroom, Tom stood as Lord Voldemort, before his throne.   
He surveyed the crowd with a narrow smile of satisfaction. 

She looked around but was too small to really gain an overview of the room. It sounded quite full. 

Tom raised a hand and within seconds the murmur of conversation within the room died down to silence. He smiled wider.   
“My loyal Death Eaters, once again we come together to celebrate our triumphs..” 

Severus hauled her back suddenly and held her against his chest. “Hermione..” he hissed into her ear.   
She struggled to pay attention to Tom but Severus seemed intent on distracting her.   
“When he calls you.. you will go before him and kneel on the first step. Look down. He’ll call you up to him.   
Don’t look at him as you go to him. Only when he’s marked you can you look at him.   
..He... you’ll ...he’ll want you to.. Well.. it will be obvious.   
Obey. Excel. Then I will collect you.” 

She tried to digest this as Severus shoved her forward again, not roughly but without the affection she had come to expect from him.   
She half turned, wanting to know again why he was so cold now. 

“Hermione Granger.. come forth” Tom’s voice rang out. 

She jumped slightly and nudged her way through the tall men around her till she got to the front.   
She thought she felt someone run their fingers through her hair as she passed, then she was in the half circular open clearing in front of the dais. 

She strode forward quickly and knelt upon the step. A low murmur went up in the crowd.

“Ah yes..” Tom said above her. “So glad to have you back among us Mudblood. When your initiation was.. rudely interrupted, I had thought you would certainly be imprisoned.. tortured.. killed.   
I was rather disappointed. Your life belongs to me, after all.   
But instead, through your cunning, you have returned to me.. and you brought the younger Weasley with you as a gift. So thoughtful.” 

A much louder buzz went around the assembled crowd. 

“So you may yet complete the conditions of your initiation.   
I required you to take his life before you were stolen from me. This you will now complete..   
Show those you would have as your brethren that you are worthy of the honour of the dark mark!” 

Hermione had to fight every urge within her not to wrench her head back and stare at Tom in horror.   
She jolted slightly. Behind her she heard the muffled voice of Ron as he was dragged into the room. 

‘No! no! oh god.. you said I wouldn’t have to.. why?! I can’t do this!’ she screamed internally. 

A clatter before her drew her eye to a mean looking knife on the stone two steps above her. She stared at it wide eyed. 

Ron was almost upon her. A few metres behind her. She could hear him struggling and then he saw her and started screaming out her name interspersed with No’s and don’t! 

She hunched her shoulders slightly against the sound of his begging.   
She could feel the weight of the stares upon her.   
The knife before her glinted in the firelight from the braziers either side of the dais. 

She swallowed painfully against the dryness in her throat and reached out and took it up. It was heavy, it felt very very real.   
She scraped it over the stone of the stair slightly as she rolled backward onto her feet nimbly.   
The room was silent now but for the exhortations of Ron. 

As she turned, steeling herself to maintain a blank face her eye passed over Draco. He stood in the front on the right hand side and looked beside himself with panic. She knew he hadn’t been told.   
It surprised her to note a similar expression of shock on Severus face, who had also forced himself to the front.   
She looked away, sliding her eyes over the floor and up to Ron, focusing on his body and avoiding his face.

He was naked but for a rag tied about his hips. It provided some tiny measure of modesty.

She looked at his chest blankly. If she looked at his face she knew she’d refuse.   
She wasn’t sure what would happen if she refused to do this in front of the entire assembled death eaters. Tom would have to punish her.. obviously. He wouldnt kill her.. but he’d be forced to do something truly horrible in front of everyone.   
He’d have no other option. 

She wondered if he had not told her about this in order to avoid her begging him not to make her do it. 

She walked slowly toward Ron, the knife held down at her side. Oh God. How was she supposed to do this?   
Literally.. how?! Stab him? Cut his throat?   
Ron stood frozen, every muscle taut. His hands were down at his sides and from the way he was struggling at them, seemed to be affixed in place with some kind of spell.   
Probably the same thing they used to hang one up in mid air by the wrists. It didn’t really matter so much where the wrists were affixed, she mused idly. 

She chanced a look up at Ron’s face and wished she hadn’t. He was covered in bruises and his cheeks were tear stained.   
He looked very young and not at all like the opportunistic asshole who had stared at her from Harry’s feet while she stripped.   
She felt sorry for him.   
She looked past him at the row of faces scrutinizing her .. So many faces watching her every move. All of these men.. these.. hundreds.. of men.. would kill without a second thought probably.   
Or if not without a second thought – they’d certainly do it on Tom’s order.   
She forced herself not to bite her lip and lifted the heavy knife, stroking the flat of the blade over her other hand.   
Kill Ron. It was the only option.   
And.. and she didnt much like him.. he ..well.. Lavender.. and leaving her and Harry and.. and things.. Ron wasn’t her favourite person. 

He was pleading still but she tuned it out. Just a noise. 

She looked up at him.. looked up through him, staring at nothing and raised the knife, stroking the flat of it gently down his cheek.   
A faint noise made her look down. Ron was wetting himself. A horrible laugh went up around the room. 

She swallowed, still looking down, hoping that nobody would see the slight shake in her hand.   
What was the quickest way, she wondered. Stab through the heart?   
Her hand however seemed to know better than she did what she was going to do. It slid the knife down to Ron’s throat and twisted it till the sharp of the blade lay over his carotid artery.   
It was like Ginny. Cut here and death would take seconds.. perhaps a couple of minutes at most.   
She wondered if Ron would like to know he was leaving the world the same way as his sister. 

He had stopped begging, she suddenly realised. She focused her eyes and looked at him.   
Although tears still rolled down his cheeks he seemed calm. He looked down at her with a kind of terrible understanding.   
She barely heard him whisper. “I love you Mione”   
As if in galvanic shock she dragged her arm down across his throat quickly and his flesh opened like butter, red rain spraying out forcefully. A massive roar went up from the assembled death eaters as they cheered his approaching death. 

Ron only winced and closed his eyes, his face seemed almost peaceful. 

The mist of his blood spattered across her face although she stood to the side of the main fountain.   
She hesitated a moment and sliced open the other side of his throat also, the life leaving him even more quickly. 

The yelling and stamping in the room made her feel somewhat disorientated. 

Only seconds later Ron dropped to his knees, the blood all around them. Her leather boots impervious to it.   
She understood the reason for her robes now. 

Stepping backward she watched Ron sag slowly to the floor - whether unconscious or dead.. she couldn’t say. He did not move and the puddle around him grew and grew. 

She turned on her heel and strode back to the stair, kneeling once more, the bloodied knife still clutched in her hand at her side. 

“Excellent, my servant” Tom praised, over the roar of the crowd.   
He must have called for still again as the clamour behind her died down sharply. 

“You have pleased me, Hermione. Approach and become a death eater.” 

She dropped the knife with a small clatter on the stone and rose to her feet, climbing the stairs slowly.   
In her mind she kept repeating ‘just this and then i can go.. just take the mark and then Severus will take me out of here. stay calm. Don’t think. ‘   
She reached the top of the dais and stood looking at the luxurious layered silk of Tom’s robes. They complimented her own nicely, she had thought earlier.   
He held out a hand and she lifted her own, placing it in his, palm facing upward.   
He took his time stretching it out and sliding her robe back from her lower arm. His wand over her flesh was very nearly a caress. 

“Do you swear fealty to me, Hermione Granger?” he asked softly, seductively. 

“I do” she responded equally quietly. 

“Do you wish to be joined with the warriors that stand before us in this hall – the powerful and fearless.. who feast upon death and are not devoured by it.” 

She hesitated for only a minute fraction of a second. “..I do”.

“Do you swear to serve me loyally until your last breath, to obey me in all things?” he asked and there was a faint note of amusement behind the question. 

She restrained the indignant impulse to say no. No was not an option at this point. He could ask her to swear to paint herself blue every Thursday and do a jig in the middle of Diagon Alley – at this point the only acceptable answer was a yes. Refusing would be worse than refusing to kill Ron.. in fact it would mean she had killed Ron for nothing.   
“I do” she said hollowly. 

Finally came the question she had been waiting for.   
“Do you wish to take my mark, Hermione?” Tom asked, his voice dark and rich. She could hear the pleasure contained in it. How long had he looked forward to this moment?! 

“Yes, my Lord” she responded quietly but clearly. 

He pressed his wand into the skin of her forearm then and pain scorched through her. It was more painful even than Harry’s mark.   
She gritted her teeth and sucked in a gasping breath through her nose as she watched the black lines crawl through her skin like a dark parasite and form the familiar skull and snake.   
However the dark mark on her arm also became surrounded by dark stormy clouds. Lightning flickered here and there.   
The black snake in the midst of the cloud seemed entirely unperturbed. 

She watched the movements on her arm in mild fascination for a few seconds when the pain had died down. It was quite hypnotic. 

“Kneel before me” Tom commanded low.   
Her eyes darted up to his face in surprise. The red glimmering gaze was dark with satisfaction. He tilted his head only fractionally as if daring her to delay longer. 

She dropped to her knees immediately and looked up at him. 

His wandless hand went to the front of his robes, unfastening them sufficiently for him to free his cock.   
She looked up at him in horror, her eye threatening to flick to the assembled masses of, almost certainly lewdly leering, men in the hall watching them both. 

“Show me your devotion, my servant” he instructed, drawing forth his hardened shaft.   
A tiny bead of precum on the tip attested to his eager anticipation of this moment. 

It took only a few seconds before she complied, seeing no other real option before her. 

She worked her hardest to take him deep and please him with her tongue and fingers. She sucked as if she were trying to tear it out at the root and soon enough he was thrusting into her mouth, producing low grunts of pleasure.   
It only took her teeth upon him and he came, violently, throwing his head back and groaning in satisfaction.   
The assembled death eaters cheered again raucously and one or two yelled something that she couldn’t make out over the noise.   
Tom withdrew from her mouth carefully and she sucked him clean in the process, feeling his hand stroking her hair gently. 

“That was..formidable..my young Death Eater.” He said in velvet tones above her.   
“Rise. You have pleased me greatly. I trust that you will show the same favour to one or two of your brethren tonight.” 

She almost stumbled in rising as she registered the implication.   
A speculative murmur went around the crowd.   
She looked up to him frightened now. “My Lord?” she murmured faintly.   
He smiled like a shark.

“The first mudblood Death Eater. Whoever would have thought?! ...Severus-..”   
She looked around, hope flowering within her chest.   
“You have a taste for muddy witches..and your recent work with the anti-occulmency potion has been most gratifying -do you want her first?” 

Severus responded with a positively frightening grin. 

“I am honoured, my Lord. She appears to be a skilled little cocksucker. I look forward to seeing if she is equally capable in other practices.” 

Tom gestured toward him. “Go to him, Hermione. Offer him whatever he desires. Please him and you in turn please me.” 

She bowed her head slightly.   
“Yes, My Lord.” 

Descending the stairs she moved to Severus quickly, who grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her mouth to his, thrusting his tongue past her lips.   
She struggled to respond to his demanding kiss and heard the men around them laugh. Someone said “fuck.. wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a piece of that tonight..”   
She didn’t see much more though because Severus was already pulling her close, his hands on her ass and then they disapparated. 

 

 

He continued to kiss her when they reappeared. The sensation of kissing during apparition was bizarre. 

She wondered for a moment whether he truly intended to do as he had implied to the room and then he was breaking away from the kiss.   
He looked down at her with wide concerned eyes. “I did not know. I am sorry.” He explained. 

Oh. Ron. She thought dismally. She shook her head.   
“He didn’t tell me either. It doesn’t matter though. I would have had to do it at the last initiation too. It’s done. I’d rather not talk about it” 

Severus released her and his face seemed momentarily guilty. 

“Draco will wait for a couple of hours before he uses the polyjuice and.. “

She grimaced, interrupting.   
“He’s going to have to fuck some of them isn’t he?!   
That’s what Tom wanted to use Draco for. Not because of any torture or killing... it’s because he wants to offer me to a few of them and couldn’t risk anyone at all really coming in contact with me.   
He’s STILL using Draco as a whore. God damn it! He promised he wouldn’t do that if I made the damn horcrux for him. He PROMISED!   
I spoke to Draco this morning and he made it seem like..” 

Severus snorted. “Draco is quite used to it, I assure you, Hermione. He will be fine. And he will get to wear your body.   
If you recall he and I were both quite favourably disposed to such an experience at one time. Draco will manage superbly, I am sure.   
I can only hope that he does not perform too well – it would be better if the others did not seek out your company too persistently after tonight.” 

Hermione nodded dismally.   
She looked around Severus’ study. 

“And now..” he continued “we may resume the conversation you wished to have earlier.” 

She furrowed her brow, confused. A lot had happened since they had last been in this room.   
“Lucius..” Severus supplied. “You expressed regret that he was gone.”   
She nodded uncertainly.   
Severus scrutinized her, his eyes narrowed. “Do you truly regret it?” 

She shuffled slightly. “Yes” she said finally. 

“And if you could restore him.. you would do so?” he asked, his hands folded behind his back, face sombre, eyes looking off toward the fireplace.

She swallowed, looking around uneasily. There was no way for him to free her magic. Tom would not do it. It was ok.   
“Yes.” She said decidedly. “I swore I would. Rodolphus made me swear.”   
Severus eyes slid to her calculatingly.   
“Is that so. Good..good.” 

She felt more than a little uneasy with the way he was behaving. For a moment she considered actually licking her fresh dark mark and calling for Tom.   
But he would be irritated at being called away and Severus wasn’t actually doing anything. 

In the next moment it was too late to call for Tom as an incarcerous swarmed over her body, restraining her arms behind her. 

“Severus!” she cried out in shock as he accioed something from the lab and strode toward her, gripping her tightly and disapparating. 

 

 

She looked around in shock as Harry’s room popped into being around them.   
Severus tossed her backwards and she was caught by strong arms and pressed back against a chest. 

Hot breath on the back of her neck, she twisted and Rodolphus grinned at her amiably.   
She whirled back around. Harry! Where was harry?! What was going on?!

Harry was talking with Severus under a muffliato and he seemed quite comfortable, as if he had expected them. 

She whimpered.   
“What are you going to do?!” she whispered miserably   
Rodolphus simply held her more tightly and nuzzled the side of her neck. 

Cold fear flooded her. She knew what they were going to do.   
Somehow..they had figured out some way to get Harry to take off her binding necklace.   
Severus and Rodolphus both wanted Lucius back and now they were here – in Harry’s room. There was no other logical explanation. 

Harry hadn’t been able to remove the necklace before but they must have figured out some way or else she wouldn’t be here tied up now. 

Black anger rose in her suddenly. “How dare they fucking tie her up and force her to do...well.. force her to do anything at all really. How dare they!.   
They thought they were in control?!.. well that fucking ended as soon as they got her necklace off. She would make them pay!!.

Rodolphus arms clenched around her painfully and his mouth opened over her throat.. He pricked her slightly, not enough to draw blood, and drew back, growling angrily.   
“Now now pet. Simmer the fuck down. Nobody’s hurt you. There’s no call to go threatening anyone.   
And if you do decide to fuck anyone up.. your pet whore won’t survive the night.   
You’ll be raising one Malfoy from the grave by dawn whatever you do - might as well make it the elder. Draco doesn’t need to die at all if you behave.   
And then we’ll bind you up again and everyone’s happy. You want Luce back, don’t you? You said you did. Be a good little necromancer for us and don’t get clever.” 

She felt her heart ache for a moment. Draco.. Tom..even Severus had all told her that Rodolphus was an evil bastard.   
But he’d never been one to her it seemed and so she didn’t really listen to the words. She took it in stride.. Even when she saw him torture others.. Harry.. Bill..  
It seemed now though that he was in fact a nasty piece of work and entirely untrustworthy and she was a complete idiot. 

The arms around her loosened again and Rodolphus turned her around to look at him, his face wavering between a dark scowl and a confused unhappy plea.   
“Pet.. I’m.. I won’t hurt you. ..just want :uce back.”   
He dragged her against him and rubbed his warm cheek against her own. His voice was mournful. “Don’t hate me. Need you... but.. Luce-..” 

She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. “The Dark Lord won’t let him live..” she whispered. 

Rodolphus turned his face to her slightly, kissing her cheek.   
“We’ll hide him. He’ll never know.   
Find a way to bring him back..lovely..tasty...powerful.. pet. Keep you forever... Mine!..”   
His kisses had devolved into tiny licks now and she bit her lip at the apparent unavoidable predicament she now found herself in. 

Perhaps she could save Draco.. Probably she could just send him somewhere else..   
But it wouldn’t matter. She’d made a wizarding oath to do whatever she could to bring Lucius back. As soon as they freed her magic, she would be driven to fulfil the oath. It was that simple.   
It was probably why Severus hadn’t even bothered to reason with her. 

“Hermione..” Severus called her attention now. She turned away from Rodolphus.   
“Oh do stop drooling all over her, leech” Severus snarked.

Her eyes widened in relief. Tom! Tom was here. Tom would never let them go through with it. They were busted. Ha!   
But the thoughts lasted only a quarter of a second till she noticed that his eyes were blue.   
Then she saw Harry was missing and the cruel little way Tom’s lips turned up at the edges was so familiar. 

“Oh Mione..” Harry said through Tom’s mouth. “At least you realised before someone had to tell you. Your ‘Tom’ was so kind as to allow me to keep my magic.”   
He brandished his wand in Tom’s hand, showing it to her. 

She tried to back up but Rodolphus held her in place as she started to shake. 

“Because you see.. I can’t hurt him.. now we’re bound. I guess he didn’t think he’d ever leave you around me in a situation where it’d be a problem.   
Or maybe he didn’t think things through enough when he ordered Lucius death.   
Seems these two were a bit upset about it.   
Were you upset, Mione?   
You seemed to be.. but after what I saw him do to you.. it makes me wonder.   
Maybe you liked it.. just a bit.. when he burned you and cut you up..” 

She shook her head frantically.   
“Please.. No!.. Please - Stop Harry!!.. Severus!.. help!.. why are you doing this?!” 

Harry, in Toms skin moved even closer to her, sliding his wand down her cheek very much like she had slid the knife down Ron’s cheek.   
He couldn’t know, she thought. She wanted to be sick. 

“Potter. Get on with it” Severus sniped impatiently. “The Dark Lord could decide to check on her at any time.” 

Harry/Tom scowled and he pocketed his wand. “Yeah yeah.. hold your bloody horses Snape.” Then he was reaching behind her and fumbling at the necklace.   
He tugged at it and nothing happened.   
She breathed out in relief which turned to horror as he tugged again harder and the chain gave way in his hands. 

He pulled it away and slipped it into his pocket, levelling his wand at her at the same time.   
“Don’t.. try anything Mione. Just.. do ..whatever it is you do and bring Lucius back.. It’s what you want to do anyway!   
Make your two lovers happy and bring back your torturer.” He smirked cruelly with Tom’s lips. 

She hummed in panic. Her eyes flicked to Severus. “I’ll never forgive you..” she whispered. “never..never..”

His face tightened in pain. “You won’t even remember, Hermione” he promised in a low voice. Her eyes widened further. 

Rodolphus stroked her arm gently. “Calm.. pet.. calm.. it’ll be ok. bring Lucius here now ok?” 

She shook in his arms. ‘Tom.. Tom help!’ she cried out inside, trying to summon him.   
“You promised..” Severus said quietly. “fulfil your oath.” 

She fought against it but at his words she found herself already reaching within toward that place that was not within at all but outside her, the place where she could twist. 

‘lucuis’. Her mind repeated. ‘here’. 

The cold rush was painful in its flow. A gasp brought her awareness back to the room.   
Severus had turned and was staring at a form lying motionless on the floor. 

“No pet..” Rodolphus gravelled into her ear as if she were a slow learning child. “Alive. Make him alive!” 

She felt herself already reacting to comply with the intent of her promise rather than the pure words. The flood that screamed through her was like knife blades.. like ice..   
She screamed and would have fallen if Rodolphus hadn’t held her in place against his chest. It hurt.. it hurt it hurt!. It was too much.   
Apparently bringing a soul back from the other side was more intensive than merely healing one in this world. She hung from Rodolphus arms. 

There was a gasp and a cough and then movement around her. “Lucius!..” Severus urgent voice was demanding. “Lucius can you understand me? Do you know who I am?” 

The gasping subsided and Lucius Malfoy’s voice, sounding cracked and dry answered. “What the blazes is going on Severus. Where are we?!” 

She forced her eyes open in time to see Severus throwing his arms around the supine man, brushing his blond hair out of his face.   
A moment later she was falling to the ground. 

A red flash left Severus and Lucius lying still on the ground too. 

She struggled weakly, trying to get free of the now limp arms around her. 

“Stay still Mione” Harry’s voice was threatening. “Don’t do anything silly now. All I want is what you gave them.” 

She managed to wriggle out from under the oh so heavy arms now. It felt like she had no strength at all in her body.   
“Harry.. I can’t.. I need help..” she whimpered. “that was.. too much..” 

Harry snorted dismissively. “You’ll be fine. You can heal yourself, can’t you?! I want you to bring my mum and dad back next.” 

She moaned slightly at the information.. She had thought something like that would be coming the moment she saw Harry helping Severus and Rodolphus.   
Were they stupid?! Didn’t they realise that Harry never helped anyone for the sake of it now.   
He probably only allowed them to make her bring back Lucius to test whether she could.   
If he’d thought she could only do it once then he’d have subdued them immediately when they arrived. 

They still thought of him as they had when his magic was bound. Or maybe Severus thought of him as he was in school. But they certainly had no idea how strong he was now, obviously. 

Harry moved to crouch next to her. Tom’s face looked down at her with a merciless demanding expression.

“Harry.. “ she pleaded. “I can’t. bringing back Lucius was- .. if I do it again I think it might kill me.   
It was..too much. Please.. you have to wait.” 

The angelic face over her twisted in discontent. “No. I want them back now, Mione. If you can’t bring them back from the dead.. do what you said you’d do with the prophesy.   
Make it so they never died!” 

She shook her head frantically. “No.. I can’t do that.. Don’t you understand. Didn’t you understand why Tom was so worried about that?!   
Its a paradox, Harry! I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t ended up at this moment and if I did it then I wouldn’t end up at this moment at all ever.. so I wouldn’t have done it..” 

Harry/Tom snarled. “I don’t fucking care, Mione. I want them back. Severus told me what ‘He’ did.. You’re going to help me or I’m going to do it myself!”

She started to plead and he, apparently recognising that she wouldn’t give him what he wanted, put his hand on her forehead and whispered the word   
and then he was inside her mind.   
She felt him like a bird trapped in a small dark room fluttering around and beating against the walls. She fought, trying to push him out. 

He was fumbling in her.. not like Tom had.. more like a bull in a china shop.. he didn’t seem to know how to go about truly inhabiting her. 

She screamed out for Tom. 

She tried to reach her magic to somehow pull him here but it seemed like her drawing on the tiny ineffectual drip of it only drew Harry’s attention to what she was doing and he struggled to grip at it within her.   
She pushed at him with her mind, shrieking and trying to bring Tom to her and then Harry suddenly seemed to find the place within her that diverted raw magic..   
He tore at it as if he were pulling apart a dam and an ocean of freezing pure magic roared through her.

She felt Harry scream, felt the hand on her forehead fade away. 

The screaming continued and she realised it was her own voice. Pain worse than Tom’s cruciatus left her mindless, reacting.   
Then the sound stopped.

She continued to scream but there was no sound. 

She opened her eyes but saw nothing. 

It was black and still and she screamed but made no sound. She couldn’t move. And then she didn’t even have energy to scream anymore.   
She breathed shallowly and tried to think.   
Even thinking hurt. 

A wand ignited and the vague form of Harry/Tom leaned over her. 

She wanted to shy away. She couldn’t even find the strength to beg.   
There weren’t any sounds of Lilly and James Potter gasping and asking what was going on so it obviously hadn’t worked. 

Any second now she feared he’d put his hand back on her forehead and try again.   
She couldn’t.. she just couldn’t do it again. God.. no.. everything.. the pain.. 

Harry looked at her in shock and curiosity, bringing the wand right down to an inch above her face. She felt the heat against her tender skin and closed her eyes.   
‘Don’t burn me.. i’m sorry. I’m sorry Harry. please don’t hurt me anymore.’ 

“Who are you? How did you get in here?” a voice asked that was definitely not Harry’s. 

She opened her eyes again, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. It sounded a bit like Tom. Could it be Tom? But why didn’t he recognise her? Had something happened to...   
‘How did you get in here.’ he’d said.   
‘in here’. 

The answer not only glared her in the face it stomped up and spat her in the face too.   
This was Tom. But not her Tom. 

Harry wanted her to change time. She wanted Tom. So she went to Tom. Another Tom.. Tom in the past.. Instead of bringing someone else through time, she had shifted herself.   
Uh-oh.

“I’m going to drop the silencing charm. ...If you scream again I’ll put it back on and give you something to scream about. Do you understand? Just nod” 

Her mind struggled to focus. Who was she going to say she was?! How did she supposedly get in here?.. wherever here was.   
She assumed it was probably Hogwarts. Or.. or maybe the orphanage she knew Tom had been sent to when he was young.   
Who was she?! If she said her name he’d know her name. He’d recognise it later when he heard about Harry from his spies.   
He didn’t mention that so she must have told him something else.   
Ugh.. her head hurt.   
If she could just get her strength together she could somehow force herself to do.. whatever that was again that brought her here and go home.   
And then she wouldn’t have to answer his questions.. she’d just be a strange event in his life that he’d eventually stop questioning. 

She reached inside her, trying through the horrible ache to find the place to twist to direct the flow of the magic but.. there was nothing. 

It felt like trying to walk on a leg that had gone to sleep. Just.. rubber... nothing.. nothing when she pushed.   
She panicked. 

Tom had lifted the silencing charm and had his wand on her in the dark.   
Now was when she was supposed to offer a wonderful plausible story and he’d stop threatening her and take her to the infirmary or call a doctor or something. 

“Speak, girl! Who are you?!” 

She tried to shake her head but the pain made her yelp.   
The boy’s face darkened. He moved away and a wick-glass lantern flared to life. 

She moved her eyes with difficulty, taking in her surroundings.   
It was a tiny dingy room with a single bed pressed against the wall, the covers of which were thrown aside.   
There was a window. It was covered over with boards that were tamped with rags at one corner to shut out the light.   
The floor was wood boards, but not polished wood, rather simple planks. A large box wardrobe stood behind the door. There was a small mirror on the wall. Nothing more. 

She looked back at the attractive boy in long threadbare blue pajama bottoms and an off white singlet, who stood above her inspecting her.   
He levitated the lantern over and passed it over her form, frowning.   
As if incredulous he cast a spell she didn’t recognise and two bright white miniature suns flared from his wand and floated up into the air rendering the room bright as day.   
He looked to the boarded up window uneasily and then back down at her, seemingly taking in her long black and red-embroidered silk robes, boots and bound hands. 

She tried to breathe shallowly to reduce the pain. 

“How.. why.. are you here?!” he demanded quietly. 

She blinked at him and couldn’t think of a single reasonable explanation. “I don’t know” she whispered. “ someone cast a spell. I wished to be safe.. away... then i was here. where am I? Who are you?” 

The boy dropped to one knee and pressed his now darkened yew wand lightly against her cheek. “I asked you your name. Twice. Answer me.”   
She swallowed.   
Not English. It was obviously the forties sometime if Tom was this young. So.. Grindelwald. And Hitler..   
Her German was slightly better than her French. 

“Maia Schiller” she answered. 

The boy’s eyes narrowed.   
“A German name. You don’t sound German. Where are you from?” 

She thought fast. “My father was German. My mother was English. They.. they were killed. I was in France.”   
She dredged up her history lessons about Grindelwald. “I was in Oradour-sur-Glane when they came. Took us all. Don’t know how I escaped..   
Where am I – you sound English.” 

Tom looked suspicious but informed her she was in London. He didn’t offer his name. 

She swallowed.   
“I..I don’t think I can move” she said softly. “hurts.. please.. can you get help?” 

His expression darkened again and he lowered himself to one knee and began casting diagnostic spells.. quite advanced ones for a boy who seemed to be in his late teens.   
He seemed somewhat shaken with the results.   
“Did they use any unforgiveables on you? You have nerve damage. ...quite a lot of damage.   
And..you’re almost entirely magically depleted. ..unless you’re a squib. Are you?” 

She blinked, wanting to laugh suddenly. “No” she whispered. “No.. not usually” 

He frowned. “I can’t heal this. I don’t..think anyone can actually. You’ll probably just have to heal naturally.” 

She wanted to say.. get Severus.. purple potion.. but of course.. if he’d created it then it didn’t exist yet.   
Tom was almost certainly correct. She assumed he’d seen cruciatus effects before.   
And magical depletion was still a huge problem in her own time. It couldn’t be repaired. It had to heal itself.. hopefully. Over time. 

As if he recognised that she was helpless, Tom vanished the ropes binding her.   
The mere relaxation of the tension in her arms made her cry out weakly in pain. 

He was unconcerned.   
Probably had cast a silencing charm on the room instead of her, she figured. 

The boy who was not her Tom with those clear blue eyes.. but still in some indefinable way was her Tom.. in every movement.. in the tone of his voice.. walked over to the bed and sat down, leaning his back against the wall.   
He was obviously thinking about what he wanted to do with her. 

She tried to slowly inch her arms out from behind her.   
Wincing and moving at the speed of continental drift she eventually was able to lie flat on her back. Her eyes went back to Tom when he spoke. 

“You will have to stay here with me for the moment. We’re in muggle London. I can’t leave this place for another two weeks and I have no way to send owls here.” 

She felt unaccountably relieved. She knew she shouldn’t. Tom had seemed to suggest to her that he was not much different to Harry when he was young.   
She should probably be terrified and trying to run for the hills.. but then she couldn’t run anyway.   
There was nothing she could really do and she had no magic.. as bloody ever it seemed! 

“Thank you..” she said gratefully. 

The boy said nothing but looked at her quite darkly. It was not an encouraging expression. It did not make one want to draw any nearer. 

“Why are you dressed that way?” he asked suspiciously. “it’s not exactly prisoner attire, is it. What were you doing in Oradour-sur-Glane dressed like that?!” 

She frowned. “I wasn’t dressed like this. I was dressed in this after they captured us.   
I was going to be given to some of the soldiers. Some woman fixed my hair and.. the clothes.. and.. um.. undergarments.   
I was waiting to be pulled out of the tent and then some man came in and started casting a spell on me and then I was here.” 

Tom seemed moderately satisfied with that answer, raising a sculpted brow. He looked strange in threadbare old clothes.   
Somehow he looked like he deserved silks and velvets and fine brocade. His beauty was too regal.. too ethereal to be garbed in rags. 

She must have been looking at him a bit moon-eyed because he smirked slightly. 

Lifting his wand he cast a divesto, entirely unmoved when she screamed in pain as her limbs were moved while her robe removed itself and folded itself on the floor beside her. 

Now she wore a black, fitted, high-necked, long-sleeved dress that fell to mid thigh with a blood red embroidered trim.   
The boy’s eyes wandered down her body, sliding over her leather knee boots, the pale skin exposed between boots and dress, up over her hips, waist, breasts and then her tearful face as she tried desperately not to move again. 

“Very nice..” he observed. “Those will have to come off, though”

He divestoed her boots and she whimpered in pain as they were forcefully yanked from her along with the anklet stockings she’d worn beneath them.   
He tilted his head slightly, looking at the length of her body. 

“And perhaps the dress too..” 

She tried to prepare herself but she screamed even so when the divesto shifted her body to tear the dress away. She wept in pain, even the effort of sobbing terrible. 

Tom rose gracefully from his position leaned against the wall and moved to stand over her, looking down in blatant interest.   
She knew the red lace lingerie was extremely brief. Barely there, one might say. A few whisps of red lace. 

“..Maia.. was it? Well.. I think I’ll keep you for the moment Maia. You may stay with me here and in two weeks time when I’m due to leave this place again.. if you are still here – I will see what might be done about you.” 

His smirk was predatory as he levitated her onto the bed, drawing back the thin covers for her. It wasn’t particularly cold so it hardly mattered.   
He lowered her carefully onto the mattress. She gasped even so and tried not to whimper. 

Then he transfigured the bed a half metre wider and padded over, slipping under the sheets beside her. 

She inched her head slowly, wimmering in pain, till she could see him. He lay on his side and stared at her with an unreadable expression   
“what is your name?” she whispered. 

He looked thoughtful. And then he answered “Tom. I am Tom Riddle. Go to sleep now.” 

She closed her eyes and tried to sleep.   
After a while she opened them again.   
He was still watching her.

She frowned – which hurt, and closed her eyes again. Eventually she did manage to sleep.


	53. Chapter 53

When she woke up the bed was empty and the room was stifling. 

She could hear the sound of children somewhere around. Little voices laughing and playing.   
Children always sounded lovely from far away, she thought to herself. It was only when you got close up that you realised they were saying nasty things to each other, or being otherwise vicious little blighters.   
Children were better from far away. 

The room was quite dim with the window blocked off. She tentatively tried to move and the action set her muscles jangling. She abandoned the effort and instead focused her effort inward, looking for her magic.   
She had to heal herself. She’d healed the Dark Lord.. uh.. Tom.. when he was magically depleted. If she could just find the place in herself and do it.. she knew she could heal herself.   
She concentrated for a long time but it was a pointless endeavour.   
She stopped when she heard the door open and felt momentary terror at being found by some unsuspecting muggle while she couldn’t move.   
It was Tom however and she breathed out in relief. He seemed mildly amused by this. 

He wore a blue shirt and pants that would have looked fitting on prison inmates. A logo was stamped on the breast area of the shirt, she presumed it was the initials of the orphanage. 

“How are you now?” he asked, almost as a mere formality, as be began casting diagnostic spells over her. 

“The same” she said dully. “Thank you for letting me stay here. I.. I appreciate it.”   
He raised an unimpressed eyebrow. 

“Yes well.. I’m certain you’ll find some way to show your gratitude” he muttered, ending the spells. “You are little better. Your recovery may take quite some time.” 

She tried not to pull a face. It bloody wouldn’t! As soon as she managed to get herself to use raw magic again she’d fix this stupid pain and get herself..   
she wondered suddenly whether she would be able to get herself home at all! She wasn’t sure exactly how she got here.   
It was..something Harry did, she felt. He twisted the magic..or.. something.. she was distressed at the time. Distracted. 

The thought of just trying..something.. gave her slight chills. 

Tom had said when they had been talking about changing the past –she’d do something daft and then end up somewhere inhospitable like the centre of a sun or the bottom of the ocean.   
She had no idea why she had come to this place and time.   
Although Tom was here.. why here and now as opposed to any other time at all in his life? It was mysterious. 

The next thought snuck up on her like a monster under the bed.   
She could really fuck up her own timeline here if she wasn’t careful. She was in a sensitive place and time. It would be easy to create a paradox.   
She needed to not change ANYTHING about Tom..if she could possibly avoid it..   
in fact it might be better if she just got the hell away from him as soon as she could. 

Above all – he could NOT.. no one could find out that she could manipulate raw magic. That would be a death or worse than death outcome, depending on whether Tom or someone else discovered it.   
Anyone else would try to kill her probably..   
Tom.. wouldn’t – obviously. Since he hadn’t once before. But.. he...

oh god. He just slept next to her. 

He would already have begun to be influenced by her charm or whatever it was that made everyone fall for her and then want to own her!   
Much longer around him and he wouldn’t let her just take off for god knows where when she could move again. 

And she would probably sleep in a bed with him for at least a week!   
She was so doomed! 

The boy in question had sat himself down on the side of the bed and was now starting to draw down the covers over her.   
“Hey!” she exclaimed indignantly. He smirked. 

“Grindelwald’s men would do a lot worse than look at you” he stated, as if this justified everything. She scowled and looked away. 

He snorted in amusement and slid the covers down to the level of her navel.   
She looked back at him again but could not meet his eyes as these were fixed on a point lower than her head. 

It felt strange when he looked at her like this. On the one hand he was so very Tom.. and Tom had seen so much more of her than a little lacy number over her breasts. On the other hand he wasn’t Tom and the way he looked at her, she felt like some exotic specimen being examined.. or some magazine being ogled.   
He had never seen her before, except for briefly last night and it was quite clear that he liked what he saw.   
It was actually a bit flattering.   
It was as if her body was far more impressive to this Tom than it had been to hers. Her Tom sort of took everything in his stride.. he was so smooth and skilled and experienced. 

The Tom who was currently looking down at her with beautiful blue eyes in an angelic face now raised a hand and cupped her breast. He tilted his head, looking focused and ran the pad of his thumb over her nipple experimentally, his eyes widening slightly when they promptly hardened and stood up.   
She could see, looking down, that he wore a ring. A very familiar ring with a black stone set into the gold.   
She bit her lip and reminded herself that innocent Tom had killed already. She knew, because Harry had told her that Tom had killed his father and grandparents and had stolen the ring from his maternal grandfather. 

“You like that..” Tom observed in a low velvety voice. 

She swallowed uneasily. It was absolutely true – but..she couldn’t exactly let him know that his hands were not new to her. The morals of the wizarding world in the forties was not clear to her. She knew that the muggle world was still rather conservative in most places.. but that didn’t have to say anything about the magical domain. He had been quite surprised at her red lingerie though, she thought.

“It’s.. ...I don’t know you. Please stop..” 

She needed to keep him away if she could. If she could heal quickly then she could hopefully leave before she messed things up here too much.   
His eyes snapped up to her face and several emotions flashed across his face in quick succession to be replaced by a blank mask. She thought she saw anger, frustration and petulance - those were clear but she couldn’t be sure about the tiny flicker of understanding she thought she’d seen. He tugged the covers up over her. 

“I will try to remember to bring you something to eat after dinner. Don’t expect much.” 

She looked at him gratefully. He stood and left without another word, closing the door behind him

 

 

For the next, what was almost certainly hours and hours, she dedicated herself determinedly to focusing on that place inside her where she had in the past at several times managed to do something and cause that rush of flowing cold through her.   
Once or twice she thought she had found it. A faint trickle slid down her spine but she lost her grip as soon as she found it and then she struggled to find it again for ages. 

By the time Tom came back that evening, she was frustrated and exhausted. 

He crept in and closed the door. Only then did he unfold from beneath his shirt the slice of thinly buttered bread that he had hidden.   
“This is all I could bring. We have a kind of stew for dinner here – It is difficult to smuggle it out of the dining hall.   
I will see whether I can steal something from the kitchen for you tomorrow.” 

She felt a warm glow momentarily and smiled. “No.. don’t. It’s fine. I don’t want you to get into trouble. Thank you for bringing me this.” 

Tom smirked. “Then I won’t. That suits me too.”   
He walked over and placed the bread on her chest and then turned away and started to unbutton his shirt.   
Her stomach growled at the proximity of the food. She hadn’t eaten yesterday at all. Tom had been gone in the morning and then Severus had been a bastard and she’d killed Ron and Harry had thrown her into the past and food had not occurred at any point.   
She found she could actually smell the bread and butter in close proximity. 

Tom had turned around and looked at her curiously when her stomach rumbled. He was on the lowest buttons of his shirt and a deep V of his chest was exposed. He was less muscular at this age it appeared.. but he had an attractive body. Lean, smooth, well proportioned. 

“When did you last eat?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.   
She answered honestly.   
“The day before yesterday. Lunchtime.”   
He nodded slightly and she had the feeling that he was not unfamiliar with the feeling of going for days without food. 

After he had taken his shirt off he walked to the wooden wardrobe and hung it on a wire hanger. Then he removed his trousers and hung those too over the same hanger.   
He wore white cotton briefs. They had an inverted Y on the front. Clearly boxer shorts were not the fashion of the times, she mused. Learn something new every day. 

Tom looked down at himself upon noticing her thoughtful inspection of his underwear and hooked a thumb in the waistband.   
“Shall I remove them? You seem to be taking an eyeful” He watched her coolly, a wry smirk on his lips. She blushed slightly and looked away. 

“Sorry.. Just.. uh... hm. Well sorry, anyway.” 

The boards on the floor creaked slightly as he walked over to the bed and slipped under the covers. She turned her head, wincing as her neck screamed in pain, and looked at him.   
“No pajama pants and singlet?” she asked uneasily. 

He snorted. “Shall I feed you your slice of bread?” 

Clearly her question did not merit any response. She found herself actually salivating at the thought of the bread. “Yes please!” she hushed at him. 

He propped himself up on his elbow and took the bread, breaking off small pieces and feeding them to her.   
She needed no encouragement to finish every crumb. 

When she was done he flicked his wrist and caught his wand as it appeared from the hidden holster on his arm.   
There was nothing much in the room to transfigure into a glass so he offered her aguamenti water from his wand. She drank thirstily and thanked him when she was done. 

This however produced a new set of problems she realised. How was she supposed to go to the bathroom, exactly?!   
Oh.. and God!.. what was she supposed to do about her period?!   
Tom seemed to realise her problem (or part of it) at the same time as she. He groaned.   
“Well.. I can levitate you in there but you’re going to have to deal with the pain and look after yourself. I’m not a nurse.” 

She experimentally lifted her hand. It was not quite as bad as the cruciatus pains at this point. She wondered whether the few tiny trickles of magic she’d managed to channel earlier had had some effect on her. 

“Ok..” she said. 

Tom slid out of bed, looking irritated and moved to the wardrobe, slipping on the pajama pants from the previous night. Then he drew his wand and levitated the blanket back, the irritation fading from his face as he again feasted his eyes on her uncovered body. Almost reluctantly, he disillusioned her, then levitated her, flipping her in midair till she hung vertically and dragged her after him through the air like a helium balloon as he paced down the dark hall and into a white tiled karg little bathroom.   
He closed the door and lowered her gently to her feet on the floor before the toilet. 

She looked at him, embarrassed.   
“Could you.. turn around” she asked, even though she was still disillusioned. 

He rolled his eyes and made a big show of turning. 

With muscles twanging like she had run a twenty mile stretch without warming up, she bent to lower her tiny panties and sit down on the toilet.   
While she tinkled she found herself inspecting the rather fine bum in the white pants in front of her, by the light of the moon streaming through a narrow window above the toilet.   
She wiped and found she was still bleeding. Great.. She scowled invisibly.   
She had no wand and certainly wasn’t about to ask Tom to transfigure her a tampon so she quickly constructed a makeshift one out of the rough bastard child of sandpaper toilet paper they used back in this stupid time. Everything about this little jaunt was wretchedly annoying.   
If she ever got back to her own time, she swore she would permanently transfigure Harry into a uruinal cake and leave him in a public bathroom.   
Horrid little psychopathic arse!

She finished up and stood, pulling up her currently translucent panties over her translucent body and flushed the toilet.   
With much difficulty she dragged herself to the sink to wash her hands. 

Tom had turned at the flush and seemed pleased that she could move sufficiently to get to the sink.   
“You are healing more quickly than I anticipated” he observed and strode over, again casting the diagnostic spells over her as she stood shaking her hands. \

He frowned slightly.   
“odd..”   
He recast the spell and then looked her over again curiously.   
“You have healed quite a bit more than I expected you would.” he pointed out to her, unnecessarily she thought since she had realised that was his finding when he had said ‘odd’. 

She smiled a translucent smile. “Well that’s good at least. Whatever spell was cast maybe caused the temporary effect.” 

Tom looked dubious but he turned and, casting the levitation spell, dragged her back to his room and into his bed.   
When she lay comfortably again and he had climbed in beside her, she said quietly. “At this rate I’ll be fine again before you have to leave here next week.   
I’ll leave when I can move again.” 

His brows lowered in a disconcerting manner. She felt a tingle of fear arc up her spine.|  
“Do you have anywhere to go?” he asked in a rather intent manner. 

She hesitated. “Yes. I’ve got some relatives in-“

He shot her a blatantly disbelieving look. “If you had, you would have requested I contact them yesterday. You have nowhere to go, do you?!”

“I’ll just find a job somewhere and keep myself out of trouble.” She insisted hopefully. 

He turned, sliding onto his back and curling one arm under his head, to stare up at the cracked ceiling.   
“How old are you?” he asked finally. 

“18” she said quickly, knowing that this was a year too old for Hogwarts. 

He pursed his lips. “No. You’re 16. I’ll see to it that you come with me when I go back to school next week. You’ll be in my year.” 

She hurried to say “No.. It’s alright. Thank you for helping me but” He cut her off. “It wasn’t a suggestion. You’re coming with me.”   
She recognised the voice. It was the ‘this is the way things are going to be’ voice.   
She tried anyway. 

“That’s really nice of you but I don’t think that” 

His voice when he spoke this time was decidedly colder. “It’s already been decided. Trust me, Maia. You don’t know me well yet but you really should not contradict me. It can be an unhealthy practice.” 

She decided it was better not to press him any further. This was exactly what she had been afraid might happen.   
Perhaps she could sneak away while he was out of the room at some point if she healed quickly. 

He turned his head and examined her calculatingly and then he lifted his arm, flicked his wand out and cast a ward over the door. 

She looked at him disapprovingly. “You’re going to keep me locked in here against my will?!” 

He replaced his wand and drew his arm back under the covers. It brushed against her own.   
“if you choose to see it that way.” he said mildly “However the ward will also keep others out. Perhaps you might think of it as merely a safety precaution.” 

She frowned deeply. He was going to make it extremely difficult to avoid destroying space-time by damaging her own timeline.   
Still.. his ward would mean nothing if she could just get herself to the point where she could draw upon raw magic properly. She’d dismiss it like so much air.   
She breathed out, relieved at the thought.   
Tom seemed slightly perturbed by her lack of reaction. He rolled toward her, curling his arm under the pillow that they shared and laying the other over her abdomen.   
A small smile graced his lips.

“Your skin is wonderfully soft” he stated and then yawned. “Goodnight, Maia”

She felt a strange mix of irritation and relief. It was.. so familiar.. to sleep with his arm around her like this. And with his eyes closed he looked like her Tom.   
She struggled until she could turn onto her side facing away from him and fold her own arm under the pillow too.

A minute later she felt him drag her against his chest and wrap his arm around her more fully. His hand brushed over her breast and cupped it for a moment but then returned to her abdomen.   
She felt his breath lightly on the back of her neck and let herself drift off. 

 

 

The sound of a boy yelling directly below her window brought her sharply back to her senses. 

Tom was gone again but when she turned she found two crackers on the pillow. They were dry and tasted old but she ate them anyway and was appreciative that he had left her something. 

Then she turned back to the frustrating business of trying to heal herself.   
She had a bit more success today and managed to make a weak trickle flow for almost five seconds. Afterward she found she could move a lot more easily. It barely hurt at all.   
She focused more until she managed it for almost ten seconds. Then she got up and experimented with movement.   
It was fine now. She didn’t hurt at all. 

She sniffed at her body and wished she could go and look for the bathroom and take a shower. Settling for solving the most pressing problem next, she spent half an hour focussing on trying to stop her period.   
Although she wasn’t sure whether it succeeded, she felt the little trickle of cold in the end. 

She considered a scourgify next but in light of how long it was taking her to focus sufficiently, she prioritized, walking to the door and probing at the ward there.   
She couldn’t even detect it until it gave her a nasty electric shock that made her entire hand numb. 

Five minutes later it was still numb when Tom came in, looking less than pleased. 

He was shocked that she was up and immediately cast diagnostic spells over her, barely even concerning himself with her nearly naked form in the dim room.   
“Thats impossible!” he stated and looked at her closely. 

“I felt a lot better when I woke up” she explained. “Is there any way I could possibly wash and dress?” 

He scratched absently at the neck of his rough cotton uniform as he looked at her, again with that speculative expression.   
“It’s the wrong time of day and I have to return to work.”   
The last part he said with a somewhat bitter tone of voice. She wondered what he was doing.   
Looking into her eyes as he had been, he responded to her query. “Menial chores. I am forced to serve these muggles.” 

He explained it as if she had no idea what it might be like to work by hand. 

“Can I help?” she asked uncertainly.   
His eyes narrowed. “You’re not a pureblood, are you..”   
He did not phrase it as a question. 

She looked down. “No” she confessed. “My father was a muggle”   
Tom’s expression became introspective. 

She thought to herself that she hadn’t..really.. lied to him. Her father was a muggle.   
And her mother was too.   
It wasn’t truly a lie.. just an omission. And it wouldn’t matter when she got home anyway. Her Tom was quite aware she was a mud..muggleborn..and didn’t seem to care in the slightest.   
She wasn’t sure what this Tom might think. It was probably safer to be a half-blood. 

“You can’t help” he said shortly. “No one can know you’re here.”   
“Don’t try to leave the room.. every time you activate the ward I have to come check on you and...It’s better if I don’t leave my chores.”   
The last part was said quite darkly.   
She wondered whether he got into trouble for being away from whatever they had him doing. 

At that moment a male voice from somewhere far away roared out “TOM!! Get chor arse back ere, boy! You ain’t finished with this floor! I’ll bloody tan yore hide if I aff to look fer yer” 

Tom actually flinched and she was so shocked that her mouth literally fell open. He glared at her and sent a stinging hex her way.   
She yelped slightly and he calmed, turning on his heel and striding out of the room quickly, closing the door after him. 

She felt sorry for him suddenly. She knew that the orphanage had been a horrible environment, from the little she’d learned from Harry and Dumbledore and from Tom’s words to Harry in defense of Draco on the beach.   
She thought again about what he’d said about Draco sleeping with his wand and how he too slept with his wand.   
Perhaps he’d had similar experiences to Draco. She hoped not. The thought of Tom lying here helpless while.. 

It made her feel sick. She wanted to kill anyone who would do that to him.

She wondered again about the voice of the man who had called for him and shook her head slightly. It wasn’t as if he’d tell her if she asked.   
She wished she’d asked before this happened..but then she’d be tempted now to try to protect him and clearly that was not good for the timeline either. 

For lack of anything better to do she wandered back to bed and curled up under the covers, wrapping herself into a foetal position. Soon enough she dozed off again.   
She woke up with a body curled around her own.   
She recognised alone by the shape of him that Tom lay spooned up behind her. 

“Are you ok?” she asked softly. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” came the curt response. 

“Doesn’t matter” she mumbled and put her hand over his around her. He slid it out from beneath hers and roughly forced her to turn onto her back. She looked up into piercing deep blue eyes.   
His expression was hard. There were faint shadows around his cheekbone.   
He swept the blankets down off her, looking over her hungrily.   
“Where did you get the tattoo?” he demanded, his eyes somewhere around her collarbone. 

She clenched her fists beneath the blanket. “Just a tattoo.” She said uncomfortably.   
His alert blue eyes flicked up to her own amber ones and he snorted faintly. “You should tell me..” he advised. 

“It’s just a tattoo. I got it with some friends to mark the death of another friend.” 

He narrowed his eyes at her. “little liar..” 

she swallowed “It’s not a lie” she protested.   
She really felt it could be argued as the truth. She got in a gathering with new so called friends and it was marking the death of another former friend, Ron.   
If she could tell him the details surrounding it, which she couldn’t, she felt it was an arguable point.   
She wondered what would happen if she activated it here. Would he feel it? Technically he was the same person but then.. was he? It hadn’t happened yet.   
Did a mark respond to his essence or was it a kind of connection made and maintained. Like a wire which hadn’t been attached to him yet. 

Instead of continuing his questioning of her ‘lie’ Tom ran his fingertips down her body lightly, still watching her with the same hard expression.   
She shivered.   
He smiled but there was no warmth to it. He cupped her breast again and stroked her nipples to tight little buds. It took mere seconds for them to respond.   
She looked up at him uneasily, taking in the resolute heat in his eyes. Her body was crying out that it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all to just jump on him and damn the stupid timeline.   
Tom’s hand squeezed her breast gently and then he peeled down the lace of the bra cup, exposing her. 

She bit her lip. 

He continued to play with her breast, tweaking the nipple and drawing circles around it with his finger; then he leaned down and took it into his mouth.   
She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply at the hot wet delicious feeling. When she let the breath out again it came out shaky and broken.   
He sniffed in amusement and teased her with his teeth, already peeling down the other cup so that he could continue the same treatment on her other breast. 

She let him. Merlin help her but she tipped her head back and just enjoyed the feel of his mouth on her.   
He wasn’t as practiced.. as subtle.. as he was in her time.. but god.... he felt so good anyway. 

His hands were sliding underneath her back and fiddling with her bra fastening. It took him a few moments to work it out and then he released her wet nipple from his mouth and pulled her bra down her arms impatiently, tossing it aside and returning to her body, pulling her further underneath him and leaning over her to kiss and trail his tongue up her chest to her neck.   
She moaned when he discovered one of her more sensitive spots and he returned to it, focusing more attention there, sucking and nibbling till she was breathing hard and melting in pleasure. 

He traced his hands down her body till he reached the waistband of her panties.   
She tossed her head and tried to force herself to regain control and stop him. He was already dipping his fingers beneath the waistband and sliding them down slightly.   
She struggled internally as his mouth wandered up to nibble at her ear. He was sliding over her slowly...but it felt so good. 

“No... wait” she mumbled. “Stop..”   
She jumped slightly as he abandoned the downward motion of the flimsy red panties and simply ripped them off her. Then he was nudging her legs apart with his knees and his mouth wandering back down her throat making her delirious...making it so hard to think about why she wasn’t supposed to do this.   
She felt a hand play at her breast again and gasped, melting. “Tom..” she murmured, arching slightly into his hand.   
Then his cock was already at her entrance and he was sliding into her wet heat smoothly. 

She heard him groan softly under his breath and he moved in her slowly, splaying her legs further with his knees and thrusting deeply.   
She was powerless to prevent herself rocking up against him, eager to scratch the itch he’d ignited.   
He leaned up and she opened her eyes to see him looking down at her with something like cool fascination interwound in his arousal.   
He was watching her.   
She gasped when he pumped her a little harder and his eyes glinted in response to her unconscious movement, examining her behaviour as if it were some kind of puzzle to unlock. 

He reached down and found her knee and pulled it up, stretching it up over his elbow and then he wound his hips as if seating himself as far in as he could. 

She turned her head sighing in pleasure, her breath fast and shallow. 

When he started to slap into her hard and deep and slow she couldn’t prevent herself from emitting little moans of delight and when he reached for her other leg and slid it up against his shoulder, starting to really pound into her roughly she only moaned louder.   
It wasn’t long till she was keening her release and as she started to flutter and clench around him, he too fell over the edge into a softly groaned climax. 

She panted and tried to recover, taking her legs down from Tom’s shoulders with little energy in her limbs. 

Tom withdrew from her gingerly, as if his penis were hypersensitive.. and then immediately took out his wand and scourgified them both.   
He cast a contraceptive charm over her that she didn’t know and only then did he allow himself to flop back down onto the bed on his back and cover his eyes with the back of his forearm, still breathing quite quickly.   
She had a feeling that not stopping him somehow had been a bad idea.   
He’d be more addicted or whatever to her now. He’d do more than put up a few wards to stop her from leaving, if he was anything like his older counterpart. 

She couldn’t go to Hogwarts!   
She’d already killed three men because they developed a need for her that Tom objected to.   
If she went to Hogwarts she’d be around hundreds of teen-aged boys. It would be a recipe for disaster! It would be dangerous to go there! 

Tomorrow, she promised herself. Tomorrow she would dismantle his wards and sneak out.   
He’d never find her and life would go on for him.. and the timeline wouldn’t be damaged. 

Tom lifted his arm from his face and shifted slightly making himself more comfortable. “Well you may be a bad liar but you’re a pretty damn decent fuck.. tell me how it is that you are wearing my mark, Maia.. if that is your name. I’ve never seen you before in my life and I’m damn sure you aren’t among the eight who currently have the honour.” 

Her blood turned to ice in her veins.   
There was nothing she could possibly say to contradict that. She didn’t think he would have started using the mark this early.. he shouldn’t recognise it.   
This wasn’t fair. If Tom remembered this.. why the hell would he...oh.   
Her brain caught up with events.   
He’d seen to it that she didn’t age. He’d been insistent that she take his mark. Harry’s was not sufficient although it fulfilled the same purpose in essence.   
It wasn’t sufficient because he did remember her.   
He remembered her as she looked now.. wearing his mark.. he had selected her clothing.. he probably remembered it. Exactly how much had she told him?! 

He could have made it clear to her.. except he didn’t because he hadn’t.   
She must have acted as if this were unexpected to her. And that was why he hadn’t told her. 

Time was a bitch. 

She swallowed.   
Fine. Suck it, time!, she thought, tossing a large portion of care to the wind. 

“Alright” she said. “I’m not from Germany. I’m not from this time at all.” 

He nodded thoughtfully as if he had already considered this possibility at length. She chewed on her bottom lip a little and went on.   
“I can’t tell you anything about where I’m from – somewhere in your timeline. There was an accident. Someone else. Not you, obviously.” 

“I had just been through initiation.. taken your mark.. and then shortly afterward someone grabbed me.. some things happened and there was an accident. A massive outpouring of magic threw me through time.   
And now I’m here.. and if I tell you too much then I’ll change something.” 

“You’re the most intelligent person I’ve ever met. You know what could happen if I create a paradox.   
I was thinking to just leave and get far away from you. I don’t know how to get back but if I’m far away then at least the chances of me destroying the fabric of time are reduced.”

He took a deep breath. The expression on his face was conflicted. “That would be the most logical solution, yes.” He conceded. “However you are still going to come with me to Hogwarts.”   
She half sat up and started to protest.   
He turned steely eyes on her and she stilled.

“Time will be fine.” He said with absolute certainty.   
“I have philosophised about time paradoxes at length and come to the conclusion that they are impossible. Whatever you do, will already have happened. There will be an ouruboros effect - you will create a loop.   
In the future you will end up where you ended up because of the events you are setting in motion in the past.. in the present, really. So don’t fuss about it any further.” 

“If you wear that mark then you have already sworn to obey my commands and I am telling you – you are coming with me to Hogwarts.   
There will be no further argument on the matter, do you understand..girl?.. whatever your name is. Maia, if you like.” 

She stared at the ceiling in ominous foreboding. She couldn’t exactly tell him why she shouldn’t go to Hogwarts. At best he’d try to bind her magic and still make her go.. at worst he’d start ordering her to use the raw magic to his own ends.   
She gulped and nodded.   
“It would be better if I could keep far away from others then.   
..I..I was exposed to a potions experiment some time back. I tend to have a mild amortensia-like effect on males. I was always kept isolated before my initiation.   
It..would be safer if I didn’t accompany you... my Lord.” She used the honorific hesitantly. 

The boy lying beside her blinked and smiled slightly. “Ah. That explains one more thing that had me puzzled. I am not normally inclined to..dalliances.   
Here and there I’ll date, mainly for the look of the thing – it is expected, you know... but rarely do I feel inclined to take one of the chosen few to my bed. They simply do not sustain my interest, for the most part.   
It is unusual...unnatural..for me to desire you so sharply.   
...Is there any counteragent to this effect?” He asked it in passing. She told him there wasn’t. 

“It matters little. I doubt I would use it anyway. You wear my mark and therefore belong to me. I will use you as I please. I find that I quite enjoy this..pull. I could have you again already.”   
He sighed and stretched his arms above his head. “Do you know how to perform fellatio.. girl?”

She rolled her eyes internally at the thought that ‘girl’ might become her new label from him.   
“Yes, my Lord.” she responded, sighing. 

He shifted, budging lower in the bed and folding his arms behind his head. “Well then..” he snapped impatiently. “On your knees.” 

She shifted to comply. 

He tossed the blanket off them both and watched her as she took his half hard cock into her mouth and delivered one of her stellar performances.   
He didn’t last long and when he came he actually hissed in satisfaction, clamping her head to him. She sucked him clean and climbed back up in bed beside him, dragging the blanket back over them both. 

He gave her a look of near awe.   
“That was..spectacular” he informed her. “Merlin’s beard.. you are..something else, witch.” He gripped her jaw lightly with his fingers as he seemed to inspect her face.   
“Quite a fetching little thing too..” He smirked. 

“What are the 5 uses of dragons blood?” he demanded abruptly. 

She smirked back smugly. “There are twelve actually. I can’t tell you because I don’t know which ones you already know about..”   
His eyebrows shot up and an avaricious gleam in his eye warned her that little pieces of information like that would tempt him to try to pry knowledge out of her. 

“Explain Magorians theorem then” he responded.   
She told him not only who the celtic arithmancer was, when he lived and died, but expounded his theory and related it to a contesting theorem ‘Leipsatz’s continuous conjunction’ which she knew had only been proposed in the early forties.   
When she paused in her monologue Tom’s eyes were bright and greedy. She could almost see the word lit up in neon letters ten miles high. ‘MINE’.   
He asked her several more questions in charms, astronomy, herbology, ancient runes..   
As she continued to exceed expectations the gleam in his eyes grew. 

Finally he turned to defense against the dark arts and then.. after a few questions, without warning he veered sharply into the dark arts themselves.   
She was surprised and slightly unsettled that she could answer his questions in that area too. 

It occurred to her suddenly that she might be more tainted than him at present. She had killed ..twice with her bare hands even.. She had used unforgiveables.. she had made horcruxes.. she had..destroyed souls.   
She took a sobering breath. 

Tom stroked fingertips down her cheek. “You are a worthy knight..” he praised. 

She frowned. “A what?”

His eyebrow soared..   
“My servants are not called the knights of Walpurgis in your time?” he queried. She shook her head. He seemed on the verge of asking what they were called but changed his mind.   
“it is not important. Here and now you will be one of my knights of Walpurgis. The ninth in my circle.” 

She nodded agreeably. Why not?! She signed up to be a death eater. It certainly sounded nicer to think of herself as a knight. Knights saved people..defended the innocent.. went on quests..battled dragons... Draco!”   
She thought suddenly about her own time. What had happened?   
Tom would have realised that she was gone.   
Unless of course she eventually managed to return and was able to return to the time she had left. In which case nobody would probably be the wiser that she’d ever been away.   
But since she had no idea how she’d gotten here.. and little will to cast herself into the heart of a star as Tom had wryly suggested she might when she proposed changing time, it was unlikely she would just experiment with throwing herself through time and hoping to hit that single moment. The idea seemed like tossing a dart through space and aiming for a small piece of debris in a distant galaxy. 

She looked at Tom. He was staring at her thoughtfully again.   
“your mark looks different.” He noted noncommittally. 

She snorted. “Yes. Call it the new and improved version. You don’t need to know what’s different about it. You’ll think of it yourself eventually.   
It certainly won’t be before you see me again in the future though.” 

He raised her arm and watched the black snake writhe in the midst of the boiling stormclouds. “It is quite..pretty.. this way.” he observed. 

She tilted her head.   
“it has a skull on it. Skulls aren’t pretty, they’re ominous. You designed it to be frightening, I’m sure.”   
He snorted.   
“Well naturally. But yours.. looks softer somehow. The bluish lightning.. a rather nice effect. Bravo to future me.”

She looked at him. He was so Tom suddenly. She smiled.   
“Can I help you work tomorrow?” 

His face immediately shut down as if a door had slammed. “Don’t be ridiculous.” 

Her face fell. “oh. ..sorry. Sorry..my Lord.   
I..just thought you could disillusion me and I’d keep out of the way if anyone else was around.   
You’d get whatever you have to do done more quickly. You could cast a notice me not. And..it would be nice to get out of this room.   
I’d clean toilets to have the chance to go outside for a bit.”

He scowled blackly.   
“No.”

She looked away. “ok. I won’t bring it up again.” 

He said nothing but turned onto his side away from her, wrapping his arm under the pillow again. 

She looked at the wall of his back and didn’t know whether he would accept her cuddling up to him.   
Safer not to chance it really, she reasoned and turned over onto her stomach, stretching both arms under the pillow and turning her face in the other direction. 

She was almost asleep when she felt his arm slide over her back and tug her closer.   
A warm breath on the back of her head gave her a feeling of comfort and she subsided into sleep with a faint smile on her face. 

 

 

In the morning, unsurprisingly he was gone. She wondered what he was doing and scowled at the door, its invisible ward taunting her. 

The thought sprang immediately to her mind, light and tempting like the first piece of popcorn in a tub. She could.. just make herself invisible and go and look.   
A disillusionment spell would make her transparent.. she would be hard to notice.. but a true invisibility spell would make her impossible to notice, provided nobody actually walked into her. 

She stopped herself.   
No.. she shouldn’t get into the habit of using raw magic for things. It was dangerous. Really really dangerous. Tom was anything but stupid. He’d work it out.   
But she wanted to know what he was doing – it seemed like he really didn’t want her to know. That made her more curious than ever.   
She could.. maybe find a way to disguise her ability.   
If she only had a wand then she could pretend she was just an amazing wardbreaker.   
Could pretend that there was just a spell for invisibility in the future when there was no such thing. It was only attainable using a potion or a cloak. 

She just needed a wand. 

She stamped the covers down off her sticky body in the stuffy humid room. She hadn’t gotten to have a shower last night in the end. She really wished she could have one. 

But first things first. A wand. 

She concentrated hard on her wand.. as she’d last seen it.. imagining its length, width, shape, feel..   
Imagined holding it in both hands.. the weight of it. 

And then she tried to keep that thought in mind and felt around inside herself for that muscle that wasn’t a muscle..

it took a long time to be able to keep the thought in mind clearly and still be able to focus to tense the part of herself that diverted the cold stream through her.   
It was frustrating how often she almost had it, only to lose her grip. 

Once she felt an object press against the skin of her hands and panicked in her excitement and lost it again. 

After hours she finally managed it and when she stopped focussing after several minutes the warm wooden length of her wand lay in her hands.   
She swished it experimentally and it performed like a real wand.   
‘it is a real wand’ she told herself. “It’s just one I made from..energy.. or something. Everything is made of energy at a very basic level. I just reorganised some other stuff that was already around and made it into this – which it had the potential to be all along.   
In a sense the wand was always there, I just didn’t recognise it. 

She cast a strong scourgify on herself. The wand worked.. and it felt familiar.. but she wondered idly whether it couldn’t work better.   
More efficiently or.. more perfectly attuned to her. 

Was it possible to adjust a wand?! 

It seemed a small matter to focus on that next. After all.. she’d already gone ahead and used magic to bring it here..   
If she was going to try to stick to her wand for the rest of the time and she wanted it to be believable that she was powerful – she ought to be powerful. 

It was easier to think about this idea and draw upon the magic. It took much less time.   
When she levitated her boot over to her to test the amendment it flew to her with almost no effort at all. The wand almost leapt to obey. 

She used a modified sticking charm to ‘holster’ her wand to her forearm. It was visible.   
She realised that this was a problem.   
If her wand was not here before then it had to have been invisibly holstered somewhere or Tom would have found it. 

It took a very long time to create an effect that mimicked the invisible holster using raw magic. To have it disappear and pop out of..wherever it was.. when she flicked her wrist.   
She didn’t know how it worked.. the wand seemed to disappear into nothing when she dropped it down into her faux ‘holster’ - it wasn’t even tangible on her arm - but it reappeared on a flick.   
It was good enough though, she decided.   
Luckily she could blame almost anything inexplicable on future technology and refuse to explain. 

She smirked widely. She felt the mad urge to say Mwahahahaha! and suppressed it. 

Scourgifying her clothing and dressing quickly in her lingerie, she transfigured her dress into something that approximated Tom’s uniform. Just in case.   
She put it on and it felt uncomfortable. She wasn’t surprised that he scratched at it. 

It came a lot easier to draw upon her magic to render herself invisible. Instead of taking down the ward on the door she simply worked to create a hole she could step through. She healed it again after she was on the outside.   
All things considered she found that it was easier to access her ability the more often she did it.   
And it was so much easier than using wand magic.. no spells needed, no wand movements, no geometry. Just..wish. and let it be so. Wonderful.   
She almost leapt for cover when a little girl of about six dressed in a dismal blue and brown uniform like herself skipped down the corridor, but the girl didnt give her a second look.   
She could not see her own hands either, she noted.   
She would have to remain quiet. 

She flicked her wrist and drew her wand, casting a standard silencing spell on herself head to toe and, after some consideration, a proximity charm which would gently steer anyone out of the area in a one metre radius around her body.   
Content, she strolled down the corridor curiously, wondering where Tom might be. 

The place sounded like a school playground. Screaming playing children everywhere. 

She walked past a door and saw a yard outside with dozens of children playing in the dry unkempt grass. There were no swings or playsets. They played with sticks and their imaginations.   
She remembered her own earliest experiences in the playground of her muggle school. A girl in her class had called her a freak and everyone had pointed and made fun of her.   
Children were horrid.   
She walked on past the door into a large room with two long tables lined with chairs. 

This must be the dining room she thought, obviously. It was old and worn and very institutional but spotless. She wandered through it toward the two doors at the other end.   
One led to the kitchen, empty, also spotless. The other led to another corridor.   
She heard a faint sound. It sounded ..familiar.   
It happened again and she ventured down the corridor toward it, trying to work out where she had heard it before. 

When she heard it again and there was a faint muffled sound that sounded like a cry she started to run. 

She found the door, almost at the end of the corridor where the sound was coming from. 

“Y’ve got the devil in yer, boy! Y’ain’t right. Ain’t getting nuthin you don’t deserve, y’know that, don’tcha?!”

She gasped and cast a lookilu transparency charm on the door quickly.   
It was actually worse than she had imagined.   
Her stomach revolved.   
Tom was bent over a desk covered in papers and coffee mugs and assorted rubbish. His pants were down around his ankles and blood flowed down the backs of his thighs from what were obviously dozens of vicious strokes of the cane that a large heavily built unshaven boor of a man held in his meaty fist. 

The man in question now tossed the bloodied cane onto the floor beside him and started to unbuckle his belt. She thought he was going to beat Tom with that but it was worse. He started to open his trousers!   
She saw Tom clench his fists, white knuckled. His cheeks were dry and he remained silent.   
His eyes narrow and full of hate, staring at the wall in front of him, unwilling to acknowledge what he must have heard happening behind him.. as if this were no irregular occurrence. 

She felt the mad urge to scream and panicked.   
This couldn’t happen!! She could NOT let this happen! Not again. Not ever again!

She wracked her brain. The first thing that jumped into it was ‘just make him not exist!’ she screamed and beat that idea down with iron bars.   
No! NO fucking with reality! At least no fucking with reality in more than little insignificant ways! A muggle solution..or a regular wizarding solution.   
An idea struck her. 

She drew her wand and cast a glamour rendering herself into a tall, matronly woman dressed in a habit - a tough old nun – she modelled herself on one of the nasty old biddies at the church her parents had taken her to as a child. Sister mcheary.. or mcpheary.. or something like that she thought. 

It took concentration she didn’t have to access raw magic to cast off the invisibility. She struggled and failed, frustrated, seeing the horrible balding man already positioned behind Tom and wetting himself in his blood. She screamed through the silencing charm in rage at herself.   
Finally she managed it and her hands drifted back into the realm of visible objects. She threw off the silencing charm and unlocked the door, stowing her wand with a quick movement. 

Opening the door briskly she made a great show of jumping back screaming, clutching her chest.   
“OH my GOODNESS! WHAT are you DOING to that boy – you VILE EVIL MAN!! Get OFF him! Get OFF him right NOW, I SAY!. 

She strode in like the wrath of god himself and picked up the cane from the floor and used it to beat the shocked and sputtering exposed man across the face and body.   
She even managed to get a shot in across his weepy hard member.   
He yelled like a stuck pig and started cursing.   
Tom had half turned and was looked at her with eyes wide as saucers. She wasn’t sure whether he realised it was her. It seemed more like he was just completely astounded that someone..anyone..had saved him. 

She continued beating and berating the horrible filthy man who raised his arms to protect himself but clearly did not dare to fight back against an emissary of the lord.   
She finally broke the cane over her knee. 

“How DARE you abuse the children in your care.” She hissed venomously.   
“This boy is leaving with me! He will stay with the parish from now on. Do NOT even TRY to stop me - I assure you I will summon the nearest bobby and have you dragged away in chains in a heartbeat.   
I will return and check on the other children. You will not know when I will come but I will pay very close attention to you, Sir – and if I find out that this behaviour is repeated with any other child here – You will spend the rest of your sorry life behind bars.   
Beg the Lord for forgiveness for what you have done for you shan’t be receiving it from me!” 

The ugly bullish man didn’t even try to speak. He looked quite shocked and ashamed actually, she thought.   
His eyes wandered to Tom who was fastening his trousers, wincing slightly and he narrowed his eyes, now seeming to want to say something.   
She hissed at him “One word. Mark me – One word to him and I’ll forget the mercy I’m showing you right now!” 

She turned to Tom. “Come, child. We are leaving this place.” 

Tom blinked dumbfounded and a sudden look of panic washed over his face.

“Now!” she demanded and marched out of the room. 

When he followed slowly, almost as if in a daze she turned and gripped him by the arm and frogmarched him through the halls toward his room.   
He didn’t fight but as he neared his room he became slower, reluctant. Obviously imagining the nun who just saved him was going to find a naked witch in his bed. 

“Don’t worry, deary” she said, smirking nastily. “I’ve already been to your room and whipped her outside and burned her at the stake quick smart. There’s no witch in there now.” 

His eyes bulged for a split second in panic and then they narrowed and finally he sniggered.   
“Merlin’s hairy balls, you are bloody amazing... whatever your name is. How the hell..”   
He looked irritatedly at the door, obviously noting his undisturbed ward. 

“How did you do that?!” he demanded flatly, obviously disturbed at the ease with which she’d defeated what he’d imagined to be an effective restraint. 

“Skill and luck” she stated absently. “Open it quickly. We’re leaving here and we aren’t coming back. Get everything you want to take with you.” 

He looked at her uneasily.   
“Where are we going? I haven’t..”   
She shook her head.   
“Pack, Tom. Pack, my Lord. Just pack, alright. You aren’t going to be in this hellhole ever again. I’ll kill that man before I allow him to do that to you. And if I kill him there’ll be a fuss.   
Nobody likes a fuss so we’ll just mosey off into the sunset, alright?” 

Tom nodded and looked dazed again. He opened the door, discarding his ward and summoned everything from the wardrobe onto the bed. 

She undid her glamour and he snorted at her in the ugly uniform.   
She ignored him and flicked her wrist, drawing her wand to transfigure her clothing again. 

He caught her hand with the wand in it and demanded “Where did you get this?! You had no wand when you arrived. I checked. How-..”   
She shook her head. 

“Our technology is different” she answered simply. “I had no magic to use so I had no need of it till today.” 

Tugging her hand free gently she transfigured the ugly uniform on her body into a pale green muggle sundress. Summoning her robe from the wardrobe she transfigured it into a light cardigan. 

Tom had packed his meagre belongings into a battered old suitcase and shrank it down to palm size.   
She looked at him, tilting her head slightly and began to transfigure his clothing.   
He looked down, visibly discomforted.   
When she was finished he wore light, black, tailored slacks and a crisp white shirt with rolled sleeves.   
He looked quite preppy, she considered, if the word were appropriate in this era. 

He inspected himself with faint approval. When he looked back at her the hard-assed old nun stood before him.   
“Come Mr Riddle, let us leave this vile prison. You are free.” 

She strode out of the room, black habit billowing slightly behind her. 

At the very end of the corridor the horrible orphanage keeper stood, red faced and impotent to halt the events taking place before his eyes. His fists were clenched.   
She glared at him poisonously the entire length of the corridor and then pushed Tom ahead of her toward the door. 

She turned back to the repugnant man and spat. Actually spat at his feet.   
“The devil take you, sir!” she cursed him and then turned on her heel and strode out after Tom. 

She caught up with the slender dark haired boy as he was walking robotically toward the front gates of the institution.   
“I cannot believe I am leaving..” he murmured. 

She responded acidly “I can’t believe I arrived here at this stupid late time. Why couldn’t I have arrived earlier. Last year or the year before. It makes me furious to think of what’s been done to you. You are..the greatest wizard in the world. The greatest wizard of several ages. And that ridiculous man laid a hand on you?! Aaaugh!!   
...Oh..hell, I forgot. I’m so sorry!! You’re still hurt!!” 

he turned to her with a slightly stunned expression. “It is truly nothing. I have had far worse and I would rather keep moving. I have the terrible feeling that a hand is going to descend upon my shoulder any second and drag me back.” 

She took him by the arm and marched slightly faster, taking them out of the gates and down the street. Turning into an alley she dragged him in and then apparated immediately with him. 

 

They appeared in the field that Tom had once taken her with the long grass and the sun, when he wanted her to come back to her mind. 

In this time it was quite short grass. There were a couple of cows near a fence in the distance. She snorted. 

“hm.. well.. it will do I suppose. You aren’t shy about cows watching you undress I hope” She flicked her wand, ending her glamour.   
The young Dark Lord simply blinked at her slowly.   
“You said.. you’re 18. I had forgotten. You can apparate. ..on top of everything else you can apparently do.”   
He stepped up to her quickly and suddenly his lips were pressed to her own and he was kissing her hungrily, his hands cupping her face. The kiss he gave her was so full of need and yet so grateful that she felt herself tear up slightly.   
When he let her go his eyes were shining. “Tell me your real name” he demanded. 

She bit her lip and hesitated.   
After a while she said reluctantly. “It’s not important. You’ll know it eventually. Maia is kind of close to my name.” 

He stroked her hair gently. “Tell me your first name..” 

She leaned forward and kissed him chastely. “I don’t think I told you – because I don’t think you knew who I was till I got old enough to be recognisable. I’m sorry Tom.” She smiled at him sadly. 

He sighed. “Alright. Maia then.”   
She nodded, relieved. 

“Right. Get your kit off. I’ll heal you and then we can think about where we want to go for the rest of the week and a half.” 

Tom looked at her, suddenly hollow worry dawning in his eyes. “You don’t have a plan, do you?!” he said almost incredulously.   
She scoffed.   
“Of course I have a plan. I have several in fact. But out of respect for the fact that you are my Lord and Master-“ she grinned with full teeth at him “- I thought I’d make it your decision rather than simply attempting to order you about.” 

He shook his head faintly, amazed and confused, and stroked a palm down her cheek.   
“I.. find myself.. somewhat disinclined to dictate to you at present. I have no doubt I’ll return to it soon enough.. but for now.. let us discuss your ideas and perhaps I may have a few of my own. I have never considered what I might do if I suddenly found myself free.” 

She smiled and pointed her wand at the ground. The grass rose and wove itself and then transfigured slowly into a blue and white striped mattress.   
Tom frowned at it curiously and raised an eyebrow at her.   
“An inside joke” she muttered. “You’ll get it later on in life perhaps.” 

He nodded vaguely and unbuckled, then dropped his trousers, which were already slightly clinging to his buttocks with the blood.   
She grimaced as he lay down on his stomach on the mattress and she had a chance to see the extent of his injury. 

She set to work cleaning and healing his flesh.


	54. Chapter 54

“we steal it from muggles” she stated as if it were obvious. 

Tom looked at her uncertainly. “is that really wise?.. the aurors come down like a ton of bricks on wizards who take advantage of the muggle monetary system using magic.” 

She shrugged. “we need money. Muggles have money. Magic can give us what they have and we need. It’s easier than trying to get it from any source in the wizarding world.   
Then all we need to do is stay in the muggle world till it’s time to go to Hogwarts.   
They’ll trace the money if we try to convert it to galleons but if we steal small amounts of cash from a lot of different muggle sources then spend it on board and food and the like, nobody is likely to be the wiser.   
If you want we can take the money from a lot of different places around Britain. I’m feeling up for a spot of leapfrog.   
I feel..actually.. great, in fact. I could just jump about with energy.” 

He seemed to consider this. 

“Or..” she hesitated. “Or I could just take us to Hogwarts now. Or.. I could take us to the Malfoys or..maybe the Blacks.   
I don’t know anyone else’s address to apparate to. I could take us to..um.. Riddle manor..”   
Tom looked up at her with furious eyes. 

She thought again.   
“Or.. or i have another idea. If you don’t want to mess with money – we could simply steal food.. and then take up roost in libraries all night.   
We only have ten or so days to spend. Libraries generally don’t have guards.. they’re nice and warm.”   
Tom looked quite piqued at this idea.   
“Food isn’t traced like money. I’ve never been inside a muggle library. We can transfigure everything we need except food. That is what we will do.” He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose lightly. 

They lazed about in the field for a while longer as the cows meandered about. Then they stood and Hermione ended the transfiguration on the grass.   
Tom pointed out an orchard visible in the distance down in the valley and so instead of apparating away immediately they wandered down there and disillusioned themselves to pick a quantity of apples and stow them in a satchel Hermione transfigured from a leaf.   
After that they apparated to London and wandered through some shops disillusioned, summoning various items into the satchel, at which point they too became invisible.   
Tom seemed barely able to restrain his excitement at being able to wander freely through the city and have any food he liked.   
It was so..unlike..his collected, controlled, older self, Hermione mused. Unlike him, but somehow adorable.

They filled the satchel quickly enough and Hermione suggested they leave it where they planned to stay. They decided on the national library to begin with and walked in like regular library patrons with their ‘shopping’   
Wandering around for an hour or so they found a nice quiet spot in the very back of the mythology section. They placed their shopping on the top of one of the dustier shelves and placed a glamour over it to blend into the grey wall behind.   
Then Hermione pulled Tom close again and apparated them both to Brighton. He smiled when they arrived, not having expected the jump. 

“I’ve only been to the beach once before” he remarked. 

She recalled suddenly when that was and cursed herself inwardly. Of all the memories to dredge up.   
Nevertheless the beach was very pretty and peaceful. All in yellow and pale blue with gentle waves. As it was midday on a weekday and most of the children were either in school or away in the rural areas, the beach was empty except for one or two solitary elderly men walking for their constitution. 

“Do you fancy a swim then?” she asked cheekily. “Might as well you know.” 

He looked hesitant. “We have no bathing costumes.. no towels. It’s probably freezing.” 

She snorted. “Magic?! Transfiguration and a warming charm. Come on.. I bet you’ve never swum in the sea.” 

He relented after five minutes of begging and, ducking beneath the pier and hunching into the shadows, she allowed him to transfigure what he considered ‘appropriate’ bathing attire.   
She looked down at herself and immediately transformed the rather long frumpy costume into something more streamlined and feminine.   
He seemed about to say something but then held his tongue and simply pulled her close, running his hands down the black silky skin covering her. 

“We will be underwater I suppose” he sighed. “and the beach is empty.”   
She nodded and pressed against him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing him. 

An older man who stepped down onto the sand in that moment happened to see them both and they jolted apart guiltily at his huffed “hwell I never!”   
Hermione tossed her nose in the air at him, laughing and, uncaring, jogged down the beach to the water, splashing in until she was thigh deep.   
She turned to see both Tom and the old man standing watching her gap mouthed. 

Frowning she yelled “are you coming?! It’s not that cold! I promise sharks won’t get you!” 

Tom walked more sedately down to the beach and the older guy slowly turned away and walked off down the beach, turning and ogling her several times along the way.   
“You are an absolute menace. You do realise that, I hope” Tom tossed at her flippantly.   
She laughed.   
“And that coming from you!” 

He seemed reluctant to get into the water now that he was down at the edge.

“Come on” she urged. “its not..that cold. The north sea is always a wee bit nippy but you’ll live.” 

Reluctantly he stepped into the water to his midcalves, adjusting his footing over and over again as the sand shifted beneath him.   
She waded back up into the shallows and took his hand and literally dragged him in further to the sound of “Wait.. not so fast. Damn it, girl. Its cold!”   
She laughed and pulled him on. 

When they were waist deep he looked decidedly nervous.   
She frowned at him. “Whats wrong?” 

He shook his head. “Nothing.. it’s...lovely.” 

She tilted her head and puzzled at him. “You don’t like it, do you?” 

He swallowed.   
“I can’t.. actually swim. My life has not involved a lot of swimming thusfar.” 

Oh. Oh!. She understood suddenly. Not only did Tom Riddle despise admitting that he did not know something, but as one who desired control at all times, the ocean with its shifting bed and tugging currents would be quite discomforting. Not only this, but, she gathered, he fancied her and was having to confront this situation in front of her. She realised that it probably said quite a lot that he had consented to come in at all.   
She bit her lip, not wanting to embarrass Tom, and then had an idea. 

“I’m going to cast the bubble head charm on you, ok? That way you will be able to breathe even if you’re underwater. And then I’ll show you how to swim.” 

He looked slightly panicked. “I don’t need to know how to swim. It’s not necessary to swim.”   
She scoffed.   
“What would they say if they thought that Lord Voldemort was afraid of a little water. It would be ridiculous if you couldn’t swim.   
I’ll teach you, then you’ll know. You won’t drown. I would never allow you to be harmed. I ...don’t want you to fear the water..” 

She thought back to the memory of the ministry of magic that Harry had shown her and Ron in the room of requirement. He had watched Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort duelling as he crouched in an empty floo chimney. At one point Dumbledore had captured Voldemort in a huge sphere of water.   
Looking at the face of this very handsome.. but very young and unnerved Dark Lord she knew that she couldn’t let him continue to fear drowning.   
If he did – Dumbledore might win. She couldn’t be sure..but he might. 

“Ok?” she asked, hopefully.   
He frowned distractedly. “Why do you care whether I swim or not?” 

She bit her tongue. “Look. You just need to, ok.” 

His eyes widened microscopically although he straightened his face immediately and donned a casual discomforted grimace.   
“Well if you insist. Perhaps..I will allow you to teach me to swim. You may begin today and we will practice further when we return to Hogwarts.   
If it is so very...important to you.. how could I possibly refuse my saviour a boon.” 

She smirked. “Yeah. That’ll do. Do it for me” 

She nodded as if the matter were settled and flicked her wand out, looking around, paranoid, before casting first a notice me not charm and then a bubblehead charm.   
Tom tensed and raised his hand to probe at the membrane around his face, then calmed down immediately and, tentatively, exploratorily, pushed his face into the water, holding it there for a minute or so.   
When he raised his bubble coated head he looked relieved and much more comfortable.   
“You must teach me this charm” he said and it almost sounded like a suggestion. 

She nodded. “You have to remember to refresh it about once every half hour or so, but it can be refreshed underwater. Its quite useful.   
Otherwise there’s also gillyweed.. if you need to be underwater longer and want to swim faster. That will give you gills and flippers but its a bit..unpleasant.. when you change. A bit like polyjuice.” 

He nodded, looking at her amused. 

“Anyway. Why don’t we start underwater. Then you can get used to the idea of moving in the water and not drowning, ok?” 

He agreed and she cast a bubble head charm on herself and ducked down, pushing off and dog paddling.   
The water was quite murky and sandy, she got up and summoned a large handful of sand and transfigured two sets of goggles, handing one to Tom, who had not moved to dive underwater yet.   
He took the alien looking plastic things. 

“These are clearly not from this time, Maia..” he started to say. She waved him off. “We’re under a notice me not anyway. Who cares?! I hardly think you’ll distort the course of history with goggles.” 

She put them on and Tom imitated.   
“They aren’t very comfortable” he groused.

“No.. but better than salt water in the eyes” she responded and tugged his hand, lowering herself back under water.   
Now, when she swam under the surface she could see and she felt no need to go back up for air.   
Tom drifted rather helplessly beside her. She let go of his hand and turned to look back at him.

He seemed a bit tense but was looking about him with great interest.   
She tapped him and pointed down at a crab moving along the sandy bottom. He pulled at the water with his hands automatically and dragged himself closer.   
Watching his fascination gave her a warm feeling. 

Till he pulled his wand and cruciated the poor creature. 

She frowned and dragged him up.   
“What did you do that for?! It was just a bloody crab.” 

He smirked at her, looking ridiculous with the blue plastic goggles on. “It attacked me. I returned the favour.”

She pushed him over and he wheeled with his arms. “Enough diving then. I’ll teach you the backstroke. I’m sure the creatures of the ocean will thank me.”   
He scoffed.   
“It was merely a crab –as you say. Muggles eat them, don’t they?!”

She pursed her lips. That wasn’t the point. 

She taught him the kicking and paddling movement associated with the backstroke. He started to get it, to the point that when his bubblehead charm died out and she didn’t refresh it, he continued swimming on his back.   
She kept pace with him. They remained in the fairly shallow water. He could see by her jogging along beside him that the water was not deep.   
She smiled. “You’re really getting it.”   
After she tried to teach him to float on his back and he sank once, sputtering and coughing to the surface he demanded she teach him the bubblehead charm immediately.   
She complied reluctantly, afraid he might rely on it and not learn to swim. He seemed relieved though when he had cast it three times in a row without problems. 

The sun hung low on the horizon and she started to get a bit cold, despite warming charms so they called it a day.   
Tom seemed pleased with himself, if a bit distracted and introspective, as they walked, cold and salty, back to the dark shadow of the pier to dry off and change their clothing back. 

He had kept the ‘goggles’ she had transfigured and was clutching them determinedly as if she had offered him a secret weapon of the future.   
She hid her smile and sniffed slightly, her nose running a bit as he stepped close and wrapped his arms around her. Sneezing once, she apparated them back to the hidden corner of the national library.   
It was closed now apparently. Casting tempus, she was surprised to find the time nearing nine pm. It was high summer, apparently and the days were long. 

The library was dim and shady and silent. She cast a small yellow light orb to hover over their corner and sighed, relaxing.   
“You know” she said musing “I think I could live in a library.”   
He didn’t respond but summoned a large number of books and transfigured them into soft pillows until a large mound was formed.   
It reminded her very strongly of Rodolphus’ room and she felt a bit sad for a moment for how he had treated her the night she had been thrust back in time.   
She hoped he was happy with Lucius. 

And then it hit her. 

She needed to find a way to remove the blood bond with Rodolphus or she would die in a few short weeks. 

She froze and tried to stay calm. Rodolphus couldn’t bite her from fifty years in the future. She would sicken and die if she didn’t do something.   
She steeled her face to neutrality while her mind fluttered panicked.   
Tom was summoning their bag of goodies from atop the bookshelf and she tossed herself into the mountain of pillows pensively.   
Perhaps she could use raw magic to destroy the bond.   
She wasn’t sure what that would do to Rodolphus.. or if she should really care anymore. She’d have to find a place to try and be careful not to get caught.   
Or.. or maybe she could pull Rodolphus here..

or at the worst maybe she could actually kill him from here? 

Would she do that? She wasn’t sure she could make herself even if it were possible. 

If she couldn’t do any of those things .. she should probably tell Tom. Perhaps he’d be able to help...   
but.. not now.   
The angelic looking young man was smiling, going through the many packets and cartons and sweets they had filched earlier with a face like Christmas morning. 

He looked to her and suddenly said.. “You know.. I think this may be the happiest I’ve ever been” 

Surprised, she smiled as if he had given her a gift.   
He had.. in a way. It was a powerful thing to be responsible for Tom Riddle’s happiest moment. 

“There will be better days” she mumbled, smiling to herself.. He nodded distractedly. 

She summoned a book on the Loch Ness monster and transfigured it into a warm fluffy blanket while he perused their stash.   
“Biscuits? Cake? Or bread with jam or treacle or cheese or smoked bacon? Or.. or rock candy?” 

She grinned. “I’ll have an apple please and a stick of rock candy”   
He tossed her them. She flicked out her wand.   
“Accio jane Austin – pride and prejudice” she called.   
Nothing immediate happened. 

Tom made himself a sandwich with butter, hard cheese and smoked bacon and ate it with enormous relish. When he was almost finished a book whizzed past his nose and floated in front of Hermione. She took it with every bit as much relish as he had his sandwich.   
He frowned.   
“Why are you reading that idiocy?!” \

She sniffed. “I admit.. It’s a bit of a girl’s book. I like it.” 

He appeared to make an internal black mark next to his impression of her. She ignored him and started to read. After a while, he took a stick of rock candy and joined her in the pillows, enlarging the blanket further and nestling down. 

“Accio Nietzsche – Also sprach zarathrustra” he called after some thought. 

Hermione curled her top lip in disgust. “Seriously?! Good grief...” 

She opened her mouth to launch into an extensive monologue criticising the arrogance, bigotry and idiocy of the man but realised there was no point and in fact, Nietzsche’s ideas had probably been quite influential to Tom.   
She had to accept that she wasn’t here to change him or make him a better person. He had already become who he became.   
If he utilized ideas presented by philosophers she personally did not agree with, that was just the way things had been. 

She sighed and returned to Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. 

They both read silently, entirely absorbed for hours. Hermione was the first to yawn and decide to sleep.   
She forced herself to wake up and got up, walking to the end of the long row and casting a sequence of five proximity wards over the front doors and wider library space to ensure that they would have more than adequate warning in the morning and would be able to apparate away before they were discovered.   
Finally she cast a large notice me not charm over the entire row they occupied. 

Tom watched her over the top of his book thoughtfully.

She returned to the pillow nest and, after consideration, put the Jane Austin book in the transfigured tote bag along with all the other supplies, tossing Tom another stick of rock candy. He took it up without thanking her but smiled a small pleased smile at the book held in one hand before his face.   
When everything was packed up she came back to bed and crawled under the blanket, snuggling in to the soft lumpy mountain. 

“Stay dressed tonight, just in case we have to run” she muttered sleepily, her eyes already shut, head resting on a pillow placed over her crooked arm. 

“Mm.” Tom agreed absently. 

She tossed and turned a bit but then drifted off into a peaceful sleep, barely waking when Toms arm later wrapped around her and he too went to sleep clutching her to him tightly. 

 

 

Hermione jolted awake unpleasantly at the sound of the ward screaming in her head. “Ugh..” she groaned and turned to Tom. He was already awake.   
She mused on how the man always seemed to wake up as soon as she did.   
Even here..   
She wondered how horrible his childhood must have been that he was instantly awake at the smallest sign of waking life around him. 

“They’re over the other side of the main room” she grumbled. “but we should probably get ourselves moving.”   
Her tone of voice made this sound like a very unwelcome prospect. 

Tom, irritatingly enough, seemed awake and ready to go. He got to his feet nimbly and pulled her up by a hand, then summoned the tote and drew his wand, restoring the pillows to a large pile of books.   
Hermione looked at them heaped and felt mild guilt but it really wouldn’t be wise to send them all whizzing back to their places. They would just have to be a mystery to the librarians.   
They probably weren’t damaged, she consoled herself. 

Tom grabbed the tote and pulled her to him, his expression betraying eager anticipation. She flicked her wand into her hand and, sighing, disapparated them.   
They appeared in a patch of bushes. It was still dark outside. 

Tom looked around, disorientated. “Where are we?” 

She yawned. “A little library in Leeds” she mumbled. “We can leave the tote here tonight. Did you finish Zarathrustra?” He nodded.   
“Hm.. well.. if they don’t have what you want here.. we can maybe stop and pick up a stack from a better library. The advantage of this one is that it doesn’t open till later.” 

Tom snorted, disparaging this reasoning.. 

They walked up to the glass and wood doors. “Sorry.. I’ve been inside in my time.. but I didnt know if it would be the same. It isn’t..”   
She took his arm and apparated them through the doors, pleased at the lack of electronic alarm systems in rural public buildings in the forties.   
They wandered through the tiny library till they found a corner that seemed suitable and stashed the bag. Hermione couldn’t seem to stop yawning. 

“Now what..” she muttered. “Sun isn’t even up. Any wishes?” 

Tom brushed her hair to the side of her face. “How far can you apparate?” he asked, genuinely curious. 

She rumpled her nose tiredly   
“Not as far as you will be able to one day.” She answered. “although...”   
She mused internally.. She was fairly sure she could apparate..much.. much further than Australia if she ever let the raw magic flood her like it had when she had landed here. 

“Although?” Tom enquired. 

She shook her head “Doesn’t matter. Stupid thought. Why.. where do you want to go? I can go..um..”   
she focused. How far could she apparate without using the raw magic boost. “maybe.. as far as Norway, France, Spain” 

He snorted slightly. “You do realise Europe is at war, don’t you?!” 

She gifted him with a wry grin. “Where did you want to go? Australia? Antarctica? The moon?”   
She raised a dubious eyebrow ignoring the small excited little voice inside her that was yammering ‘Yes yes let’s go to the moon! We can simply apparate a bubble of air around us and ward it in.. do it! Do it!’ She stamped it down with iron boots. It was about three inches away from Tom’s joke about the centre of the sun or the bottom of the ocean. She stabbed at those ideas trying to kill them before her mind started to produce hypotheses on how it might be possible.

Tom sniffed.   
“I was merely curious how powerful you are.”

She managed with difficulty not to burst out laughing. The tiny worrying little voice inside her jeered.. ‘more powerful than you.. more powerful than anyone.. the most powerful.’ 

She shook her head simply.   
“I’m 18.” 

He pulled her close and kissed her possessively. “Take us to Berlin.” He commanded on a whim. 

Her eyes widened to dinnerplate size.   
“Are you insane?! What did you just say to me about ten seconds ago?! There’s a bloody war on!! Besides.. I can’t go further than France, I said.” 

He snorted. “It’s not so very much further. I’m certain you can manage it. We won’t stay long. We’ll just look and then you can bring us back.”

The fundamental factor did not escape her, that if she was to rely solely on natural apparition, she probably wouldn’t be able to just zip to the farthest limit of her distance abilities and back again. She’d be severely depleted when she got there. Of course.. if Tom was 16 and hadn’t had the chance to take apparition yet and get his license, possibly he wouldn’t know that.  
Either that or he didn’t believe her when she said she couldn’t go further than Spain or France... 

“What day is it today?” She asked resignedly.

He tilted his head. “28 August 1944” 

Hermione wracked her brain.   
“I don’t remember.. We didn’t learn about Hitler and the muggle war at Hogwarts – which is ridiculous, if you ask me.   
I only know a few of the bigger dates.. I know that March and April of 1944 Berlin was heavily bombed. And in 1945..”   
she frowned at him and shut up, then continued with reluctance. “I don’t remember if anything happened today in Berlin.   
It might have but just not been important enough for me to hear about it. A lot of terrible things happened constantly in World War 2. 

Tom’s blue eyes glinted dangerously. “So we’ll go then?” 

She bit her lip. “Where do you want to go in Berlin?!”   
She felt herself shivering inside as this stupid idea became more and more likely. Tom had warmed to it apparently and was looking at her as if she were impressing him again.

“You would know better than I, where the safest and most interesting place to visit might be” 

She grimaced   
“This is a very bad idea” she said worriedly. 

Tom smiled wider. “We’ll stay only a few minutes. How strong is your nerve Maia?.. Show me!..” 

She swallowed against her dry throat. “A few minutes. Only.” she said weakly, feeling like being sick. Tom nodded agreeably.   
She found she was breathing hard and hadn’t even done anything.   
Antsy she first glamoured both of their hair blond and her own eyes blue. 

“How good is your German?” she asked. “Mine is..ok for understanding.. but my accent isn’t good.” 

“Keine sorge, kleine. Ich komme damit zurecht, sollte es noetig werden” (don’t worry little one, i’ll be find with it, if it becomes necessary)   
She blinked. Tom’s accent was perfect.   
But then, she supposed, everything he got it into his head to learn, he learned perfectly.   
She sighed uneasily.

“..Ok. A few minutes. Then we come back.”

She frowned and, on top of the glamour cast a strong notice me not charm on the both of them   
Tom pulled her close and kissed her hard.   
“Whenever you’re ready” he goaded. 

She took his hand in a deathgrip and wrapped her arm around him.   
“Ok... ok.. alright.. we’ll do it.”

She tensed and concentrated on the exact place she wanted to appear. They compressed into a tiny point and vanished.

 

 

They popped back into existence in a large round stone room. There were holes in the walls where the light shone through. 

Tom was looking about himself greedily, almost drinking in every image.   
“Dies ist es?” (this is it?)

She nodded. 

The large stone crumbled rubble filled area seemed empty. Hermione cast a detection charm just in case and then crept to the nearest hole in the wall casting disillusionment charms on them both and peering out.   
There were quite a few people walking down a broken partly destroyed street, stone rubble lay on the side of the street in some places. Many buildings had holes and damage.   
There was no one close enough to hear them speak she felt. 

“We’re in a church. It was bombed last year. it was called the Kaiser Wilhelm church.   
It..it is never repaired.. it remains as a memorial.   
It apparently had very beautiful stained glass at one point.” 

They both looked up at the empty holes of the church windows. Some tiny shards of coloured glass lay in the rubble on the far side of the ruin. 

“What is outside?” Tom whispered. She hesitated.

“It’s ..it was one of the most affluent shopping streets in Berlin. If we were to walk down that street we would come to Brandenburger Tor.   
And if we were to follow the street straight past that we would come to the Reichstag – the ceremonial seat of government.   
But.. at this time.. the real centre is probably not in Berlin anymore. Germany is losing the war on the Russian front.” 

She went back to the broken hole in the wall and nodded at a red and green ornate oriental looking gate. “That was a zoo. An amazing zoo – it was built a hundred years ago. After world war ..after the Great War I mean.. they built an aquarium. But now.. it’s full of army contingents. They are a defense force against the red army.” 

Tom whispered incensed. “You brought us to a populous area in the centre of the city, virtually on top of a heavily fortified armed force?”   
he grinned at her.

She swallowed. “Well.. you wanted to see something. Can we go now?” 

Tom snorted. “Not even remotely! Let us walk down to Brandenburger Tor!”   
Hermione fought to stop herself from punching him. 

“NO!” she hissed. “Look.. we’re pushing our luck. We should leave!”

Tom took her hand and kissed the knuckles, grinning. He peered out the hole and then transfigured his clothes to resemble those of a man walking past in the distance.   
He modelled hers on those of a young girl in a summer dress, giving Hermione the same dress in a different shade with a thin long sleeved cardigan.   
Hers was forest green and black rather than yellow and black. 

She clutched at Tom’s hand. “Please.. let’s go.. the sun will be coming up at home.” 

He smirked at her and took her hand, ending their disillusionment spells and tugging her toward the half collapsed door of the round church building.   
“We’ll just go for a little morning walk, Maia.. work up an appetite. Hush.”

In her head she found herself screaming. ‘Oh god – he’s fucking HARRY. It’s Harry all over again. He wasn’t joking. He said he was like Harry and he bloody is!.. this is insane! Why are we here. I should just apparate us back.’   
Tom pulled her close and whispered in her ear “You promised to obey me... Walk with me to Brandenburger Tor. Then we’ll go home.”   
She gripped his hand as if she wanted to crush the bones. He smiled and tugged her toward the door again. She followed reluctantly. 

They were only steps outside the broken door when an angry voice barked at them officiously “Halt.. ihr da – was habt ihr da drinnen gemacht.?! (stop. You there. What were you doing in there?!) 

Hermione very nearly wet herself. 

Tom turned them and his blond blue eyed face was the very image of angelic regret and repentance as he made an apology in German, explaining he had only wanted to steal a kiss and that they wouldn’t do it again.   
The brown uniformed man with a cruel sneering mouth looked them both up and down   
“Siehe zu dass ihr hier weg kommt. Sollte ich sowas wieder erleben, werdet ihr auch was erleben..” (see that you clear off. If i discover something like this again, you’ll both get what for.) 

Hermione trembled and clutched Tom’s hand.   
He agreed and thanked the man and turned away and walked with her down the street as if it were nothing. As if they were merely two teenagers caught kissing in an inappropriate place. 

“War das nicht aufregend?” (wasn’t that exciting) he asked her a minute later, sounding amused. 

She looked at him as if he had two heads. 

He snickered softly and turned his face up to enjoy the morning sun – the blonde hair suited him, strangely enough – it made him appear less threatening.   
They walked on. When they came to a bakery he sniffed and sighed regretfully. She knew if they had money, he would be in the bakery now purchasing bread.   
Admittedly the bread did smell heavenly.   
Bread didn’t smell like this in England. She wondered how they even managed to get the ingredients here. 

They meandered down the street and he actually stopped them to look in store windows that weren’t destroyed at fashions on display.   
“Ist doch chic, oder?” (its stylish, isn’t it?) he asked as they looked at a long black gown with crystals sewn into the hem. 

It looked more than stylish, Hermione thought – it looked otherworldly. She would love to wear it.   
But then these things were so unimportant. If she wanted a gown like that she could transfigure herself one.   
Tom seemed to examine it closely. Then he walked on with her.

They could see Brandenburger Tor in the distance now. 

Tom smiled, wide eyed and she had to snort at how ridiculously Aryan he looked.. and so..pretty.. butter wouldnt melt in his mouth. 

Tom looked at her and appeared to be thinking something not too dissimilar. “Su siehst so anders aus” (you look so different) he whispered. 

They were almost at Brandenburger Tor. Its stone facade reared tall perhaps two hundred metres down the road and she felt the first faint fleeting flickers of relief flood over her. 

A black statecar pulled over to the side of the road ten metres or so in front of them and she looked with mild interest.   
Tom looked too. He swung her hand in his slightly and she smiled, knowing he was doing it purely for her benefit. Tom was not a natural hand swinger. 

The driver of the towncar got out, walked around the back of the car and opened the door outward. A few seconds later a beautifully coiffed pale blond woman emerged, taking the driver’s offered hand Diamonds dripped from her ears and she wore a pristine white dress that fell to mid calf and hugged her ample curves.   
She stepped out, holding a small clutch purse and waited. And then a man followed her.   
She saw the curly blond hair as he unfolded out of the very muggle car and it was like a massive twenty car pileup with an exploding gas tanker happening in slow motion. 

She stopped. 

Tom had stopped also. He looked uncertainly from her face to the man emerging from the car.   
If Tom had been a good enough legilimens at this age he would have been holding his hands to his head deafened.   
Hermione was shouting in her mind at top volume. “GRINDELWALD!!! GRINDELWALD. SWEET SALAZAR’S SYPHILYS ITS FUCKING GRINDELWALD. WHY DID I LET HIM TALK ME INTO COMING HERE. GRINDELWALDGRINDELWALDGRINDELWALD. I’M WALKING NEXT TO THE DARK LORD AND GRINDELWALD IS IN FRONT OF ME. MERLIN PROTECT ME. DON’T LET HIM SEE ME. G R I N D E L W A L D !!!” 

And as if reality heard her desperate plea not to be noticed, the man himself turned his head toward them in that very moment. He glanced at them mid step and then- then –he turned back to them and looked at them both again.   
Hermione screamed inside. Outwardly she held Tom’s hand and stood in the middle of the pavement with a friendly neutral smile on her face.   
Tom looked at her worriedly. “Was ist es? Was hast du?” (whats is it? Whats wrong?) he asked quietly. 

She turned to him and whispered in a voice that had no breath “Grindelwald..”   
Tom’s face stiffened slightly and he turned back as did she and then they both jumped because the tall powerful man with curly blond hair was standing less than a metre in front of them. 

Hermione fought not to shake in terror and failed miserably. 

Grindelwald looked curious and amused. When he spoke he had a deep rich melodic voice with a slight Slavic accent.   
“Woher kennst du mich, Schaetzchen? Ich kenne dich gar nicht, zu meinem pech. Wie heisst du den?.. und.. dein freund? Dein mann? Wage ich es zu hoffen – dein bruder?” (where do you know me from sweetie. Unfortunately for me, I don’t know you at all. What is your name then? And your boyfriend? Your husband? Dare I hope – your brother?)   
Grindelwald raised a large rough hand and stroked the back of his forefinger down her cheek.   
She shook harder and her hand clamped on Tom’s like a vice. 

“Gellert?!” the woman standing on the pavement back by the car called demandingly.   
The pale blue eyes of the tall man before them clouded with irritation. “Gehe vor, Claudine! Ich bin, wie du siehst, beschaeftigt.” (go on ahead Claudine. I am, as you see, busy) he ordered without affection. 

Hermione darted a look at Tom. For the first time he actually looked like he might be out of his depth.   
Grindelwald was turning back to them. She reacted before she could second guess herself, dragging Tom closer and turning, apparating them both away.   
She caught the expression of bemused anger on Grindelwald’s face as they popped away. 

They popped back into existence at Brighton but Hermione didn’t stop there.   
She nearly broke the bones in Toms hand as she apparated them in quick succession to a beach on the coast of France, a beach in Wales, a beach in Ireland.   
There she ran forward, dragging him five steps and then apparating again.   
They appeared on a small mountain in Ireland and she pulled him a short way again and then apparated once more. 

This time when she apparated she pulled raw magic and the power ramped up dramatically. 

They appeared on the beach in Australia.   
The sun was just dropping below the horizon and the sand was bluish purple and firm 

She walked a short distance and turned, not letting go of Tom’s hand. He was looking green. They were both panting. 

“Where are we?” he choked out. 

“Australia.” She bit out. 

He almost fell over. 

She chewed her lip looking at the sand where they had just appeared. Daring it to produce a curly haired, genocidal, dark wizard. 

Tom looked at her and looked at the sand incredulously. “There’s no way he could follow us he-“   
and then a crack announced Grindelwald’s appearance on the sands.   
He looked around quite surprised and spoke in accented English. “Well that was quite a leap.. You are a powerful little thing.. Now..you will answer my questions.” 

Tom was looking beyond alarmed.   
Hermione considered.. seriously considered the moon. The bottom of the Marianne trench.   
But if she did that she might as well just announce to the two darkest wizard ever to have lived that she was a conduit. Australia was at least still within the realm of possibility for someone as insanely powerful as Grindelwald or Voldemort.   
Tom had apparated to Australia.. had apparated others to Australia second hand. It required massive levels of power.. but not inhuman power if the blonde wizard currently standing before them could do it.. Grindelwald had apparently not met many witches who could accomplish it, to judge from his shining covetous eyes right now. 

She tried to think. Away... away.. How to get away.   
The thought of drawing on Grindelwald was insane. The man hadn’t even drawn his own wand, so confident was he that they would not even try. 

She gulped “I learned of you from my professor” she said very softly. “Professor Dumbledore”   
Toms hand tightened slightly on hers. She thought it might be a nervous flinch.   
Grindelwald angled his head slightly, ruefully. Hermione continued. “He showed me a pensieve memory of you. My name is Maia Schiller. This is my friend Thomas Marvolo” 

The man before them laughed low.   
“Do not believe everything dear Albus tells you..” he advised.   
“the man has a very selective memory and a skill for persuading one to accept his skewed view of things” 

Hermione personally agreed with this. She saw Tom smirk out of the corner of her eye. No no no.. she wasn’t bringing together the two most dangerous men on the planet. She WASN’T!

Grindelwald continued to move closer to them both.   
“This is a ..pleasant.. location..” he said. His choice of words seemed somewhat unnatural, as if he were having to construct the sentences block by block.   
She took a breath and tried to persuade the currently reigning dark lord politely to let them go. 

“We are very sorry that we ran into you this way. It was accidental. Thomas wanted to see Berlin and I.. I should have known better.   
We were a little desperate for an adventure since school is starting up again in a few days. This is.. more than we planned for.   
We’re sorry! Will you please let us go home, sir? We didn’t mean to disrupt your affairs or cause any offense.” She bit her lip, holding her breath. 

Grindlewald stood directly in front of them again.   
He smiled but it was a knowing powerful smile and he reached out a hand suddenly, cupping her jaw and freeing her bottom lip from her teeth with his thumb. She flinched, aware of the slight tensing of Tom next to her.   
“I am not sorry I ran into you Maia.. and Thomas. My girlfriend had a need for still more jewellery. I swear the woman must eat diamonds when I do not look. Your running game was a welcome escape.   
And now I find you..both..interesting. I would know more about you. Won’t you join me for lunch. We will.. talk.. drink tea.   
It will be better than shopping.. and I may then bid you good afternoon.” 

Tom looked at her and she wanted to swear. He was arching a blond brow as if this was a wonderful idea.   
She tried to think of some escape but short of revealing herself she could find none. 

“Where would you like to go?” she asked, resigned. Grindelwald smiled wider. 

“We will go to my castle, I think. I can trust the servants there not to try to poison me.” 

An entirely new chorus of panic burst forth within her. She wasn’t merely going to lunch with Grindelwald.. she was going to the place where he was strongest of all places in the world. Nurmengard.   
She opened her mouth to say something.. to suggest somewhere else.. but no words appeared in her mind. She closed her mouth.   
Tom, seeing her dismay leapt in.   
“Thank you Sir for the kind invitation. Maia is ..overwhelmed.. by your..generosity – clearly.” His small smirk belied the words utterly. 

Grindelwald raised his eyebrows and laughed, thoroughly entertained. “She is.. isn’t she?!”   
He looked back at her and she could almost hear the clang of cell doors in the greedy sweep of his eyes over her.   
“Do not worry, Maia. I am pleased to have you both as my guests. I will even apparate us all.” 

He reached out quickly and grabbed Hermione and Tom’s held hands and separated them, taking one in each hand.   
When he apparated it felt like someone had threaded a string through the length of her body and folded her up suddenly like a concertina.

 

 

They arrived in a white room. It seemed to be made of glasslike rounded edged white blocks. It reminded Hermione of sugar somehow.. or ice. 

Grindelwald released their hands only long enough to turn and take them again, standing between them both and leading them forward through a tall arch.   
The area they walked into outside the room reminded her of nothing more than a larger, grander version of Malfoy manor.   
Everything was white and gold and grandiose in dimensions. Doors were two and a half lengths of a person high. Stairs were carved filigrees of icy glass and wire, hanging precariously. 

Grindelwald whistled and a small brightly coloured parrot of some kind flew down and perched on his shoulder near Hermione.   
She looked up at it in wonder. It chirped and sang. 

“Would you like to hold him” he asked, smiling. 

She nodded. Yes.. she really thought she would. “Does he bite?” she asked. The man laughed low. Not if I tell him not to. Hold out your hand.” 

She held out her free hand and Grindelwald let go of Tom’s hand, placing it before the parrot, which climbed onto his finger immediately. He transported it down to her much tinier hand.   
The parrot chirruped and Grindelwald whistled something at it. It climbed amiably onto Hermione’s hand.   
Its feet were warm and scaly and wiry.   
He released her other hand and she tentatively stroked the bird’s royal blue breast. It sang. 

“Look.. he likes you” The curly haired dark wizard exclaimed, pleased.   
She looked past him at Tom. Tom was smiling peaceably but Hermione had spent enough time with him in all his forms to know that this impression was very much in opposition with his actual feelings at present. She looked back to the small parrot, stroking it gently.   
Grindelwald whistled something at the bird and it suddenly flew away. She followed it with her eyes as it fluttered away up into the dizzy pearly heights of the castle and disappeared.   
“Come.. we will sit and take tea and small cakes” The robust man announced and strode off. 

She exchanged a look with Tom and they followed, cautiously moving closer together again. 

Grindelwald led them through several opulent, tasteful if somewhat heavy rooms and then finally out onto a large open balcony. 

She gasped. Tom appeared startled too. The view was astounding.   
The balcony looked out over seemingly endless snowy peaks and jagged rocky climbs. 

She knew they were somewhere in Russia. Nurmengard was supposed to be in Russia, but this was breathtaking. The view could be at the top of Nepal or the middle of the swiss alps.   
It was also warm! The temperature out here should have been far below zero with icy gusting winds, yet the balcony was warm and still.   
A glassy white circular table surrounded by pearly velvet chairs was the only decoration on the balcony.   
There was no wall to break the view. The balcony simply ended in a sheer drop.   
Looking at it made Hermione slightly giddy.. afraid of falling.. afraid of being tossed over the edge. Tom looked wary too. 

Grindlewald held out a chair, looking at Hermione, smiling. It was parallel to the edge of the balcony. When she sat he helped her closer to the table.   
Tom snorted wryly and took the chair that backed up against the sheer drop.   
He met Grindelwald’s eye as the larger man took his seat on the castle side of the table. 

Immediately a house elf popped into being next to the table. It wore a gold and white uniform and looked at Grindelwald expectantly.   
“Lemon tea and honey. Cakes. A selection.”   
The elf bowed and popped away again. Seconds later tea and cakes appeared on the table without the elf reappearing.   
The tea was presented in an elaborate golden service. A porcelain teacup leafed in intricate golden fleur de lis patterning with matching saucer sat before each of them. It was so fine that it was practically translucent. The three layered tray with many different tiny cakes on it was equally ornate and perfectly crafted. 

She looked at the table and actually felt inferior to an selection of inanimate objects. 

Grindelwald poured the tea for each of them and offered them each the honey. Hermione used the wooden plunger to drop a goodly measure of honey into her tea.   
Tom politely declined.   
When they had all taken a sip of their tea Grindelwald began to speak again.

“So you were looking for excitement in Berlin” he observed, looking at Tom. 

Tom nodded politely. “Maia is older than me and was able to gain her apparition license last year. She stayed with me for the last few days and we began to find things a little tedious as the new school year approached. We only thought to visit the city for a moment or two.. but I challenged her to walk down to the Brandenburger Tor with me.” 

Grindelwald nodded.   
“I take it that you.. have more of a taste for excitement than your friend” 

Tom looked somewhat sheepish. Hermione detected it as one of his ‘innocent’ expressions, however and was once again unpleasantly reminded of Harry.   
“Perhaps..” he admitted.   
Grindelwald nodded, smiling. Then without warning he raised his hand and blasted Tom off the edge of the balcony. 

Hermione didn’t even have time to think before she flicked her wand out and captured Tom in mid fall, levitating him carefully back onto the balcony close to the castle wall.   
Automatically, she placed herself in front of Tom, between him and Grindelwald.   
Tom looked down at her with a pleased expression and wrapped his arms possessively about her. 

Grindelwald in contrast tilted his head appraisingly. “You are formidable.. but the boy is not your friend.. is he?!” 

Hermione looked at the blonde man fiercely and said nothing.   
Grindelwald smiled broadly. 

“You are wearing glamours. Remove them.” 

It was Tom who drew his wand and waved aside their glamours, revealing a black haired blue eyed boy and a mahogany haired amber eyed girl. 

The blonde wizard raised his eyebrows at them both. “You are still pretty things” he observed.   
He looked at Tom with hard, absolutely merciless eyes, the jovial grinning man faded into the background.   
“I will have your witch, Thomas Marvolo. There is something about her. She will be mine.   
I want her to defend me with this fierceness. She is a worthy creature.” 

Hermione backed up closer against Tom who held her tighter.   
“You can’t have her” he said flatly. 

Grindelwald rose to his feet slowly and now he did draw his wand. It was a black glassy looking rod that almost shone with malevolent intent.

“There is nowhere to run” he said. “The entire region is covered by anti apparition wards. You cannot leave.” 

Hermione bared her teeth. “Then we’ll fight.” She flicked up her strongest shield, wrapping it around both of them and feeding trickles of raw magic into it too tiny to be noticeable but enough to continually replenish it.   
Tom seemed to take her announcement in stride and immediately began flinging curses through her shielding, as if they had fought together many times before. 

Grindelwald had, however, also immediately thrown up a shield and the air clashed and banged with the sound of their spells rebounding and failing..   
The dark wizard measured the curses he sent, obviously still seeking to acquire her alive and intact. Tom did not and she could not even identify everything he cast at the German. 

Grindelwald looked both shocked and impressed and was forced to seek to avoid some of the more penetrating spells.   
Almost all were lethal and some were designed to make shielding difficult; a suffocating smoke that he dispelled it with a green wind; trillions of tiny specks of darkness that crawled all over the outside of his shield and ate at its energy which he thrust off with a second shield and an implosive reversal between them. 

Without warning her, Tom threw fiendfyre and Grindelwald had to summon frozen air, solidifying it into layers of ice that wrapped around the flame, stilling it. 

Hermione grew nervous. The blonde man was not flagging and his own curses began to be slightly more vicious.   
She raised her left hand and transferred maintenance of the shield to it..at least visually for the two men with her. In truth she was maintaining the shield amost entirely through raw magic now.   
She joined Tom in casting through the faint oily translucence.   
The impact of twice as many curses and the variety that they came up with in combination finally began to exasperate the man. 

She cast almost without realising a very dark curse she had read in the same book as the spell to destroy souls. She hadn’t even consciously tried to remember it but it popped into her mind now.   
A sphere of distortion began to materialize in a one metre radius around the outside of Grindelwald’s shield. He sought to dart away but the distortion followed him as if part of his own shield.   
Then it thickened and rippled, tightening.   
She saw the man within begin to panic, his eyes flying to her own, wide in awe and tinged in panic. 

“Fine! Leave!” he cried, dropping the anti disapparition wards as quickly as he could with the sphere still shuddering and tightening around him.   
As soon as he has managed it he disapparated and his absence caused the sphere to collapse violently, sending a massive shockwave roaring out in all directions. 

Hermione didn’t hang about – turning, she grabbed Tom and disapparated them. They appeared in the forbidden forest near a stream. By the light it seemed to be midday, yellow rays dripping faintly through the thick canopy 

Tom turned to her his eyes wide and triumphantly jubilant. 

She growled at him and grabbed his hand, tearing him along after her as she ran at full tilt through the forest till she emerged at the edge of the woods near Hagrid’s hut.   
It was definitely still mid morning to midday here. 

She disillusioned them both, knowing that the charm would only work imperfectly in this light and they crept up the hill toward the castle. As she started toward the main doors Tom pulled her to the side.   
“There is another way in.. a Slytherin way into the dungeons.” He hissed.   
He led her close to the side of the building until they had passed a rounded base of a turret. In the dark on the other side of the round he pressed a sequence of six stones and the wall next to the turret slid open with a grinding noise.   
He ushered her inside and the wall closed. It was pitch black. 

“Light will not work in here. Don’t let go of my hand” he said quietly, pushing her behind him. 

He took a very peculiar pattern forward in the dark, sometimes walking diagonally, then horizontally back to the wall and once he turned and lifted her then jumped forward quite a way.   
Eventually in slow progression they came to a wall in the dark and here he pressed another sequence of six stones, completely invisible in the darkness.   
This wall slid aside like the other and she found herself in what could only be the Slytherin common room. 

It was outfitted, she realised with slow amusement, quite similarly to the Dark Lord’s study and sitting room combined.   
The greens and blacks and silvers without the blue. Leather sofas, large fireplace, bookcases.   
There was a large oval window sunk into one wall. It was deep green and shimmered faintly. Movement behind the glass alerted her to the fact that the window opened out into the deeps of the lake.   
She looked around the room and felt a strange sense of comfort.   
It reminded her of Tom. 

Younger Tom suddenly embraced her from behind.. he whispered into her ear “Do you realise that not only did we walk through the heart of Berlin, we also visited Nurmengard and fought and won against Grindelwald today?!   
And it’s not even midday.. I can barely wait to see what you do next..” 

She hunched her shoulders slightly at the reminder.   
“God.. what have we done?!.. Why did we have to go to stupid sodding Berlin, Tom?! He’s never going to stop!   
I told you. I have an unfortunate effect on wizards that come in contact with me.. particularly for a long period.. and especially if they touch me. It’s worse, the more powerful they are.   
Grindelwald is going to be a huge problem!” 

“And now you want to put me in this castle.. with hundreds of boys.. with your servants!   
Will you share me with them all when they start to come after me?” she painted the image intentionally.

Tom released her and spun her.   
“I will not allow anyone to touch you. You are mine. Mine alone.” 

She laughed bitterly. “Wait and see then. It will get out of control. And I’m absolutely certain that we haven’t seen the last of Goldilocks.”   
She groaned.   
“Seeing him just essentially removed any choice I might have had about staying in Hogwarts. If I go outside the wards here.. he will find me.   
Maybe I should give up. Hundreds of teenage boys or one dictator with a parrot.” 

She gasped and clutched her arm in pain, falling to her knees as Tom stood over her with a dark mien..   
“You. Belong. To. ME. Maia.   
You are beginning to irritate me with the insinuation that I will be unable to defend you from a hoard of little boys.   
And clearly, as you have demonstrated today.. you are not totally defenceless either. I will expect you to send any suitor packing with his ‘tail’ tucked between his legs – are we clear?!”

She looked up at him. He was different in this room than he had been outside Hogwarts. Darker.   
She had the feeling that he was usually the Dark Lord in this place. 

“Yes my Lord” she whispered, holding her hurt arm to her chest. 

Tom smiled and stroked her check. “You have attended Hogwarts in your time?”   
she responded in the affirmative. 

“Which house were you sorted into?” 

She bit her lip. “Gryffindor, my Lord”

He snorted. “Well this time around I will expect you to ensure you are sorted into Slytherin. I will be very disappointed with you if you are sorted into a different house.” 

She nodded but it was less certain this time.   
He frowned. “What is it?” 

She shifted uneasily. “It’s ..unlikely that I will be sorted into Slytherin.”   
“..I am not a half blood as I told you when I said my name was Maia Schiller. I... I am a muggleborn. There has never been a muggleborn in Slytherin. If the others find out they’ll-...”   
she quieted darkly, her face expressive..   
“If they find out there will be problems...and the hat will know...it won’t want to put me in Slytherin because of that. Even if i ask.”

Tom was very still. “You are a mudblood?!..”   
He snorted in irritation and stalked away, pacing to the unlit fireplace and running his hand across the lintel. He bowed his head and remained there for minutes.   
At last he sighed and paced back to her, his face slightly darker but resolute.   
“It doesn’t matter. You are the most powerful witch.. no you are the most powerful being, with the possible exception of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, beside myself, that I have ever met.   
Your blood status is trivial. You will be a Slytherin because your presence in this great house will be an asset and because I require you to be one.   
No student in this institution will dare to speak against you. I will ensure it.   
It should not ever become an issue to begin with as you are Maia Schiller, you are 16 and you are a half blood. This is your truth now.” 

She looked down. “Yes my Lord” she intoned flatly. 

“Get up” he commanded. “We need to go to the room of requirement. It is one of the few places in the castle where we will not be found should..certain professors.. suspect that unexpected guests have entered the castle. We will have to travel there disillusioned taking all hidden passages possible. Perhaps we can avoid the paintings sufficiently.” 

She nodded again, sighing, and Tom walked to the stairs that led down to the boys dormitory. 

“Follow me. Stay close.” 

He stroked down an uninteresting stretch of wall and swiped up at the end of the stroke and the bricks suddenly fell away, crumbling to either side in an organized chaos.


	55. Chapter 55

They reached the room of requirement in record time. Hermione panting and leaning down on her knees was reminded once again of Lucius telling her that she was not fit; had no endurance and needed to run daily. She determined to herself that she would do just that. It was unacceptable that she might find herself in need to run away from something and be unable to. 

Tom who was breathing fast also but by no means crippled as she was, paced back and forth in front of the wall till the door appeared and then dragged her inside quickly.   
He stopped dead and looked around curiously. 

Wondering why they’d stopped just inside the door Hermione raised her head. She was inside her room in the Dark Lord’s castle.   
For a single crazed moment she thought she’d somehow gone back to her own time. 

“Where are we?” Tom asked faintly. “Is this your room in your time? I asked for a place you could feel safe and comfortable.” 

Hermione nodded. “This is my room.” 

He walked over to the large windows and gazed out. “Where are we?”   
She recovered her breath, trudging to the bed and tossing herself onto it. “I haven’t the foggiest notion” she said, muffled by the covers.   
After a minute or so a movement informed her that Tom had climbed onto the bed beside her. 

“It’s a pity that twit didn’t offer us a proper lunch” he complained faintly. “If I’m found in this castle anywhere, Dumbledore will drag me back to the orphanage bodily.   
If, that is, he doesn’t try to have me expelled. 

Hermione groaned. “Having to go there again to get you would be really risky now.” Tom was silent.

“Nine days of fasting then?” he said quietly. 

She scowled at the blankets. It wasn’t like she hadn’t gone without food before. She had many times in fact. But Tom was hungry. He only had a sandwich and some sugar yesterday.   
She felt a faint guilt. He’d brought her part of his meals in the orphanage though she was damn sure he didn’t get given much.   
She winched herself up to her hands and knees.   
“No.. We’re in the room of requirement. There are other ways to get food” 

Tom raised a challenging eyebrow. “The room cannot conjure real food.. just as we cannot.” 

She sighed and closed her eyes. ‘I need a door that goes to the place where the food he wants is’ she thought silently over and over.   
Next to the door into the room a yellow coloured door appeared. Tom got up, interested.   
She headed him off and reached it before him. 

“Don’t..ever.. leave the doorway. If you do, it disappears and you’re stuck wherever it leads!” she warned him. 

Opening the door she felt like turning around and punching Tom. The door opened into the little bakery on the street in Berlin. 

She grimaced and summoned as much bread as she could in the space of a few seconds and then slammed the door quickly while the bakery assistant looked at her with wide terrified eyes.   
Tom behind her was walking around collecting up the bread. He pressed a couple of round woven rolls thoughtfully.   
“We should do that in the morning tomorrow when it’s freshly baked. “ 

Hermione rolled her eyes. “How about we don’t open a portal to almost the very place Grindelwald found us?   
You do know that while I hold the door open we can be seen?! Standing in the doorway, someone could actually come through into this room.” 

Tom’s eyes glittered.   
“Really.. I never knew this ..useful.. place could do that. I will keep that in mind.” 

Hermione snorted. She was certain he would.   
He’d probably use it at the worst possible time to do something truly terrible.   
The bread in his arms didnt appeal to her either. ..bread. pff.. Hardly the greatest food in the world.   
If you were in this room there was no need to subsist on bread and water. 

She closed the door and concentrated. A red door appeared next to it.   
Swallowing nervously she opened it to find a bustling kitchen. It was steamy and four asian men seemed entirely preoccupied with the meals they prepared.   
Tom at her shoulder looked into the room with mild astonishment.   
They both stood very still and quiet and then the Chinese man in the back on the left lifted his wok and emptied it into a large bowl. At that point she accioed the bowl and slammed the door.   
As the bowl had floated up into the air toward the door in the air, the chef had looked around and seen them, panicking and shouting in alarm, causing the others to turn too and start screaming.   
She imagined they thought she and Tom were some kind of evil spirits. 

If it was just Tom, they might be right, she mused. 

What would they have thought if her Tom had stood there with glowing red eyes?!” 

She claimed her large bowl from the air happily and walked to the table by the window.   
Tom was peering at the food in her hands with interest. “This is what the Chinese eat?” he asked, curiously.   
She shook her head.   
“This is probably from a restaurant in America. The actual Chinese didn’t eat stir fried egg noodles with pork and prawns at this time.”   
He seemed even more interested, if possible. 

She smiled as two sets of chopsticks and small bowls appeared on the table.   
Ah. This should be fun, she thought. 

Tom inspected the sticks with suspicion.   
She picked hers up easily and transported a piece of pork into her mouth. It was delicious and hot.   
He looked at her fingers around the chopsticks and tried to imitate them. She smirked as he failed at first, either dropping the sticks or being unable to lift anything with them.   
He watched her some more as she pinched a large curl of noodles into her bowl.   
She was mildly impressed when he figured out the trick of how to use chopsticks after only a minute and began to eat with satisfaction. 

“This isn’t half bad!” he complimented. 

“Better than bread” she said ruefully. “Maybe we can get pizza tomorrow”   
He furrowed his brows at her suggestion. She just smiled and ate with enjoyment. 

When they were done, the meal vanished. Tom sat back in his chair looking out the window at the afternoon sun.   
The warm bright light on his face was unusual she thought. He was striking in near darkness.. it suited his complexion. He looked like a dark mysterious ruler. In the sun, his blue eyes shone however and he seemed quite different.   
It was strange to not see him squinting slightly in the light. 

“I’m going to have a shower” she declared and got up. 

He looked at her with interest, following her progress into the bathroom with his eyes.   
She blinked under the bright open sky of her bathroom. A single white fluffy cloud sailed overhead in the enchantment. As she turned the shower on Tom came in. He looked upward with surprise. 

“You asked the room of requirement for this?” he wondered aloud. 

“No. This is just the way my bathroom is.” She responded noncommittally, facing away from him, removing her cardigan.   
After a long moment’s hesitation she drew her dress up over her head and dropped it on the floor next to her cardigan. Her underwear was black, she noted disinterestedly as she put her hands behind her to remove her bra.   
Warm hands stilled her movements and drew her own away. 

She felt Tom standing right behind her and then her bra fell away open. She drew it down her arms and tossed it onto the pile of clothes.   
A hand lifted her hair, pulling it behind her out of the way and then the tall boy behind her began to press small kisses to her neck and shoulder.   
She shivered, biting her lip as his other hand grazed over her skin, sliding around her abdomen and holding her to him. 

“I am...very...pleased...you are here...Maia” he murmured between kisses. His hand slid into her hair and gripped it, turning her head gently but firmly till he could kiss her.   
She sighed happily. There was nowhere she preferred being than with Tom. In any form.   
He turned her and vanished their remaining clothing, looking over her body with a possessive hunger. She returned the favour and opened the shower, stepping inside.   
Severus shampoo stood on the shelf she thankfully noted as Tom followed her into the glass box and pulled her under the spray with him, Mmming contentedly as the hot water fell over both their skins. 

Apparently at Tom’s requirement, a second showerhead grew out of the wall behind her, more effectively covering them both in warm water.   
They relaxed in each other’s arms, her head on Tom’s shoulder.   
She could feel his erection hard against her thigh but for the moment it appeared he was content to hold her.   
When, after a few minutes, his hand slid slowly, lingeringly, down her slick skin, over her hip and onto her thigh she figured that this contentment had abated.

“Turn around for me” he said quietly. “bend...” 

She snorted inwardly. Apparently the Dark Lord had learned foreplay when he was older. He must be very used to immediate adoring compliance at this age.   
She obeyed, leaning down and bracing herself on the slate shelf. 

His hands caressed her lower back.. her ass. He nudged with his foot and she widened her stance. She jumped only slightly when she felt his hand move over her pussy, fingers probing her.   
He found her clit with no difficulty and set to teasing it.. rubbing and stroking it between his first two fingers.   
The comment about foreplay was perhaps a little premature she amended. He definitely knew what he was doing there.   
He played her expertly till she was rocking her hips and breathing fast, hoping to hell that he didn’t stop doing that.. for just another minute..   
He didn’t, as it turned out.. He brought her swiftly to a small but satisfying climax.   
She moaned softly, grinding against his fingers convulsively. A small tingle of magic alerted her that he’d cast a contraceptive charm.

Only then did he press himself to her entrance and, gripping her hip hard in one hand, push himself inside her.   
His overwhelmed exhalation as he seated himself was gratifying; His breathing faster now. “Merlin..you’re so hot and-....” he gasped low.   
Both hands on her hips, he started to move slowly, dragging himself out and pushing faster back in. She heard him breathing slightly raggedly.   
She was already excited from his fingers and swayed her back pressing up and back against him on each stroke. He groaned low and thrust a bit faster. 

Dropping one of her own hands between her legs she played with her clit, gasping and humming in pleasure as he pumped in her.   
He always felt like he fit into her perfectly..as if he was made for her. But this position was difficult to come in.. she liked the extra stimulation.   
He growled low, seeing what she was doing and his hands on her hips tightened.   
He started to lay into her, snapping his pelvis and stabbing at the entrance of her womb sharply with each thrust. 

She whimpered but the pain felt good. “more..” she whined. “want.. something...”

she realised with a start what it was and felt shocked and disgusted with herself. She wanted him to hurt her. She wanted... she wanted him to curse her. 

Tom didn’t seem to realise, thankfully and merely hammered her even harder.   
The combination of her finger and his cock brought her off soon thereafter, crying out her bliss. Tom groaned behind her, his fingers digging into her hips painfully and cursed effusively, coming against his own will seconds later. He jolted in her, his movements sporadic, galvanic, punctuated by gasps.   
He drew out of her carefully, flinching. She thought again that his cock must be very sensitive after he came. 

Trying to catch her breath, it seemed like it would be a great plan to just let herself slip to the floor of the shower now and lean against the wall; but Tom’s hand suddenly stroked up her spine possessively and gripped the back of her neck, massaging a little, convincing her that such weakness would not be approved.   
She forced her limp limbs into obedience and pushed herself upright off the shelf, turning her flushed face to him. 

He was resplendent. His black hair slicked down around his face and blue eyes sparkling.   
The water glanced off him and glistened down his pale strong chest and shoulders as she looked on appreciatively.   
Beautiful beautiful Tom... 

He seemed to search her face.   
“You have given your body to me in your time also..haven’t you?” he asked softly.   
It was barely a question.   
She hesitated and nodded. A strange quirk lifted the corners of his mouth.   
“What are you to me? Merely another servant? I begin to wonder.. More to the point..how old am I in your time?!” he mused, looking at her curiously. 

She shuttered her eyes and looked away quickly. “You know I can’t answer.” 

He nodded absently but looked thoughtful. “No matter.. It was an idle curiosity” he replied. “Pass the soap” 

She complied, happy to have the topic so easily dropped. While he washed himself she used the shampoo and then they swapped.   
Again, it felt so easy and automatic to cooperate with him!

 

 

Later on they sat in her chairs by the fire reading from the books in her library.   
Tom had been excited when he had had a chance to look over the shelves. From the look on his face she doubted she’d be able to pull him out of a book for the next couple of days till school started. 

She wondered whether he’d put these books into her bookcases in the future knowing that he’d read them.   
Of course he had. No wonder there were so many dark arts texts. 

It was peculiar. As if he were teaching himself.   
The notion was confusing.   
He learned these things because they were here, they were here because he was going to put them here..  
it was as if the ideas in these books had introduced themselves. The situation created itself – there was no true origin to it. 

She read a potions text at first, till she realised that she didn’t have to restrict herself to potions anymore. She could use magic again.   
She retrieved morgana le feys diary, noting Tom’s distant look of approval. 

They whiled away the rest of the evening and most of the night reading in the comfy chairs by the fire. Eventually she took herself off to bed and left Tom still reading.   
She gave him a good night kiss on the corner of his mouth which he tolerated, smiling faintly, but did not return, his eyes never ceasing in their swift back and forth movements as he devoured the book on ancient Arabian binding spells.   
She fell asleep quickly and in the morning she looked up blearily and discovered he was still in the chair. A small stack of texts on the floor beside the chair and a half emptied row in the bookcase displayed his swift progress.   
She rolled over and sighed, remembering when, not even that long ago, she would have been the same way – she would have powered through the library as if there were no tomorrow.   
She realised she would probably need to find that part of herself again soon if she could – she was about to be a student again. 

The thought was alien.   
She had only just embraced the idea that she would never have her NEWTs – she would be a potions mistress someday instead probably.. and now... now she would need to channel bookworm Hermione and get back into the frame of mind where every faint smudge away from absolute excellence was a threat to her future. 

If she never risked throwing herself through time to return, she realised, she would have to actually make a life for herself here.. 

It wasn’t as disturbing an idea as it probably should have been.   
She would have to stand by and watch while Tom did and ordered terrible things... god.. she’d have to watch him go and try to kill Harry.. lose his body.. she wouldn’t be able to do anything.   
Cause if she had then it wouldn’t have happened and it clearly did happen. 

She couldn’t stand by and watch everything like that.   
She must at some point in the future figure out a way back, she decided. The alternative was just impossibly ridiculous.

 

 

After she got up and showered and dressed in a dark purple and ivory robe from her wardrobe (Tom had not even looked up since she rose) she thought again about Lucius’ criticism. 

It took a little bit of concentration and she created an open arch in the back wall leading to a bright summery forest. Not a magical forest like the dark and threatening one outside the castle, simply a pleasant autumn trail, such as might be found in a national park.   
When she strolled toward it in trainers the room provided, Tom looked up

“What are you doing?! Where does that lead?!” he demanded alarmed. 

“It’s not real” she reassured him. “It’s just part of the room, not a portal out of it. Don’t worry.” 

He looked back to his page immediately, no longer interested. 

She walked around the forest most of the day enjoying the sunlight and the breeze. It was crazy how elaborate this room could become. She had a view part of the time over hills and a stream winding through a valley.   
When her mark twinged for a second she thought about returning and found a short cut that, counter to all geographical logic, brought her back to the arch and her room after only a few turns.   
Tom looked up absently when she came in.

“Good.. I was wondering if you would come when called. I should have known. You are..well-trained...   
Procure us some lunch. I want to continue reading – so choose something that does not require too much attention if you please.”

She rolled her eyes slightly. I’m a house elf now, she thought.   
She managed to acquire a deep dish pizza from America and produced it for him. He seemed to like it well enough, although he hardly bothered to look at her twice, eating with one hand and turning pages with the other slowly.   
After lunch she sat down and read with him for the rest of the day. 

When she got up eventually to go to bed she was surprised to find him putting down his book and joining her.   
She needn’t have been surprised. After he had fucked her into a screaming climax he scourgified them both and went back to his chair and the book.   
She frowned after him. Did he just not sleep at all?! 

The next week proceeded in much the same fashion. Tom seemed anxious to read as much of the library as he possibly could, as if he might never find his way back to it.   
She worried for him a little. He had black rings under his eyes and a determined set to his face as he forced himself to consume the tomes without pause.   
He only seemed to stop for brief rough bouts of sex. Every meal was consumed while reading.   
On the evening of the ninth day, knowing that they would have to ‘return’ to Hogwarts in the morning, she carefully and surreptitiously drew a tiny amount of raw magic and thought about healing him.   
He did seem to relax somewhat afterward and rolled his shoulders stretching. He looked up at the bookcases. He had managed to finish just over three quarters.

“Ugh.. my back is killing me” he complained. “Tell me you’re also versed in massage and I’ll consider you the perfect witch..”

She shook her head, smiling. “Never even tried. Sorry. You should come to bed anyway. Tomorrow..could be difficult. I don’t know what will happen if the headmaster refuses to let me stay.” 

Tom huffed slightly. “Don’t worry about Dippet. The man is very nearly a sock puppet.   
Dumbledore is the one we must be concerned about. Perhaps there is some way to distract him or..” 

He paused and seemed to remember something that bothered him 

“Why did you tell Grindelwald that Dumbledore told you about him? He seemed bothered – what did he think Dumbledore might have said?   
You obviously weren’t surprised – Did Dumbledore actually tell you about him in your time? It seems unlikely – but you said you were a Gryffindor. The man obviously favours his own house.   
What do you know?! Tell me! And don’t give me any strife about the timeline.   
If Dumbledore has been so foolish to tell you something we can use against him, you will tell me.” 

Hermione bit her tongue. Was there really any way to know exactly how much Tom Riddle had known about professor Dumbledore?   
She tried to remember if anyone had ever made any comments that might reveal that she’d told him the little facts she’d learned from books and professor McGonagall after Professor Dumbledore had been killed.   
It was impossible to say.   
Tom had always been rather circumspect regarding Dumbledore – he referred to him as a puppetmaster but hadn’t really said anything further. 

She shrugged. “They were friends when they were younger. They worked on a book together before they had a big argument and Dumbledore vowed never to speak to Grindelwald again.” 

Tom continued to look at her with a faintly surprised, enquiring expression.   
He raised an eyebrow a fraction, subtly indicating that she should elaborate.

“That’s all.” She lied blatantly. 

He snorted. “You are an amazingly bad liar Maia. It showcases how you might have been sorted into the house long known for producing valiant sanctimonious idiots.” 

She bristled a bit. She wasn’t sanctimonious and she certainly wasn’t an idiot. Gryffindors weren’t-..  
she thought about Harry..before he’d become Lord Harry..and Ron.. and Seamus.. even poor Neville. Ginny, she wondered, might have been better suited in Slytherin.. but then – she hadn’t been a snake till she came across Tom’s diary perhaps. And she was hardly subtle in her whoring across half the boys in Hogwarts. Harry was just a bit of a drip or too enamored to notice really. 

She grudgingly conceded that Tom might have a small portion of rightness in his statement.   
Why had she been sorted there. Surely she wasn’t like that?!

She.. she could lie! 

Of course she could. 

Perhaps outright lies were a little difficult but she could obfuscate the truth with the best of them. 

“Dumbledore was a Gryffindor. The man is many things but an idiot isn’t one of them” she said snippishly.   
Tom nodded slowly as if conceding her point.   
“Perhaps. I take back my slur on your..fine..former house. Tell me what I want to know.” 

She got up from the chair. “I’ll tell you if you come to bed and actually stay and sleep.” 

The boy’s face tightened in annoyance.   
“I want to finish reading. Tell me and you can go to sleep without excruciating pain waking you each time you move” 

She frowned back. She could just heal herself if he did cruciate her but then she’d have to pretend to be in pain or he’d be suspicious and that would keep her up all night faking being asleep.   
Hell no. 

“Fine..” she gritted out through her teeth, annoyed at the small dark satisfied smirk he shot her.   
“After Dumbledore graduated, Grindelwald just happened to move into the area where he lived. They became friends probably because they shared some views of certain things.   
Dumbledores sister was hurt by muggles somehow. I don’t know the details.. but they were writing a book together about how wizardkind should rise up and dominate muggles. It was very bad stuff.” 

Tom looked like a child handed a puppy. “Dumbles wants to destroy muggles?!” he asked incredulously. 

Hermione crinkled her forehead. “No. or.. maybe he did when he was our age.. I don’t know. I don’t think so – I think he just thought they should be ruled by wizards.   
It doesn’t matter anyway. He doesn’t think that now. His younger brother found out what they were working on and there was a huge fight. They all duelled and his sister was killed somehow.   
Dumbledore blamed Grindelwald and vowed never to speak to him again. And that’s all I know.” 

Tom snorted and flicked out his wand, pointing it at her. “All?” 

She stamped her foot in temper. “Aaugh. It doesn’t matter. It was just hearsay. There’s no proof.”

He gestured with his wand, smiling – obviously enjoying her impotent protests. “What was hearsay?” he prompted with innocent enquiry on his face.

Sexy horrible jerk she thought to herself. He bloody managed to look even more gorgeous when he was threatening you.   
It shouldn’t be allowed for something like that to be the case. 

“It was implied to me..” she said carefully, emphasising how flimsy, in her opinion, the rumour might be “that Dumbledore might be homosexual and that he had ..fancied.. Grindelwald or something. That he had affection for him in any case and-“   
she stopped before mentioning that Dumbledore had been the one who had eventually rid the world of Grindelwald and Minerva had said one night after his own death that she thought he might have regretted it sometimes   
“-and I don’t know how close they might have been.   
Grindelwald was looking at you with a bit more than casual regard. I have no idea if the man swings both ways.   
I do know Dumbledore never..appeared.. to be involved with anyone at all as far as I could tell, right up to his death.” 

Tom had looked surprised, overjoyed in fact.. this look only increased when she told him Dumbledore had died in her time.   
She could see him wanting to ask all about it.   
He didn’t however. He rested his hand on the arm of his chair and stroked a contemplative finger over his lips. 

“That is useful to know indeed..” he murmured against his finger, his eyes alight, staring into the fire.   
“You can go to bed now” he added, dismissing her with an imperious wave of his other hand. 

She folded her arms and stomped off to bed obediently.   
When she lay with her face against the pillow in the large bed looking at him, he still had not moved. She thought she saw him snort in amusement at one point. 

Eventually she closed her eyes and went to sleep. 

 

 

Hands on her body.. gently turning her, slipping over her breasts, cradling her neck. She reacted half asleep, kissing the lips that pressed against her own.   
“Mmmm” she murmured into the mouth..the tongue tangled with her own. ‘Tom’ she sang happily in her mind.   
She opened herself to the body above her and stretched, moaning as he entered her quickly, plunging deep. She moved against him readily and opened her eyes to appreciate the dark hungry look he always gifted her with. 

Pale blue eyes stared down at her with interest; Corn blonde curls falling to the broad shoulders of the man currently thrusting into her with effortless, toe-curling art. 

She screamed at the top of her lungs and tried to fight him off. 

Her wrists were gripped and pressed down to the bed beside her and Tom’s velvet voice soothed her, smirking. “Shhhh... It’s me. Calm down.” 

“I shouldn’t have scared you.. but i couldn’t resist seeing how you’d react.” He leaned down and pressed small kisses to her lips, starting to move in her again slowly. 

She felt furious! If he released her wrists she was going to bloody punch him in his stupid nose! BASTARD!   
She cried out as the cruciatus spread from her mark, jolting her entire body. It stopped almost as soon as it started when the thought left her head in reaction. 

‘fuck’.. he’d bloody taken that aspect of Harry’s mark too?!   
She raged internally but kept her thoughts away from thinking about violently attacking the man in bed with her. 

Tom above her had stopped moving shocked as she’d spasmed and screamed and looked at her with alarm.   
“I’m fairly sure that I didn’t just cruciate you. Or.. at least.. I didn’t intend to..” He frowned confused.

She glared at him.   
It was probably better he didn’t know that she was actually physically incapable of harming him.

“It was nothing. Delayed after effect of the spell that brought me here, probably.”

He snorted and actually laughed at her then leaned down and kissed her affectionately.   
“Oh..Gryffindor..you do amuse me. Now..tell me what happened.” He continued to kiss and nuzzle her cheek, waiting, rocking in her only the tiniest amount, tantalizingly. 

She scowled and looked away. 

“The mark.. makes it uncomfortable... for me to think about hurting you.”   
She growled the words at the wall and he tilted his head wonderingly and then released her wrists, turning her face back toward him with the fingertips of one hand.   
He looked..disturbing.. like this. Like a young version of Grindelwald.. which was obviously his intent.   
He kissed her gently....achingly, starting to slide in and out of her body once again, but now somehow more tenderly.   
He folded his arms around her and fucked her slow and easy till she fell apart in his embrace, pulling him along with her. His head fell to the curve of her neck and he kissed her, breathing raggedly. 

She felt...confused.   
Well actually she felt bloody amazing.. but still confused. She wasn’t angry with him anymore.   
What the hell did telling him she’d been thinking about hurting him make him do that for?! 

He unwrapped sweat slicked limbs from around her, leaning on his hands over her, looking down into her eyes. 

“Such a fortunate accident to have thrown you into my lap” he said and got up onto his knees, straddling her damp body. “It is ..freeing.. to know that irrespective what I might do.. you will never turn on me. You cannot even so much as defend yourself against me.” A strange look crossed his face.   
“I will try never to forget..”

He got up out of the bed, stretching expansively, the pale morning light from the window accenting the small curves of his young lean muscles.   
He was..attractive.. as a proto-Grindelwald too. Just not as attractive, in her opinion, as he was as Tom.   
He looked like another person.. it was only the graceful controlled movements, which were typically Tom, that betrayed him. 

“Do you think that my new look will be popular among the students?” he asked her seriously. “I was quite the heartthrob before, if I do say so myself.” 

She felt a prick of jealousy and folded her arms, not answering his question.   
“You look just like who you apparently want to look like. I’m sure the man in question would probably find it quite funny.   
The eyes are too much though. Your own are already blue. It’s not necessary. If you glamour your eyes it makes it obvious - and you should transfigure rather than glamour your hair if you really want to pretend you just felt like a change..” 

Tom snickered. “I take it you do not approve?” He shook his hair slightly.   
Seeing ..golden tresses.. on this boy was just disturbing.

She shrugged peevishly and got up. “What time is it in Hogwarts?” she asked him. 

He frowned, looking at the midday sun through the window and then started. “We do not know where this room is located!!”   
A clock appeared on the wall above the door showing that it was ten am. They both relaxed.   
“It appears this room is eastward of Hogwarts at any rate” he stated unnecessarily. “We have plenty of time before the older students return this afternoon” 

They both showered and sat down in their towels to eat hastily stolen croissants from France with butter.   
“I’ve decided that I shall find you at the gates when I arrive with the knight bus. I’ll take you in to see the headmaster.” Tom said out of the blue.   
“Your story was..convincing enough. Family dead, on the run from Grindelwald etcetera.. it’s a sufficient reason to offer you a scholarship...or at least the chance to take entrance exams.” 

She grimaced at the thought of going outside the wards of Hogwarts..even for a moment, but nodded reluctantly.   
If anyone were to see them..and in this place there was always someone to see one do things.. it would look better if Tom happened upon her by chance. 

“You won’t have to wait there long.” He reassured her. 

She nodded tightly. 

 

While he dressed in a uniform the room provided she put on a threadbare black robe that turned up for her. She supposed it would be what she required.   
The room had..kindly.. provided her with some equally tired and basic cotton underwear. She had scourgified them with distaste before she’d donned them. 

Tom looked at her, dressed in near rags, old beaten leather shoes without socks on her feet. He smirked. “You look like refuse” 

She knew it herself and folded her arms tightly. “Let’s bloody get this over with.” She growled. 

He sighed. “Make sure you remain disillusioned and only appear at the gates. You walked from Hogsmeade. Took muggle transport, using confundus charms. – cast the confundus five or six times now. They won’t check but, you never know.”   
She did so.   
“I should be there in perhaps fifteen minutes at the most.” Tom assured her, walking to the wall where a new grey door was appearing. “I’ll leave as soon as the bus finds me”

She nodded mutely, feeling unaccountably afraid to see him leaving. Moments later he was gone. 

She walked around the room feeling antsy and impatient. She knew she should go down to the gates but was afraid to do so.   
Wandering to the window she saw the grey lake below looked almost blue and enticing in the sun.   
Her eye wandered, as it ever did now, to the place she’d stood with Lucius and Rodolphus. 

At least she’d brought Lucius back. 

Maybe Tom had killed him again. It would be a pity if he had. It bloody hurt like a bitch bringing him back and it would be a waste if it were for nothing. 

She turned and trudged to the wall, calling into existence a door that would take her to the bushes at the side of the front gate to Hogwarts.   
Taking a breath she stepped through. 

The warm sun greeted her. It was going to be another lovely day. She turned her translucent face up to the sky briefly. 

The door behind her had gone of course and she looked around, her face tense. The dusty road seemed empty.   
The entire summer scene looked innocuous and peaceful. She could hear.. something.. cicadalike chirping in the forest at distance.   
Reassured, against her own better judgement, she slunk to the gates and leaned against them. The black metal was warm from the sun.   
She stared off down the road toward the bend that would curve down the valley toward Hogsmeade and dropped her disillusionment charm.

“hurry up Tom” she berated internally. 

A flutter and a bright flash of colour made her blink and shy away. 

The small parrot flapped in the air, hovering with difficulty as she gaped and froze in terror. It chirped demandingly but she didn’t hold out a hand for it to perch on.   
Who knew what it would do?! Dumbledore’s phoenix could carry three people.   
This wasn’t an average parrot either she’d wager or the man who owned it would hardly be interested in keeping it.

She whirled, looking around everywhere, wanting to yell out for whoever was there.. for Grindelwald.. to come out.. but she didn’t want to do that just in case he did come out.   
no.. stay wherever you are, she pleaded. Just a minute.. two minutes. Tom will come! 

The parrot flapping at her side chirped angrily and fluttered up to perch on the crossbar of the gates and look down at her.   
She stood, petrified, back up against the gates, scanning the area for another slow agonizing minute. 

If the bird is here.. the man is probably here too, her fear told her. 

Grindelwald has better things to do than skulk around outside a closed boarding school, her reason supplied. He probably sent the bird to watch for me. 

She looked up at the parrot which twittered defensively.   
Hesitantly, hoping she might be right, she summoned a couple of leaves from the bushes and transfigured them surreptitiously into a small square of parchment and a quill, holding them tight against her chest and facing away from Hogwarts.   
“please don’t do anything!” she wrote then scratched it out, vanished it and summoned another leaf, starting over on fresh parchment.

“My schooling is very important to me. I hope you will allow me to complete it in peace” She signed it M and rolled it up. 

The parrot immediately flew down and snatched the tiny proferred scroll.   
It fluttered up into the air and then there was a white flash and it seemed to twist refractively and disappear. 

She swallowed. Not a normal parrot at all then, she confirmed dully. Thank Merlin she hadn’t let it perch on her. She’d probably be in Nurmengard already. 

At that moment there was a roar in front of her and the knight bus pulled up bare inches from her face.   
She stepped back toward the gates slightly. 

Tom was thanking the driver politely and stepping down the stairs. He seemed a bit taken aback when he saw her and paused on the stair.. 

“..Hello..” he said unsure. “Are you quite alright? You look..like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you lost?” 

She swallowed and shook her head. “No.. I’m.. I ..I need to see the headmaster. Do you think you could..” she looked down and wrung her hands.   
The cool approval that flashed through Tom’s eyes wasn’t lost on her but he was immediately the considerate prefect.   
“Its okay. Don’t fret. I’ll take you to him.”   
The bus behind him rumbled and flashed off rapidly and they were alone. 

The gates opened when Tom placed his hand upon them and he let her in, walking slowly with her up the hill toward the castle gates. 

“There was a strange bird here a minute ago” Hermione said as if remarking on the weather. “It was quite pretty. I didn’t know that we had any like it in this hemisphere. It must have been a pet.”   
Toms eyes widened but he responded. “Really? Oh well you never know. There are a lot of strange creatures in the forest near hear. Have you ever been to Hogwarts before?”   
She informed him that she hadn’t.   
He proceeded to tell her a number of small facts about the castle and the grounds, all of which she knew from Hogwarts a history.   
She bet that she could outtrivia him with facts from the new extended edition that had been released in her fifth year however she responded with appropriate awe and fascination as he led her into the castle and up the changing staircases, the paintings all ogling them the entire way, till they reached the bottom of the stairs to the headmasters office. 

He spoke to the gargoyle “Tom Riddle requesting to speak with the headmaster regarding a girl found standing outside the gates”   
The gargoyle nodded gruffly. 

Hermione was bemusd– it didn’t act like that in her time – and it certainly had nothing, as far as she was aware, to do with conveying messages like some kind of intercom.   
Minutes later the gargoyle stepped to the side and Tom ushered her onto the staircase, which began to twist, carrying them up to the headmaster’s office.

 

 

The door opened after Tom knocked and he gestured for her to precede him through the door. 

“Ah there you are Mr Riddle..my goodness, what have you done to your hair?! Nevermind I suppose.. Now what’s all this about?” a dry old voice asked distractedly. 

She looked at headmaster Dippet. He looked like an elderly accountant. He was small and frail looking, brown conservatively cut robes dull and unflattering. He wore rectangular spectacles over eyes that looked a bit like two runny eggs. He was balding and not currently wearing a hat.   
The room around him matched him exactly. It was..headmasterly.. in the sense of muggle schools. A medium sized desk was well organized and covered in papers. Bookshelves lined the walls behind him.   
There was no needless fuss to anything. It all looked organized and officious and very very boring.

Percy Weasley would probably worship this man. 

“Good afternoon Sir” Tom began in a voice that probably made old ladies want to pat him on the hand and call him dear.   
“I apologise for interrupting you but I found this girl at the gates. She seemed quite distressed and asked to speak to you. I’m afraid I do not know the particulars of her situation – she was upset and I thought it might be better to bring her up here straightaway.” 

Dippet turned to Hermione, adjusting his glasses slightly as he peered at her. 

“yes.. I see.. well then. What did you wish to speak to me about, young lady? Speak quickly.. i have a lot to do today. The students will be arriving back in only a couple of hours.” 

Hermione almost sputtered.   
She wrung her hands like a champion, eyes wide and frightened. “If you please, Sir.. I..I’ve been running from Grindelwald’s forces for weeks now..after my mother was killed.   
My father died several years ago..   
...I..I have nowhere.. She told me to.. I ..I wanted to ask if there were any way.. please could I..”   
She got caught up in the horror of her imagined situation and bowed her head, finding herself actually crying. 

Tom spoke up and the sympathy in his voice could almost have been mistaken for being impressed. “I think, sir.. she has come in the hopes of becoming a student” he said slowly. 

Dippet coughed uncomfortably at the crying waif in his office. “well..hm..I suppose...” he paused and addressed her again gruffly. “Have you attended another school of magic, girl? 

She shook her head and said, looking up and sniffling. “My mother home schooled me.. but I’ve learned a lot. I’m a good student! Please..” 

Dippet frowned slightly, as if discontented with her answer.   
“Well.. perhaps.. if you are able to pass the entrance tests and demonstrate a basic grasp of magic we might be able to offer you a small scholarship to study here..   
I will make no promises until I see your results however. I do not wish to cast you out onto the street – you seem a polite enough girl – but Hogwarts is not an asylum for misplaced war orphans.”   
He stood and paced to the large fireplace. 

Hermione looked around, seemingly in awe around the walls of the room where dozens of headmasters looked down at her from their frames.   
She recognised headmaster black, although the pointy rather nasty man did not recognise her and looked at her like something he might scourgify from his boot. 

Dippet tossed some floo powder into the fire and stated “professor Dumbledore’s office” A moment later he was poking his head into the flames and speaking to the man in question.   
She felt an icy shiver go up her back in fear.   
She would have to face Dumbledore. He would be here any minute. 

Tom stepped close and patted her back in a considerate polite manner.   
“There there.. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine now. Professor Dumbledore is really a nice fellow. You don’t need to be afraid. I’m sure you’ll do well enough on the tests.”   
She heard Dippet explaining the situation to Dumbledore in the background and nodded.   
“Thank you. You are very kind. What is your name, if I may ask?” 

Tom smiled at her brightly.   
She wanted to melt. He was still gorgeous. This hair only made him look more angelic. He could be something off a stained glass panel at this point.

“I am Tom Riddle.” He bowed slightly. “and you are?” 

She smiled shyly, and truly felt it.   
God.. the innocent students didn’t stand a chance against the blinding blowtorch of Tom Riddles charm, she realised. When he smiled at you you wanted to toss yourself over the nearest puddle to prevent him from having to muddy his boots.

“Maia Schiller” she said softly. “Thank you for helping me.” 

Tom smiled chivalrously again, and her heart gave a little lurch.   
“It was my honour.” He responded. “If you are able to stay, I would be pleased to show you around Hogwarts and help you find your way. I hope you will call on me again if you need help.”   
She blushed and nodded. Good god Tom was a brilliant actor. He should have done that rather than try to conquer the wizarding world. 

“Now there..ah.. girl.. What did you say your name was?” Dippet scuffed back to his desk and looked at her impatiently.   
She told him.   
“Yes. Indeed. Well I’ve called-“ The floo flared and they all looked around at the man who unfolded himself and stood up. 

Hermione’s heart pricked painfully. She hadn’t seen Dumbledore in over a year and she’d never seen him looking this healthy.. or young or..orthodox.   
He had brown..no auburn..hair. It curled in waves down just past his shoulders. His face was that of a man in his late prime and looked barely older than Professor Snape’s had.   
He wore circular glasses rather than half moon. Even his outfit was less garishly clashing. His robes were deep burgundy with faint gold embroidery in the form of different constellations. 

Her shock was however nothing compared to the shock that Dumbledore displayed when he saw Tom. “Merlin’s beard!!” he exclaimed and took two steps backward helplessly.   
After a moment of horror he recognised the face of the boy he was staring at like a spectre.   
“Tom.. New hairstyle?” he asked weakly. 

Tom nodded, looking stricken himself. “Yes sir. I’m sorry.. I didn’t realise it looked that bad. I just felt like a change.” 

Dumbledore blinked and shook himself slightly. “No no, Tom. It doesn’t look bad. the colour quite suits you, I was merely ..reminded of something else. I did not mean to unsettle you.”

Tom nodded and lowered his eyes, biting his lip slightly in apparent nerves.   
It was utterly alien on his face. The boy..man..boy.. couldn’t be shy and nervous if he tried. 

Dumbledore continued to watch him with a troubled look on his face as he approached her.

“Yes.” Dippet continued as if he hadn’t just witnessed his professor having a mild heart attack. “As I was saying miss.Schiller?...Schiller.. are you German then?”   
she nodded “My father was”   
He went on uninterestedly “As I was saying.. I’ve summoned Professor Dumbledore here to administer the tests to you for any subject you might hope to take at Hogwarts. If you cannot pass the minimum requirements for any subjects offered then I’m afraid we will not be able to help you.   
If you could go with the professor here, I’ll wish you luck and perhaps we will meet again this evening if you perform adequately.”   
He nodded at her, not unkindly but without much genuine interest and looked to Dumbledore, indicating that he should take her out via the door.

“Come along, miss Schiller” Dumbledore said kindly. “Thank you, headmaster.” He tossed at Dippet in passing. 

Tom was about to follow them both when Dippet called him back. “Tom. If you could remain. There is a matter I wanted to speak to you about.” 

Tom’s face went blank as if wiped.   
“Certainly Sir. Miss Schiller.. it was nice to meet you. Good luck with your tests”   
He bowed slightly to her again and turned back to the headmaster.


	56. Chapter 56

Professor Dumbledore led her down the stairs and along the corridor. He was humming something but she didn’t recognise the tune. 

“The headmaster mentioned you have been running from Grindelwald’s forces” he said out of the blue, blindsiding her.

“Yes.” She answered hollowly, looking down at the ground as they walked. “I was in France.. with my mother. They came to the town we were living in.”   
Dumbledore responded like a whip “what town was that?” 

She tried not to scowl. She wasn’t informed enough about what towns were recently attacked. She knew she could get into trouble here.   
“I.. don’t..exactly know. We moved around a lot. We were in Oradour-sur-Glane for a while but then we had to travel a lot at night and hide during the day.   
I’m..i’m sorry – I don’t know where we were.” 

Dumbledore hm’d noncommittally. “Well that must have been quite frightening for you. What happened?” 

She swallowed. “They..captured us. My mother was ...k..killed. My father was a muggle and they were going to.. um.. they were..” she trailed off uncomfortably.   
“Anyway.. a young soldier freed me. I ran. I ran for so long. I kept running. I hid. I.. I don’t want to say how I got here please.”   
She found herself really getting into the role and even felt a bit sick at the things she’d had to do for the horrid wizard who apparated her across the channel to England. She imagined his disgusting leer at her. He looked like peter Pettigrew. Her stomach positively revolved and she wrapped her arms around herself defensively.   
Dumbledore flinched as if he’d seen it and she realised he probably had. Damn legilimens.

“That’s quite alright my dear – it won’t be necessary” he said faintly. “still.. you’re safe now. I think we can find something you can study here.   
In the worst case.. I’ll find you a position of some kind working here. I won’t force you to go back out there to that. Do not fear” 

She relaxed. It was true. If Dumbledore said so, then she would be able to stay no matter what happened.   
Still.. She hadn’t been worried about the tests anyway really. No.. she reserved all her worry for having to talk to the familiar unfamiliar wizard in his prime with the auburn hair. 

Dumbledore stopped at a carved wooden door in the corridor. “Here we are then. This is my office. You will sit the tests here.”   
He led her in and transfigured a small student’s desk and chair for her to sit at. 

She complied immediately, looking around the room fascinated. It resembled what his headmaster’s office would one day look like, except it was a fraction of the size so that everything was kind of crammed in everywhere. Books were overflowing from the bookcase and little doodads and gizmos and peculiar objects were everywhere.   
“Wow..” she exclaimed under her breath.   
He smiled slightly.   
“I find many things fascinate me Miss Schiller.” He said vaguely as he retrieved a large pile of papers from his desk. 

“Now.. let’s see. Hogwarts offers thirteen subjects at present: charms, potions, transfiguration- of course, defense against the dark arts, astronomy, history of magic, herbology, arithmancy, ancient runes, divination, care of magical creatures, magical history and languages.” 

“Languages?” she asked curiously. 

“Yes. The subject covers Latin, Greek, German and a little Arabic, although students who have difficulty with Arabic may substitute Celtic instead” 

Her eyes widened in interest.   
“That sounds fascinating!” she said without thinking. 

Dumbledore smiled warmly. “An eager student! wonderful!. What subjects would you like to test for? Most students take four or five but you may possibly take one or two if you do not feel able to manage more.” 

Hermione bit her lip. She was beginning to want to take her NEWTS as she had intended to originally..but perhaps it wasn’t ideal to be running around constantly studying here.   
Perhaps it wasn’t the end of the world if she didn’t have eleven O’s   
“Um.. Can I please test for charms, potions, astronomy, arithmancy, defense against the dark arts, herbology, ancient runes, transfiguration and languages?” she asked timidly. 

Dumbledore’s eyes bulged slightly. “You wish to take..nine.. subjects..”   
He frowned. “Well..not to get ahead of ourselves, my dear, but let’s see how you go with the tests first. I was led to believe you have been home schooled. I have to say.. such students frequently have a problem when they are confronted with the work in the curriculum.” 

Hermione swallowed and looked down again. “Oh” she said softly.   
She’d hadn’t for a very long time now been faced with someone telling her she might not be clever enough to do something in the academic world. 

“Let’s begin with transfiguration then. It is the subject that I teach here.”   
He summoned a quill from his desk and placed it on the desk in front of her. “Please transfigure it into a red quill”

She blinked. It was like day one of first year.   
She flicked her wrist and caught her wand. Dumbledore jolted and looked at her wand in her hand with alarm.

“that is an interesting...holster..Miss Schiller. Would you mind demonstrating it for me again?!” he said with a tight voice. She felt panic take flight inside her.

“Ok.. My mother cast a spell when we were on the run. She said I should always keep it on me. I don’t know how it works.. just how it works.. if you know what I mean.”   
She dropped the wand back into the invisible pocket..into wherever it went when it disappeared.   
Dumbledore blinked twice as if he didn’t believe his eyes.   
She flicked her wrist and her wand sprang out of nothing and leapt into her hand. His jaw dropped slightly and then he, with some difficulty shook his head and his face was smooth and unreadable again.   
He smiled kindly..although it looked a bit forced..

“The quill then” he gestured. She transfigured it effortlessly. “Transfigure it into tin please” She did.   
He then had her go through what essentially amounted to the teachings of her first three years at Hogwarts. He produced a beetle from a box on a shelf behind his desk and had her do animal transfigurations, first in colour, then size and then finally he had her transform the beetle into a butterfly. He waved his wand and it became a beetle again which he sent back to the box.   
“And now i would like you to transfigure the air above your desk into a sheet of parchment” he requested.

She blinked and looked up at him. ‘you can’t bloody do that!’ she screamed internally. ‘I’m fairly sure that you can’t just use the air to transfigure objects out of nothing..’   
“Um.. I’ve never done that” she offered uneasily. 

He shone that damn patient twinkling smile at her and nodded. “That’s quite alright. Please do try. If you fail it will not reflect poorly on you. You are more than capable of attending sixth year advanced courses in transfiguration. I am but curious whether you can do it.” 

She frowned slightly. It felt like a trick somehow. She didn’t like it. She half heartedly waved her wand and deliberately failed.   
Dumbledore seemed disappointed.   
He sighed and said. “Never mind Miss Schiller. As I said.. it was pure curiosity.” 

He administered tests in the other subjects, one after the other. As they proceeded through the subjects and she demonstrated mastery of each, he seemed more and more interested in pushing her boundaries.. asking her things she was sure were not on the curriculum.   
He asked her to name the nine uses of dragons blood and she knew there were only five in this time because Tom had not known more than five and Tom almost certainly knew more than any other student at Hogwarts... probably some of the professors too, she added generously.   
She wasn’t sure..again.. which five uses were currently known, so she had to profess ignorance of any, although it really grated against her to do so this time. She mentioned that she had believed there were only five uses for dragons blood and Dumbledore shrugged noncommittally.

In defense against the dark arts he asked her some quite particular questions about a dark curse that was rare and definitely not even remotely connected to the syllabus.   
She knew the answer but she pretended not to. It was..a bad thing.. to know too much about the dark arts. 

By the time they had finished he had declared her more than qualified for advanced level courses in all the subjects she had asked for. She had never taken languages before but understood Latin and Greek along with some French and German and he said it was good enough to take sixth year languages too.   
She nearly jumped up clapping in joy. She would get to take all the subjects she liked!.   
Dumbledore looked, sighing, at a silver combobulating device on his shelf. It was apparently some kind of bizarre clock as he got up reluctantly and announced they would have to get ready for the sorting ceremony soon. She assumed it must be almost seven pm. She had been taking tests for hours then, apparently.   
He interpreted her look of disorientated vexation as confusion and explained to her what the sorting ceremony was. She nodded and attended with fascinated interest, trying to channel how nervous and awed she’d been in her first year when she’d first learned that she would be ‘sorted’ into a house permanently with other students. 

Dumbledore went on, nicely enough, “I will see about uniforms and books tomorrow Miss Schiller. For now perhaps you will allow me to procure you a better robe. I can see yours have been transfigured far too many times. They won’t last much longer.”   
Smiling gratefully she accepted and thanked him.   
He returned to the room several minutes later and gave her the robes and stood there smiling kindly as if waiting.   
She in return stood holding them uncomfortably and eventually blushed redly, at which he jumped as if electrified, seeming to realise the problem and left the room so that she could change.   
Gay – she told herself. He’s gay. I don’t need to worry. Dumbledore isn’t going to act like Grindelwald did. 

After she was changed and had cast charms to brush and straighten her hair, she left the room to find him standing in the corridor looking uncomfortable and introspective.   
“Ah. Excellent. I will escort you to the Great Hall then.   
She hesitated, looking down at her feet and finally drew her wand and transfigured the beaten leather shoes into the kneehigh boots she had worn when she first arrived in Tom’s room.   
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and snorted.   
“Miss Schiller.. I do believe you looked intentionally downtrodden when you arrived, did you not” 

She had the decency to be sheepish “I thought.. perhaps Headmaster Dippet might not let me stay if I arrived in the best I could transfigure” she replied quietly. 

He smiled faintly. “You may be right.. The headmaster is a man very much taken in by appearances. I however..understand, better than most, that things are not always as they seem.   
Perhaps it is why I took up transfiguration. But we are going to be late. Come along, Miss Schiller. We can discuss being and seeming another day.” 

Hermione followed along in step even as her blood turned to ice in her veins. Dumbledore was generally the most irritatingly circumspect and ambiguous man and what he had just said was tantamount to slapping her cheek with a glove and calling her a big fat liar.   
She was screwed. SO screwed. He would find out everything. It was a bad idea to come here. She should have just run away and hid out in the middle of nowhere.   
She could have warded the world out and just passed her life without getting in everyone’s way. Now she was going to ruin everything. She was in the worst place she could possibly be. This was terrible. 

She continued to rant and panic inwardly the entire way to the great hall. When they reached the bottom of the main staircase Professor Dumbledore led her down the corridor that ran parallel to the Great Hall down to the teachers’ entrance.   
He told her to wait and as he opened the door she could hear the sound of little first years being sorted.

“Amelia Rennet....... huffelpuff..(applause)”

she stood nervously. The sound of the sorting disappeared as the door slid shut again.   
Minutes later Dumbledore returned. “Come now, my dear. It is time to be sorted.”   
She followed him in, gulping nervously. 

A stool stood conspicuously in the front open area at the end of the wide aisle between the long house tables.   
Every single eye in the room was focused intensely upon her. It felt almost like a physical pressure. Dippet was announcing her joining the sixth year and actually complimenting her as an excellent student.   
She blinked and looked up at him. He seemed to have suddenly developed far more interest and regard for her now she was well dressed and an excellent student.   
She reached the stool and sat down upon it, uneasily. Her eyes ran over the students gathered at each table. 

She saw Tom, still blonde and curly, at the head of the Slytherin table, the Slytherin seventh years somehow displaced to the second section by the young Lord and his entourage – a massive breach of protocol in her time!   
Next to him sat someone who looked like he could be Draco’s older brother. A very pretty red haired girl sat on his other side and she looked on to the next table before she could feel jealous. 

At the second section of the Gryffindor table she gasped. A boy who could be Harry sat there, watching her with great interest. Red heads were scattered around. A girl who looked a lot like luna sat a few seats down from ‘proto-Harry’   
She was temporarily blinded as the massive leathery weight of the sorting hat dropped down on her head. 

“Hmmmmm Maia Schiller they call you.. but that is not what you call yourself in your mind Miss Granger.   
My you ARE a strange one.. yes.. I can see the changes.. Lies..lies.. everywhere in here..and fear. You are far, far, away from home. I see you recognise me but I am quite certain that I have never before rested upon your head. You are out of your own time, child.”

She jumped slightly. The hat knew! The hat knew! It would tell everyone. She should run!!

“Now now.. calm yourself. I won’t announce you to the room. You do not seem to wish anyone here ill. it’s hardly my concern in which year you pursue your studies.. rather far out of your way you’ve come to enrol in them though.   
You were a Gryffindor I see, and I can agree.. there is much to you that would do well in that house. You would find many friends waiting.   
But I can feel you want to go somewhere else.. somewhere you know you would not be welcomed.” 

‘Yes! Put me in Tom’s house!’ she pleaded. 

“The noble house of Slytherin has certain ..ideas.. about blood Miss Granger.. You may be able to cohabit with them if you lie well.. but they will never truly accept you. You will be in danger while you reside there. Perhaps.. if Gryffindor no longer appeals to you, you might be a Ravenclaw instead. You are cool minded enough for the eagles.”

‘NO!’ she cried desperately ‘please! Please make me a Slytherin. I need to be in Tom’s house. And he said he would protect me from them.   
Please! I don’t mind being in danger. I don’t mind being alone. Put me in Slytherin!!’ 

The hat hummed thoughtfully. “Well if you won’t see reason Miss Granger..I suppose Slytherin will have its first muggle-born. Salazar *would* be pleased. (the hat laughed rather nastily as if enjoying a private joke) However..a final word of caution to you.. I have seen Tom Riddle’s mind. Be very careful with that one!..Goodbye miss granger.. I look forward to seeing you again in...fifty years or so..”

She breathed out in relief as the resounding “SLYTHERIN!” rang out above her. Someone lifted the hat gingerly off her head to the sound of applause.   
She looked over at the Slytherin table hopefully.   
Tom was smirking, pleased with her, clapping along with all those in the table. She darted a look around the room as she stood and started for the Slytherins.   
She could see more than one annoyed expression at the other tables. It unsettled her that most of the annoyed ones were male. 

She swallowed and moved to a gap in the centre of the table. “Maia!” Tom called softly. “Come and sit with me.”   
He nudged the blond boy next to him who was clearly a Malfoy, and the entire row moved down a space for her.   
The boy she had been about to sit next to in the middle of the table looked disappointed and took a drink from his pumpkin juice as she altered course and headed down to the end of the table.   
In the background she could hear Dippet talking about the same sort of silly warnings and rules that every headmaster must have to mention each year. 

Her eye wandered over Dumbledore seated next to him and she swallowed at the disappointed disapproving look on his face. He followed her progress all the way to the space next to Tom.   
When she sat, now facing away from the rest of the room, thankfully, she couldn’t see Dumbledore anymore. 

Tom offered her his hand again and she shook it. “Maia..it looks like you did well enough on your entrance tests after all” he smiled politely.   
She smiled back. “Yes.. they took ages. We only finished a few minutes before I came here. Professor Dumbledore is very..thorough.” 

Tom’s eye glinted slightly but his smile remained easy and friendly.   
“Well at least they’re over. What subjects did you end up choosing?” 

She told him. On her right, the Malfoy whistled low, impressed.

“Oh.. pardon me, Maia.. I haven’t introduced you to my ..friends” there was a very slight but noticeable hesitation before the word friend. In her mind it sounded like ‘servants’.   
“The boy next to you is Abraxas. He’s-“   
Abraxas interrupted Tom, to the latter’s consternation “Abraxas Malfoy, a pleasure to meet such a ..gifted.. student”

He sounded like Lucius in a good mood. Nothing like Draco at all really.   
When he held out his hand she hesitated glancing at Tom, who nodded almost imperceptibly. 

Instead of shaking her hand Abraxas lifted it and brushed his smooth lips across her knuckles.   
He smiled and looked very like Lucius suddenly although his hair was shorter, falling to just below his shoulders. She retrieved her hand as politely as she could.

Tom drawled, dragging her attention away from the shark-like smile of the blonde, “The boy next to him is Roan Mulciber, thats Sorrensen Lestrange, Antonia Parkinson and Clemens Carrow. Over there at the far end is Benjamin Nott – call him Benji please, he hates it so. Then you have Cygnus Black, Palmer Avery, Antonin dolohov, Septimus Prince, and the pretty girl on my left is Amalthea Vane.” 

The names washed over her – only a few sticking – those that were familiar for their descendents. Mulciber looked nothing like his son – he was a small dirty blonde haired boy with a cheeky face and quick blue eyes. Sorenson Lestrange on the other hand looked almost exactly like a young sapling Rodolphus with darker hair. He gave her a little wave and grin when her eye passed over him in the introduction.   
Antonia Parkinson was obviously pansy’s ancestor. A skinny girl with shoulder length straight black hair, she looked Hermione up and down subtly. It seemed all Parkinsons were predisposed to dislike her.   
Clemems Carrow was entirely unfamiliar to her. She had never met the Carrows, although she had heard about them from Neville before the battle of Hogsmeade. Clemens was a brown-haired, dull-eyed heavy-set boy with messy hair. He offered her a vaguely hopeful smile before his eyes shifted back to Tom.   
Benjamin Nott looked a little like Theodore Nott had in her time. He was a slender boy with stringy straight light brown hair hanging down around his ears. He looked like a quiet dreamy type and sat on the edge of the group as if he wasn’t really among them.   
Cygnus black she could have picked as a black out of a line-up. He had that slightly crazed piratish look to him, all wild black hair and daring grin. Sirius probably took after him. 

Palmer Avery she would probably have tipped as a serial killer in her time.   
The way he looked at her with a fake little polite smile and shuttered eyes was unsettling. He was reserved and well groomed and utterly utterly creepy. Tom had smiled as he introduced him in a way that didn’t reassure her.   
Dolohov looked very much as he ever had, only younger. At some point this rather inoffensive looking boy would grow up and become the man that nearly killed her when she was fifteen.   
Wonderful. Wasnt time travel fun?!

Her eye got stuck on Septimus Prince when she got to him because he was Severus. The nose.. the eyes.. he resembled young Severus even more than Abraxas resembled Lucius and Draco.   
However where Severus had a slightly resentful surly look to him all the time, Septimus radiated entitlement.   
He inspected her as one would an item in a store that one was considering purchasing. 

She almost missed Tom’s introduction of Amalthea, the intensity of Septimus gaze transfixed her so.   
Amalthea, when she turned to look at the redhead was even more pretty than she had looked from the sorting stool. Her long silky wavy red hair was dark and bloody rather than orangey like the Weasleys. She had large deep forest green eyes and full red pouty lips.   
She was..well endowed.. Hermione noticed with a trace of envy..   
and she was also shooting daggers at Hermione with her eyes while smiling in a friendly manner. 

Hermione swallowed uneasily, forgetting half the first names of the boys around her immediately.

“Tom Riddle” Headmaster Dippet called, as if announcing something.   
Tom smirked at her, seeing the confusion on her face. She hadn’t been following the proceedings in the great hall behind her at all.

He stood and left the table, striding up to the front of the head table and taking something Dippet proffered to him. She realised it was the head prefect badge as he pinned it to his breast at the front of the room and everyone applauded. Some cheers went up.   
She realised that Tom was not merely..popular.. Harry had been popular..   
Tom, on the other hand, was actually beloved!..The entire damn school just fell over themselves to adore him.   
And she was guilty of the same thing – and she even KNEW all the things he had done and was doing and would do. It was insane.   
It was like the effect she had on people.. the making people want her thing... but different. These people just idolized him.

THAT was charisma.. she guessed. 

Tom returned to the table and Abraxus gave him a pat on the back while Septumus offered him a hand in congratulations.   
He shook the hand but his eyes stayed on Hermione’s and a small smile played around his lips. Behind her, Dippet was calling out “Bertrice Pollux” and she turned slightly to watch the strict looking Ravenclaw seventh year sidle out of her table and move to the head table to collect her badge. The applause was considerably less but still quite polite. She missed hearing who the head boy would be because Tom spoke to her. 

“I’m afraid that becoming head prefect means that I will not be living in the Slytherin dormitories, Maia. I will stay with the head boy and girl in separate quarters” Tom said quietly, pulling her attention back onto him.   
She forced her face to remain casual and not show the horror at the dawning realisation that he would not be around to protect her.   
The sorting hat was right!   
How the bloody hell was she supposed to expect this though?! – there wasn’t any such practice in her own time! She had been head prefect in sixth year and she’d lived quite contentedly in the Gryffindor dorms!

Tom continued. “But you are a Slytherin now and any other here will help you, no matter where you happen to be in Hogwarts.   
You do not need to worry. Slytherins take care of our own.” He shot a cool glance across the table, passing over all his ‘friends’. 

The meaning was transparent – Several eyes widened at the gesture he had made toward this, to them – entirely unknown quantity. 

Tom looked across them speculatively. His eye finally stopped on Sorrenson.   
“Sorry – will you make sure Maia knows her way around the dungeons and doesn’t come to any harm?” 

Hermione nearly laughed out loud at the way he was handing her to a Lestrange for protection again. Hopefully it would work out better than it had with Rodolphus.   
Sorrenson nodded slowly, a serious expression on his face.   
Clearly he wasn’t taking it as a request but an order – one which would carry a punshiment if he failed. She smiled at him thankfully and turned back to Tom.   
At that moment food blossomed on the table before them.   
“Ah.. excellent. Guten appétit everyone” Tom said, smirking slightly. There were a couple of sniggers and everyone started to tuck in. 

She looked at the overwhelming excess of luxury on the table before her.   
How many weeks had she eaten berries or nothing at all and thought of these tables longingly?!..   
How many nights had Tom almost certainly gone to bed in that horrid orphanage hungry and probably sore and thought about how much better things were at Hogwarts?! 

Abraxas caught her attention by looking at her “Are you not hungry, Maia?” He enquired with faint concern.   
His eyes were so Malfoy...so familiar..even though his smooth skinned face was more robust, his build more heavily muscled, less refined.   
She smiled at him and shook her head.   
“No, no.. I was just thinking. That’s all. It looks wonderful.” 

She served herself some goose, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, steamed carrots and pepper sauce and tucked in. It tasted even better than it looked.   
She watched quietly as the Slytherins around her engaged in quiet conversations, sometimes following Tom’s discussion with Septimus of the latest amendments to regulations concerning declaration of dangerous magical objects, sometimes listening to Mulciber, Avery and Dolohov talk about the upcoming year’s quiddich team selections and who they considered favourites.   
Abraxas next to her did not participate in any conversations. He ate quietly and shot a glance at her every so often.   
Amalthea too, looked at her quite a lot while she ate and pretended to be interested in Tom and Severus discussion. 

Her attention was diverted by Cygnus black and Benjamin Nott laughing at something obviously hysterically amusing.   
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ‘proto-Harry’ at the Gryffindor table still watching her, although he seemed to be in conversation with a girl with long curly black hair and a boy who looked a bit familiar with light brown longish straight hair.   
She raised her eyebrows uneasily half turning to glance over her shoulder, scanning the room. Proto-Harry wasn’t the only face still looking in her direction.   
She turned back to her meal with a sinking feeling.   
Tom really hadn’t taken her seriously enough, she thought. This situation was a lot more tricky than the Dark Lord’s troubles with Lucius. There were too many different unknown factors in the room right now.   
And Abraxas had kissed her bloody hand, she realised unhappily, noting the quiet attention of the boy beside her still.

She wanted to run from the hall back up to the room of requirement and bolt the door. 

When a hand landed on her knee she just about jumped out of her skin.   
Tom smiled knowingly beside her as he conversed with Septimus about the recent renovations of the guest wing of Prince Manor. His hand wandered up her leg slowly, gripping her teasingly.   
She tried to look as casual as she could but her heart was thumping in her chest fit to burst. Nobody could know!   
Amalthea seemed to realise that something wasn’t right however since she was giving her a nasty glare.   
Hermione swallowed and wondered exactly how horrible it was going to be, living in a dorm with Slytherin girls who all idolised Tom and hated her guts for the kindness he was showing her. 

She hadn’t really gotten along with dorm life in Gryffindor. She wasn’t really.. a girly.. girl. Didn’t really have any female friends apart from Ginny and as it turned out that was only because the girl had been trying to keep her claws in Harry and had been ordered to spy on her by the Dark Lord.   
None of the girls in her dorm room had been her friends. She had been civil with them and they, sometimes, with her. More could not be said.   
As the situation stood, it didn’t look like she would be getting along with the girls in Slytherin at all.. and with the way things were, wandering around and trying to find somewhere else to sleep - probably not the best idea. 

Tom’s hand had reached mid thigh now and stopped. When it started to wander inward she gasped slightly and pushed it off as surreptitiously as she could.   
The minute irritated flicker of his eyebrows wasn’t the best sign. 

As the dinner plates vanished and desert appeared on the table she got up from her place. Attention zoned in on her and conversations paused.   
She turned to Tom uneasily. “Just.. visiting the bathroom. I saw one on the way here. don’t worry. I’m fine. Thank you.”   
Tom nodded but his brows tightened slightly.

She got up and left through the side entrance that professor Dumbledore had brought her in through earlier, knowing that this wasn’t generally allowed, but that she could freely get away with it as a new student, and feeling disinclined to walk all the way down the length of the great hall past all the students who would no doubt watch and then discuss her. 

She walked straight past the bathroom without even slowing and made her way to the small walled in courtyard with the broken fountain she knew was only a couple of corridors from the great hall.   
She was surprised to find the fountain bubbling and sprudeling away in this time.   
The twilight air was refreshing and she sat herself down on a stone bench under some honeysuckle vines. 

The chirrp actually did make her flinch when she heard it. She looked up and only caught a flicker of red and blue and then a tiny white scroll fell down into her lap. 

It sat there doing nothing whatsoever and looking horribly ominous as it did it. 

She steeled herself and opened it. The handwriting inside was angular and precise with expansive flourishes.   
It read “Durmstrang is a far better school. I will allow you to complete your studies there. See reason! I think you do not wish me to come to Hogwarts to collect you.”

She growled at the note and drew her wand, incinerating it immediately and stomping back inside the corridor.   
The courtyard was no longer peaceful now she knew that bloody dimension defying bird was hanging about there somewhere probably waiting for a reply to the genocidal dictator currently storming Europe.   
When she sidled back into the great hall she could see everyone was getting ready to leave the tables and return to their dormitories.   
Tom shot her a warning glance that he was not impressed with how long she had dared to remain gone. She joined the standing group and Abraxus smirked at her   
“Did you get lost after all?”   
She smiled sheepishly and looked away. “a little..” 

They all drifted with the crowds through the great hall and out the main entrance doors. She almost wandered in the direction of the main stairs, her legs wanting to carry her in the familiar direction of Gryffindor common room, but Sorenson tapped her elbow slightly and guided her with the rest of the large group to the stairs that led down to the dungeons.   
She thanked him.   
Tom was nowhere in sight, she realised suddenly with slight panic. 

“So.. how come you’re joining us in your sixth year” Sorenson asked her, probably seeking to make idle conversation.   
She didn’t bother with her sob story and simply told him she’d been home schooled and her mother had told her to come to Hogwarts if anything happened.   
She asked whether he had other family at Hogwarts and he told her his younger brother Brynly was in Gryffindor in his fifth year. She asked about him and Sorenson..Sorry responded politely until they reached the door to the Slytherin common room. Then he started to explain about the common room doors and the passwords.   
The password would be set by the head of house and they didn’t know what it was yet but their head of house was the potions professor Horace Slughorn.

In the common room Sorenson escorted her over to the massive leather sofa set in front of the fire, which had been turned to face the centre of the room.   
Abraxas and Septimus were already seated and talking together. On Septimus far side Amalthea sat and glowered at her possessively.   
She blinked and felt relieved. She had thought that Amalthea was possessive of Tom but it appeared she was connected to Septimus.   
Oh well that was fine then.   
She shot her a grateful smile and the girl frowned, confused. 

Black and Nott sat at the other end of the couch with Antonia perching on the armrest and looking down at Cygnus with a sycophantic smile on her face. Nott on the other hand seemed to look at Antonia with longing. Cygnus just rabbitted on obliviously, loving the sound of his own voice.   
Just as Sorenson steered her at the elbow gently down to sit next to Abraxas, Palmer Avery sidled past them and sat there.   
Abraxas, listening to Septimus, looked irritatedly at Palmer who raised innocent eyebrows back in the universal gesture of ‘what?! Problem?!’

Sorenson hesitated.   
There were only two places left and Roan Mulciber and Clemens Carrow hovered uncertainly, exchanging a meaningful glance. Then they backed up and went to sit elsewhere.   
Sorenson indicated to her that she should sit next to Cygnus, who patted the sofa and waggled his eyebrows rakishly.   
Palmer Avery looked at Sorenson with subdued poison as the latter positioned himself on the sofa between him and Hermione. 

She looked around the room, a bit intimidated with her current position.   
It seemed that the sofa closest to the fire was some kind of pride of place within Slytherin house and she noted the subtle scrutiny of most of the rest of the house (except the tiny firsties) at seeing a complete newcomer suddenly seated in the centre of the hallowed throne.   
Unlike in Gryffindor where people would stare and possibly even point at something they found unusual or someone new, the Slytherins were extremely unobtrusive in their attention.   
It was just the sheer mass of it that was overwhelming. A susurration in the room that was like a physical pressure.

“Move” Tom’s voice demanded low and her heart jumped joyfully seeing him standing in front of Abraxas and looking at Palmer Avery with a thin mask of politeness on his face.   
Avery scowled and angrily flung himself up off the sofa.   
Sorenson, at only a glance from Tom, immediately moved to sit in his place.   
Tom smiled, pleased, and sat down next to her, his blond curls glinting in the firelight.

The attention in the room sharpened to the point that it was very nearly overt, and rather than an increase in whispered conversations, it seemed they dropped away almost entirely as the students focused on events surrounding the sofa. 

“How are you so far, Maia?” Tom asked solicitously. 

She smiled   
“Good. Sorenson was very nice. Thank you for asking him to look after me.”

Tom nodded dismissively as if he would do as much for anyone – which was patently false, as every surreptitious glance in the room evidenced.   
He smirked at her. “You look a bit overawed. Don’t worry.. You’ll settle in. ..I’ll have a word with Avery later. Sometimes he doesn’t recognise a gentle hint.”   
She sighed relieved again.   
“Thanks!”   
He shook his head slightly.   
“Tom..” she started and he raised an enquiring eyebrow. “You remember I mentioned seeing an interesting bird at the gate earlier?”   
He frowned slightly, a hint of warning in his eyes almost as if he’d verbally said ‘not here’. She continued regardless.   
“Well when I got lost on my way to the bathroom I found a little courtyard and there was another one!   
Unless it was the same one but that’s pretty unlikely. I wonder if they live in the forest.” 

Tom speculated idly on this inanity as if it were a perfectly reasonable conversation but his eyes were shuttered and the corners of his mouth tight.   
He politely excused himself a few moments later and turned and muttered something in Sorrenson’s ear beside him, who in turn then whispered into Abraxas ear.   
The blond nodded minutely without pausing in discussion with Amalthea.   
Tom turned back to her.   
“A few of us were thinking of getting together after the house meeting and celebrating the new term with a butterbeer or two. Perhaps you might like to come?” 

She accepted with thanks and Tom’s smile was very nearly a smirk.   
“Wonderful. I’ve got to take the first years to their dorms and tuck them in – bless them, little dears – before I can get free, but Sorry will take you to our private common room.”

She smiled, amused at the idea of the Dark Lord tucking in firsties and then an irritating “AHEM” drew her attention to the front of the room, over the heads of the many lower years seated on the floor. 

Horace Slughorn looked quite young, she thought objectively. He was nevertheless still rotund and had an unpleasant greedy look about his piggish little eyes.   
He looked around the room expansively, his gaze pausing significantly on her seated next to Tom in pride of place before moving on.   
He spoke with the same jovial yet detestable voice she remembered from her own sixth year potions class.   
“Welcome Slytherins, to another bright new year at the world’s finest school of wizardry. And especially, welcome to all young students for whom this year will be the first at this grand establishment.   
You have had the good fortune to be invited into the noblest of the four houses – that of the sorcerer Salazar Slytherin – one of the most if not the most influential figure in the wizarding world since the time of Merlin.   
I hope you will take the time to learn more about your founding father so that you can better appreciate the honour you carry. I also expect you all to seek to increase that honour by earning as many house points as you are able so that we might all win the house cup again at the end of the year. Slytherin has held it these last five years and we must keep up the tradition of excellence common to the students of this house.   
Congratulations too, to our own Tom Riddle for being named Head prefect of the sixth years this year, although I am certain that any of you who have had dealings with Mr Riddle will agree that there is no student more suited to or more deserving of the role than he. Well done” He applauded slightly and the students took up the applause and cheered excitedly, genuinely pleased.   
Tom sat forward on the sofa and bowed slightly.   
Slughorn looked at him approvingly and went on “I am also pleased to draw attention in passing, to our newest sixth year, Miss Maia Schiller.   
I have reason to believe she will be an excellent addition to this house. I hope you will all strive to make her feel welcome.” 

Hermione smiled, trying not to blush. Slytherins probably didnt blush.   
“Thank you professor Slughorn” she said softly. “I’ll do my best.” 

Slughorn nodded and went on to tell them about the rules and expectations. These were largely the same as those in Gryffindor, however different areas were out of bounds and she tried to memorise which they were, noticing at once that many of them were the areas that were not out of bounds to Gryffindors.   
Possibly some way of avoiding interhouse conflicts, she assumed. 

Soon enough the meeting was over and Tom had risen, herding the firsties like little nasty self important sheep down toward the dorms.   
Sorenson got up and offered her a hand up. She didn’t know how to refuse without seeming impolite so she let him help her up and he walked with her toward the common room door, Abraxas and Septimus following behind them and the others trailing along after them in a less organized manner. 

She saw other older students filing off toward the dorms with the younger ones. Antonia and Amalthea went with them, both glancing back at her with suspicion and anger.   
Apparently they were not invited. 

When they were out in the corridor and it was quiet, Sorenson leading them all down deeper into the dungeons, she noticed how tense and nervous the others were, for the most part.   
Palmer Avery was looking rather malevolently eager and Septimus and Abraxus both looked faintly hopeful, but the others were walking silently, shooting troubled glances at her.   
The common impression on their faces seemed to be – why are you here?! WHY are we taking you down to.. what she assumed was the equivalent of Tom’s ‘lair’. Wherever his knights of Walpurgis met in the school .   
She imagined Avery, Septimus and Abraxas were hoping that she was to be this evening’s entertainment. 

Sorenson stopped at an uninteresting stretch of wall, deep in the dungeon, past the potions classroom.   
He placed his hand flat on the wall and in a way that reminded her very much of the future, there was a very faint golden flash in the stones.   
He reached back for her, offering her his hand and, uneasily, she took it.   
Then he walked through the wall, dragging her after him. 

It wasn’t like Draco’s fake wall entrance. This one felt cold.   
She could actually feel the almost metre thick stone all around her limbs like custard when she walked through. 

Sorenson looked at her with a concerned expression that faded to blankness when Abraxas stepped through the wall next. 

The room they were in was dark.. a circle of lighter blue exposed some vague shapes. Furniture of some kind.   
The edges of the room were hidden in darkness but she had a feeling of size. A slight echo to things when they moved. 

Abraxas scowled at sorry and cast the charm for the torches, while Septimus passed through the wall behind him. 

A dozen torches illuminated a large round stone room with a domed ceiling.   
In the centre of the ceiling an oculum exposed the night sky full of stars.   
In the centre of the room below it a single black leather wingback chair and two black half moon sofas surrounded a low round table.   
It really was like... the coffee-table of king Arthur.. she mused. 

Sorenson led her closer and stood looking at the table speculatively, obviously unsure where to seat her. 

The others were coming through the wall one by one behind them.   
Abraxas moved to the far right of the left sofa at the right hand of the wingback chair but then he too stood and looked at Hermione slightly speculatively.   
When Septimus sat down on the left of the chair, Abraxas seemed to shrug slightly and seated himself.   
The others were drawing close to the sofas too. Palmer Avery sat next to Septimus and the two smirked at each other knowingly. Cygnus black went to Abraxas side and sat, joined by Benjamin Nott, his shadow. Roan Mulciber on the other hand joined Avery and was followed by the slow dull Clemens Carrow. 

Sorenson looked at the single place left next to Benjamin Nott and then back at Hermione.   
He seemed to reach a decision and gestured for her to sit down. He then stood by her side at the back of the sofa.

Septimus broke off his hushed conversation with Avery to sneer at Sorry “You don’t need to stand on guard as if we would leap upon her any second, Sorry.” 

Sorenson said nothing but leaned closer to her somewhat. 

Hermione mused on exactly how dangerous her current position actually was and exactly how many bricks she would be excreting if this had happened to her a year ago, before everything.   
She smirked internally.   
She was the most dangerous one in the room..   
Three days ago she had bested Grindelwald and everyone in here, including Sorenson, thought she was a naive bit of fluff probably about to have a very horrible experience. 

She grinned to herself and Septimus goggled at her. It looked quite amusing on his arrogant features.   
He started to say something that from the look of his mouth probably wouldn’t have been very nice, when the sound of Tom stepping into the room set them all on alert.


	57. Chapter 57

Tom..looked..an entirely different person in this room. 

Even the way he moved. He walked like the Dark Lord.. His face was hard, cruel, dark.   
He stalked over and lowered himself with satisfaction into the wingback. 

“My servants. Another year!” 

She could actually feel all the hairs standing up on the boys’ necks at the word servants, along with their nervous glances toward her.   
Tom noticed it too as his smile broadened. 

“Maia, what are you doing at the end of things over there. Come here.” 

She rose and went to him, taking his proffered hand, amid barely concealed shock of the others. Tom pulled her down onto his lap to sit.   
She curled into him slightly, comfortably.   
Sorenson, she saw in her peripheral vision, took up the place she had vacated. 

Tom placed his hand possessively on her thigh and stroked it slowly.   
The other boys in the room watched this with fascination – in the case of Avery, with eager anticipation. 

“I did not meet Maia for the first time today, obviously” Tom said quietly. He stroked up her back and rested his hand on the back of her neck.   
“Maia is the first witch to deserve the honour of my mark. Show them” he commanded her quietly.   
She unhesitatingly pulled back her left sleeve and displayed her dark mark to the group. Eyes widened still further.   
Septimus looked irate “Lord! What use”   
Tom casually flicked the wand that had appeared in his hand at the boy

“Crucio” 

He held it only a few seconds, during which time Septimus gasped and shook but emitted no sound.   
Hermione was mildly impressed. She wondered idly what Severus looked like under crucio. After what he had done, she made a mental note to find out if and when she got back. 

“Do not question me Septimus” Tom said in a bored tone. “Maia, to assuage all of your doubts, could destroy any of you in a duel.. probably without breaking a sweat.” 

The disbelief on the faces of the assembled boys was blatant.

Tom snorted, somewhere between amused and infuriated. “She is easily the strongest here, after myself. Who will challenge her?” he tossed it out there.   
She looked at him wryly thinking to herself ‘hmpf.. butterbeer huh?!   
Butterbeer and exploding snap and cruciatus and perhaps a bit of spontaneous duelling with future death eaters. Up for it?’ 

The wizards looked around at each other, different eyes and eyebrows suggesting ‘you do it’   
Tom spoke again, deciding for them. “Palmer.. You are ..fairly.. competent with a wand” Avery’s lips thinned at this insult. “How would you like a chance at attacking Maia? I can see you have been chomping at the bit to get your hands on her all evening. Charming of you, I’m sure.”   
He looked at Hermione with an eyebrow raised. “Think of it as an initiation of sorts, Maia. Impress me.” 

She took a deep reluctant breath. 

Avery said, smiling threateningly. “I’ll take her apart for you, my Lord.” 

Tom smirked. “Do you hear?,” he asked her. “He’s going to crush you. I hope you’re prepared to bleed!” 

She narrowed her eyes at him slightly. “Oh fine! If we have to bloody do this...”   
She climbed to her feet. Tom looked pleased.

“...If you survive “ he snickered slightly “you may demonstrate your other talents to me afterward” he warned her.   
Her eye travelled down his languorously reclining frame, raising her eyebrow.   
“..Clever girl.” He praised, seeing she had understood what he was going to demand of her next. “Go and duel him over there now. We will watch.” He pointed to the open space between the wall and their circle. “No unforgivables, and nothing else that might kill him or cause damage to the castle if you please, Maia. Avery is a prat, but occasionally quite amusing.   
Winner is the first to take the other’s wand” 

Hermione smirked – excellent. She could be done with this in seconds then.   
She put up a strong shield as she walked over to the area he had indicated. 

When Avery silently cast something that crashed against her shield loudly she took it to mean the duel had informally begun.   
She tweaked her spell slightly with raw magic and cast a silent expelliarmus, summoning Avery’s wand to her effortlessly despite his own shield. The latter gaped fit to catch flies. 

She inspected his wand as if were interesting. It was rather simple. Oak without great embellishment or filigree. It felt heavy in her hand. 

“Oh now that’s not entertaining! Give it back Maia. How about this.. The winner is the one still able to fight back?” 

Avery looked a hell of a lot less sure of himself now. He didn’t even wait for her to be ready, he just started casting on her with a vicious look on his face.   
She identified the diffindo by colour and swiped it aside with her wand.   
She let him attack her a few more times without effect before she cast the most painful harmless curse she could think of, the derma doloro curse Tom had used on Harry at the beach.   
Unsurprisingly, Avery repelled it the first time.   
She tweaked a silent flagrate to pass through his shield and hit his wand, making him drop the burning stick, yelping in sudden pain.   
Then she silently cast a nastily powerful derma doloro, watching in satisfaction as he screamed and felt to the floor writhing and scratching at his body, trying to relieve the agonizing pain all over his skin. 

She held the curse on him with concentration and walked back to the circle, kneeling before Tom, who was smiling in pleasure like a man whose dog has done a clever trick in front of others.   
“Very good, Maia..” He stroked her hair and looked down at her while Avery screamed still in the background.   
“Continue. Show me your devotion..”   
He leaned back in the chair adjusting his pelvis slightly and tilting his head back, looking down his nose at her in imperious exultation.   
His blonde hair cascaded around his face like a greek god. 

She avoided her peripheral vision where she was certain the others were watching this new development with avid interest.   
Instead she leaned forward and freed Tom’s hard cock from his robes, applying herself to the ‘reward’ with enthusiasm.

He widened his thighs when she had to lean in to take him deep into her throat. His low groan of pleasure was clearly audible even over Avery, whose screams had now subsided into sobs and pleading.   
She performed her best, looking up and meeting Tom’s eyes as she worshipped at his altar.   
He was breathing fast and ragged, bucking up into her mouth as his hand stroked her head. His eyes were fixed on hers and half lidded in lust.   
When she brought him over the edge his moan sounded almost painful. “Yesss..” he hissed in pleasure, thrusting up and burying himself in her throat deeply.   
She swallowed all his seed and he panted, sated and content. “Remain at my feet” he murmured. 

After a moment he cast a finite incantantum at Avery, catching his breath and slowly returning to the tight coiled mass of power and control he was normally.   
Hermione found herself sitting in the exact position she had been in when Lord Voldemort had first led her into his library. 

Tom’s hand stroked her head and played with her hair. 

She risked a shuttered gaze around the other boys sitting in the circle. Blatant lust and envy was visible on all almost all faces. Sorenson also looked somewhat wistful. Clemens Carrow was the only one entirely unaffected. His dull brown eyes were fixed on Tom adoringly.   
Avery had dragged himself to his feet and was now returning to his place. 

“So... as I was informing you, before Septimus so unwisely interjected... Maia is my newest knight. She is one of you now.   
You will treat her with the requisite respect and acknowledgement.   
You will not attempt to intimidate, attack , poison, mislead or seduce her. I will be very disappointed if i learn of something of this sort occurring.” 

He looked around the circle. No further insolence was forthcoming. 

Septimus, Abraxas and Sorenson were still staring at her with various casts of guarded desire on their faces. The others for the most part were looking at Tom with butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-their-mouth expressions – except Palmer Avery who looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth and Cygnus who looked between them both curiously. 

“On to the next order of business. I require information about Gellert Grindelwald.   
Sorenson, Benjamin – your fathers are in the ministry – see if you can acquire anything they may have on him.   
..Septimus, Abraxas.. use your connections too. I want to know about the man himself, his history, his troops and fortifications and most importantly, his present movements.” 

Faint puzzlement was visible on every face. 

Tom stroked Hermione’s hair again. “Do any of you have any matters to bring up? 

Abraxis and Septimus exchanged a look with each other. Obviously whatever they wanted to ask about was a matter close to all of their hearts.   
Abraxas seemed to be selected to voice it. 

“Our... celebrations.. will they continue now that ..Maia.. has joined us?” 

Tom snorted. “Naturally. Why should they not?!” 

Abraxas and the others seemed relieved and then..slowly the expressions became subtly excited, their eyes flickering to her again speculatively.   
“Will..she be attending? Participating?!” Abraxas asked interestedly. 

Tom hesitated. “I haven’t yet decided. Possibly. ..Probably.”   
Hermione looked up at him over her shoulder. It seemed they already had things akin to revels. She wasn’t going to be getting out of torturing people after all. 

“When will we next-..” Abraxas began. Tom interrupted him. “Not in the next two weeks. I have things I must attend to.” 

Cygnus spoke up now, which the others seemed to treat as unusual enough to hang on his words.   
“Are you planning on making it known in the student population that you are dating Maia?” 

Tom thought on this for over a minute.   
Hermione glanced up at him, unsure what she wanted him to decide. Dumbledore would be more than merely suspicious if she were suddenly to be dating Tom.

He spoke up finally. “I believe...for the moment.. I will not. There are other factors in play that I need to manage first.”   
“However.. to make it absolutely clear – She IS mine. Do not allow any public displays or absence thereof to delude you to the contrary.”   
Tom looked around the circle coolly. “I want you to keep an eye on other students when I am not present. Let me know if anyone starts showing too much interest in her.”   
There were faint nods, particularly from Sorenson.

“Anything else?” Tom asked. 

They looked around at each other. Nobody else appeared to want to ask anything. 

“Then we are done. I called you together tonight merely to introduce Maia and make things absolutely clear to avoid...confusion”   
he looked pointedly at Avery who lowered his eyes.   
“I assume therefore that there will be no ..confusion. After spending all this time explaining the situation I will be rather short with anyone who finds themselves ..confused.” 

There were general mumbles of no and yes my Lord.

“Excellent. Return to the dormitory. I will escort Maia later, Sorenson.”   
The Rodolphus-looking boy nodded respectfully, glancing at her again, and then withdrew with the others already milling toward the exit. 

After they had gone, Tom leaned down and pulled her up onto his lap.   
“You were excellent, Maia..I could not fault you. Exactly the mix of strength and submissiveness I desired you to portray to them.” He kissed her enthusiastically. “You are..perfect.” 

He seemed to hesitate, shocked at himself, after the word sprang out of his mouth. Then he half shook his head as if berating himself and pulled her closer, encouraging her to lean against him with her head on his shoulder.   
She did and sighed happily to be held so by him.   
Tom.. golden haired Tom..stroked her back slowly. After a few minutes he said, softly. “Now tell me about the bird.”   
He was duly unimpressed with the idea that there was a dimension jumping parrot hanging about the place somewhere that might grab her when she next went out the door.

“What happened with Dumbledore” was his next question and he was perhaps even more pensive after hearing about his professor’s suspicion and extra questions.   
“Nevermind..” he said softly and after a couple of minutes “He may be suspicious but he does not know anything, and I shall ensure that that state of affairs continues.”   
“Shall I escort you to your dorm?” he offered distractedly 

She bit her lip. She didn’t want to go down there. Those girls hated her.. she didn’t want to sleep around them.   
“Can’t I come with you?” she asked in a small voice. Tom smirked.

“So you’d prefer to announce to all of Slytherin on the first night that you’re sleeping with me?   
You, ostensibly, do not even know me... I have no idea how things are in your time but do you realise how that would appear here? There are..names..for girls like that.” 

She swallowed and looked down. “I guess..no.. I know you’re right.. I just-..”   
“I probably would have been safer in Gryffindor.. Amalthea is going to poison me in my sleep or something I think.” 

He snorted.   
“She is a bit possessive of Septimus. They have been courting for many months.” He sneered at the word “I think she believes he will marry her eventually. Silly bint. That wizard has been promised in marriage since before his birth. Amalthea hasn’t the slightest chance. Perhaps she may make a mistress.. but I suspect she thinks too highly of herself and I personally doubt his affection for her is that strong.”   
He tilted his head and looked at her speculatively for a moment.. his eyes unreadable. “What are you to me in the future?” his voice sounded slightly wistful.   
She nuzzled into his neck further, closing her eyes.   
“I don’t know.” She mumbled. “Your servant. Your possession. Does it matter?”

He kissed her on the forehead. “Yes. It matters.. tell me.” 

She raised her head and kissed him on the neck lightly; then nuzzled back down into him again.   
“You call me something in parseltongue” she mumbled. 

His eyebrows shot up. “What?!” 

She swallowed and tried to imitate the sounds. It sounded ridiculous.. there wasn’t that..depth or strange echo that it made when Tom or Harry spoke.   
Tom flinched nonetheless, apparently recognising enough of the sound. “::my precious?::” he hissed.   
She nodded against his neck.   
He held her fiercely suddenly. “You are neither a servant nor a possession to me then” he murmured faintly, blinking in surprise. 

She said nothing but felt warm and wonderful. Tom cared about her. He as much as said it. His future self didn’t view her as something to own.. a weapon.. or at least not just as that..   
There would be no reason to use those words if he did.   
Unless... unless he just said them because she had just told him he would in the future.   
Oh god.. what had she done? Now she’d never be sure which was the case. 

Tom was very silent. She looked at him and he looked troubled. When he spoke he revealed the similar line his own thought had taken.   
“I. ..will allow you to obliviate me of that knowledge..” he said softly.   
“I know you cannot harm me.. and I trust your skill not to accidentally do so.” 

She sat up and hugged him, relieved.

“Do it.. before I change my mind” he commanded discontentedly. 

She drew her wand and pressed it to his temple, hesitating. He closed his eyes and waited for her to slice away his memory.   
They remained there for perhaps ten seconds.. and then she pulled away the wand and kissed him instead.   
“It doesn’t matter..” she murmured against his lips.   
“I don’t want to even risk damaging your memory for such a small thing. In the future I love you, Tom.. and..and now I love you too.   
Even if you did think of me as an object or a servant or.. or as nothing at all.. It would be the same.” 

He had gasped when she had said the word love and stroked his fingertips delicately down her cheeks as if she were spun crystal.   
He furrowed his forehead in confused frustration, a look of faint longing in his eyes.

“Don’t worry.. You don’t have to say it back. Not ever if you don’t want. I know.. it’s not a word you’re exactly..comfortable .. with.” She said wryly. 

He kissed her again, hard, and then pulled her against him, his arms around her suffocatingly tight.   
After minutes of holding her like that, his head leaning against her own on his shoulder he spoke. His voice was tight.

“I regret that you have to stay in the dormitory tonight. I am..so sorely tempted..to throw all caution to the wind and take you back with me to my room.. or to the room of requirement.. or simply to stay here with you.. but you are right. Amalthea is a foolish witch with no understanding of the true nature of our group. She will make life even more difficult if you do not return all night.   
..but I will find a way to improve the situation. You must merely hold on a little. You can do that..” 

She nodded. She felt his expression change against her skin.

“I will find a way to handle Dumbledore and Grindelwald too. Do not worry.”   
She nodded against his neck again unhappily. 

He put his arms under her knees and around her back and stood, lifting her, then putting her carefully on the ground.   
“Come.. I’ll take you back now before I decide to give in to my temptation.”

She smiled wistfully as he took her hand and led her to the wall. Once there he blinked, as if remembering something important.   
“Oh.. I almost forgot”   
He took out his wand and raised her hand, suddenly running the former down the palm of the latter without warning, making her squeak in unexpected pain.   
Snatching her hand back she examined a deep bleeding gash and shot him a hurt look. He captured her wrist again.

“Shhh... It’s for the entrance. Don’t heal it yet” he said soothingly and pressed her palm against the wall.   
It felt gritty and slightly painful. Not ..really.. painful.. but not at all comfortable.   
When he was finished with what she assumed was a silent incantation he released her and she held her hurt hand to her, cradling it.   
He moued in false sympathy and said. “There there. Heal it and we’ll get moving”

Scowling at him blackly she did so.   
She was thinking to herself.. ‘you are a massive arse. Even if I might love you.. even when you were very young.. you have always been a complete arse.’   
She whispered a healing spell over her hand ineffectually and healed it seamlessly using raw magic.   
He raised an impressed eyebrow at the speed and perfection of the healing, at which she smugly smirked, flexing her fingers. 

She knew she could have – probably should have- just used regular magic.   
As he shoved her toward the wall and she passed through, shuddering at the cold custard feeling of it, she mused to herself on why she hadn’t.   
It had just seemed natural to do it that way. It was less effort and it was more effective..   
She was using the raw magic a lot more often than was wise though maybe. She hadn’t needed it earlier with bloody Avery either probably.   
It had just been easier to demolish him effortlessly.   
But.. it was stupid to keep using it for piddling little things that ..she corrected herself..   
It was absolutely moronic to keep using it full stop – especially in this place.. especially around this person. 

No more tweaking or nudging spells. No more infinitely sustained shields.   
And she needed to find a way to acquire a regular wand holster. What she did with hers was too unusual. It was that that had made bloody Dumbledore suspicious in the first place. 

She wandered down the corridor in thought as Tom stepped out of the wall behind her and placed his hand gently on her lower back, walking beside her, seemingly equally pensive. 

No more – she resolved. No more using it. 

Tom stroked her back slowly as if he had heard and agreed. She looked to him but his eyes showed he was far away in his mind. 

They came to the common room door- a metallic shield of Slytherin house that hung on the wall with embossed snakes. One of these turned to fixate them both and Tom leaned in and whispered Typhon.   
Hermione was relieved that it wasn’t something awful to do with blood purity. The shield swung open..

It was really a telling thing that Slytherin used a shield for their door while Gryffindor used a somewhat comical painting.   
She wondered what the entrances to Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff looked like.. and why she’d never tried to find out before. 

Tom led her through the empty common room, the fire low and crackling. He seemed to relax in here, as if it were his own home. No wonder he had modelled his chambers on it, she thought.   
At the stairs down to the girls dormitory he continued walking down unimpeded.   
She stopped, shocked and momentarily pissed off.   
Did the stairs in Slytherin allow the boys to pass them while those in Gryffindor prevented them??! That was hardly fair!

Tom turned and shot her a questioning look. “Why have you stopped. What’s wrong?!”   
She shook her head irritatedly and continued down. He frowned and followed. 

At the first lower level of the stairs, instead of a long sixth year dormitory, she discovered there was a corridor with doors coming off it. There were far too many doors!   
“How many to a room?” she whispered annoyed. 

“The rooms vary from two to five beds” Tom replied, sounding as if he were wondering at her apparent anger. “At present there was only one bed free – you will be residing in a five bed room”

“In Gryffindor there are only five bed dorm rooms” she sniped at him.   
He laughed softly, realising now what her problem had been since they started down.   
“Slytherins are somewhat more privileged in their home lives generally” he whispered near her ear, standing beside her.   
“Some of them couldn’t possibly tolerate sharing their space with four others. As it is, there are complaints every year that there are not separate rooms for all from first year onward.” 

Hermione folded her arms snottily thinking of how horrid Draco had been all throughout school. “Slytherins are brats” she whispered barely audibly. 

Tom snickered and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her neck and murmuring into her ear “Yes. I can’t argue against that assessment.”   
“Nevertheless.. they are your brats now. Get along with them. Pretend you were born with a silver stick up your behind. Show the necessary attitude and you’ll be fine.”   
She tilted her head offering him more of her throat to kiss.   
“Mmmm... tempting..” he whispered. “But I have to get you into bed before your roommates get their expensive knickers in a twist.” 

She half turned. “But I want you to get me into bed.. no argument here”   
She leaned in to kiss him and he chuckled low, a satisfied look on his perfect face, moving out of her reach.   
He sighed, sounding not at all put-out. “Soon. Soon, precious Maia. You need to sleep. Class tomorrow, remember?”

She jumped. She hadn’t remembered! Her eyes widened. “What if-..” He kissed her quickly, cutting her off and then released her.

Walking past her and opening the first door carefully, inside the room was dark. He lit his wand and beckoned her to come.   
She followed gingerly.   
The room held three beds on one side and two on the other side of the room.   
He led her to the farthest bed, shaking his head faintly. A silently cast spell made the bed glow red.

“Tsk..” he tutted.

One or probably all of these horrible cows had actually cursed her bed, she realised. Nasty nasty bitches. She would have to watch her back here all the bloody time. 

Tom seemed to hesitate, sighing.   
“I know you’re awake Amalthea” he said in a low voice. He muttered a charm that lit the torches. 

Two of the girls in the room sat up muzzily. “Wazzit.. what’s going on. Shut the bloody light off” one of them said.   
The other one, slightly more awake and recognising Tom Riddle standing in the middle of their room gasped loudly. “Marta.. wake up” she hissed.   
The sleepy blonde blinked, rubbing her eyes and then gasped loudly and boggled at Tom standing in their room.   
She pulled the covers up around her and stared as if Merlin himself had apparated in to their bedchambers. 

Two beds hadn’t stirred and Hermione supposed those were probably Amalthea and Antonia. 

“Oh well. It seems Amalthea isn’t awake after all” Tom said pointedly. He pointed his wand at the still bed that was presumably hers and flicked the covers off her.   
The girl in question lay, voluptuous and slinky in a black silk nightgown, her red hair falling in liquid waves around her shoulders and the pillow.   
Hermione felt herself burn slightly in jealousy at how lovely her body was.   
Amalthea pretended to sleep, but her face was slightly pinched. 

Tom smirked and tilted his head, examining her. Then he levitated her.   
In the air she came alive, shrieking slightly and struggling, with wide eyes. Tom moved her floating form through the air till she hovered over the glowing form of Hermione’s bed.   
Amalthea was paddling and fighting in the air now with a frightened look on her face. 

“No!! Tom! Don’t! I’m sorry! I’m sorry. Don’t do it! Please!!”

The rest of the room, even Antonia, looking peaky and afraid, was sitting up silently watching this drama. No one opened their mouth to voice a protest.   
Hermione found herself fascinated by the undulation of the beautiful panicked girl’s form. 

“What do you say, Maia.. shall we find out what she would have had you suffer?” Tom tossed at her. 

She was quite shocked at herself to realise she had absolutely no intention of asking him to spare Amalthea.   
“Absolutely” she said with satisfaction. 

Tom released Amalthea and the girl fell down onto the glowing bed which promptly stopped glowing as she shrieked and clutched at her face, her body strampling and winding in pain.   
It lasted for quite a while.   
When she stopped struggling and lay still on her back, her arms still over her face it was clear that the curse had been something disfiguring. Her bare arms were covered in white pustules. 

“Lovely..” Hermione remarked wryly. “What a nice girl. I haven’t even spoken two words with her.”   
Tom allowed his lips to betray his amusement as he scourgified Amalthea’s bed.   
“Goodnight Maia.” He chuckled. “sleep well.” 

She nodded and smiled. “Thank you for the tour. I think I’ll be able to find my way back to the classrooms tomorrow.” 

He nodded and bowed slightly. “It was my honour. See you all at breakfast.”   
He glided gracefully from the room.

 

An aftermath-of-shitstorm..silence fell. 

The girl who had hissed for her friend to wake up was the first to break it. “So.. you’re.. Maia Shiller?” 

Hermione nodded. 

“I’m Carmen.. Carmen Rede-lynn.” She smiled a small, friendly, if slightly nervous, smile. She was a pixie-ish slight girl with long straight light brown hair that fell to just below her shoulders.   
She wore a lilac cotton nightdress with what looked like strawberries embroidered on it.   
“This is Marta Whitewood.” She gestured at the bed opposite hers where a chubby, fizzy-haired, blond with pale ice green eyes looked a bit thunderstruck still.   
Carmen raised a thin eyebrow at Hermione “I.. guess you already know Antonia and Amalthea.” She hesitated for a moment.   
“I hope you’re not..too upset about the bed. Amalthea was a bit uptight about you leaving with her boyfriend earlier. ...Where did you all go, actually? We were wondering.” 

She looked friendly and genuinely interested in this obviously oh-so-innocent question. Hermione frowned slightly.   
“They took me on a walk around the school and showed me where my classrooms would be and where some secret passages were located.   
What did you imagine they were doing?!”   
She turned to face the huddled girl on what had formerly been her bed.   
“I assure you, I haven’t even touched Septimus. And i have no intention of doing so in the future. I don’t even know him and he’s not my type.   
Besides.. I’m given to understand that he’s betrothed. Why would I bother dallying with someone that I couldn’t possibly have a future with?!” 

The mass of pustules huddled tighter and she thought she heard a faint sob. 

She turned to Antonia. “And I’m not interested in Cygnus either so leave off trying to curse me, thank you!”   
Antonia shot her a catty look. Hermione snorted. Bloody pansy Parkinson to a T.   
If the girl still lived in her time she’d have to remember to let Draco kiss her around the tart, for all the years that she was a miserable catty bitch.

“Well.. ok.. so it was all completely innocent then. That clears up everything” Carmen said in a mediator voice. “Glad we got that sorted out. can we all sleep now?” 

Hermione shook her head slightly in exasperation and stomped over to Amalthea’s bed.   
Now she’d be sleeping between Marta and Amalthea, she supposed. She would have actually preferred the bed at the back of the room that they’d set aside for her - probably thinking to put themselves between her and the door so that she couldn’t sneak off into the boys dorms or something.   
It was always preferable for her to sleep with her back to the wall and it made cast wards even more stable. Still..for tonight she’d just have to make do.   
She drew her wand and cast four different wards, including one martial one that would painfully incapacitate invaders.

“Geez.. I see we’ve gotten off to a fabulous start together here..” Carmen observed sarcastically.   
Hermione just snorted at her and shot a glance at the horrible state of Amalthea.   
“Yes well. Leave me alone while I sleep and we’ll all get along wonderfully” she snarked back. 

She had no nightwear so transfigured her robe into a plain cotton nightdress. 

Stabbing her wand out from under the covers she extinguished the torch and tried to go to sleep. However it wasn’t until she finally felt that the regular breathing of everyone else in the room indicated they were asleep that she managed to drift off herself.


	58. Chapter 58

“Wake up!” a voice said uncertainly. “It’s time for breakfast. You need to get up now.” 

The voice was unfamiliar and she poked her head above the blankets to see a fizzy blonde head at eye level.   
Speaking of eyes, the ones that looked at her nervously were stunning. The girl in question was a little overweight, her face too rounded, but her pale pale green eyes were dazzling. Her hair though was more unmanageable than Hermione’s own had ever been. It was a bit like a dandelion clock, cut short around her head and radiating out around her face like a nimbus.   
The tiny frizzy corkscrews were delicate and trembled when she moved.

“I’m.. I’m Marta, remember? Hi. The others are all already dressed, you need to hurry or you’ll miss breakfast.   
Sorry.. I should have woken you.   
They put up a silencing spell around you saying you needed your rest so you’d be in a better mood today.” 

Hermione blinked. Gods.. it had been so long since she’d had to get up at any particular time. 

“A house elf left you a uniform” Marta supplied helpfully. “I’ll show you where the bathroom is if you like. I’m sorry about last night. It’s.. it’s easier not to try and stand up to them.   
At least for me.   
My family..um.. isn’t so well situated as the Parkinsons, vanes and Redes. I’m lucky they allow me to associate with them.   
Your name was..Schiller. right?” 

Hermione slowly sat up, yawning. The blond was crouched on her haunches by the bed. 

“Yes.. “ she said uneasily. Marta looked uncomfortable.   
“That’s.. um.. that’s a muggle name isn’t it?” she asked, whispering the word muggle as if she were swearing and didn’t want anyone to hear. 

Hermione stiffened. “I’m a half blood. My father was muggle” she said dully. 

The blonde girls eyes widened. “Oh!! OH! Sorry. I didn’t mean to... I mean..”   
Hermione cut her off. “It’s fine. I don’t remember him. My mother took me away. I don’t know the details. She didn’t like to talk about it.” 

The girl looked suddenly sympathetic and knowing. “The war.. A lot of things like that happened. There’s quite a few half bloods in our year.” 

Hermione considered correcting her.. she hadn’t considered making herself out to be a child of rape..but she decided it was probably fine. She nodded. “Don’t tell anyone.. ok? I.. would rather it wasn’t common knowledge.” 

The blonde looked shifty suddenly. “No.. I won’t. If.. if you’ll introduce me to Tom..” 

Hermione very nearly gaped. This kind of blackmailing behaviour was just not the norm in Gryffindor.   
God Slytherins sucked.   
She smiled in a friendly manner and nodded. “Sure..but.. you already know him, don’t you?”   
The girl bit her cheek.   
“Well.. sort of. He’s... around. And sometimes I’m in a room with him.. or at the next table from him.. but he’s never actually spoken to me.. and you – he actually took you on an actual tour of the school on your first night.   
That’s unheard of! If you spend time with me then he’ll notice me. Tom’s... Tom’s the greatest!” she gushed softly. 

Hermione warred internally between jealousy and sympathy. She didn’t really care one way or the other whether her blood status came out. It was sure to anyway, no matter what poor frizzy Marta Whitewood did.   
Sympathy won out.

“Ok.. sit with me at breakfast then”   
The girls face lit up. “Really?! Thanks Maia!! Come on – I’ll show you the bathroom, we’ve got to hurry!!”

 

 

They were ready in a truly indecent time, Marta standing berating Hermione impatiently by the door, shifting nervously from foot to foot.   
She hardly bothered with her hair, binding it into a braid and heading out the door. 

When they entered the great hall she saw that Tom, Septimus, Abraxus, Amalthea and Sorenson were sitting together at the end of the table. Amalthea looked as beautiful as ever, Hermione noted disappointedly.   
Roan and Palmer were further down with Benji, Antonia and Cygnus. 

Tom gave her a nod as she walked in and she smiled back. 

Marta looked down the table and Hermione followed her eye to where Carmen sat with three other girls and a boy at the third section of the long Slytherin table.   
Obviously Carmen wasn’t ranked among the Slytherin elite like Amalthea and Antonia. 

Marta almost hummed in pride as Hermione led her to the very head of the table. Tom raised a curious eyebrow and Hermione smirked back.   
As she drew close Septimus turned to Amalthea and muttered something. Obviously telling her to move down to judge by the appalled look on her pretty face. She moved down.   
Septimus allowed a space between himself and Tom and looked up at Hermione approaching with a small wolfish smile.   
He’d only left enough space for one person and when Hermione gestured for Marta to take the spot, his face flared in horrified anger.   
She smirked and had Sorry budge up so that she could sit between him and Abraxas.   
This arrangement seemed to please the Malfoy no end. Tom frowned at her but said nothing.

“Morning.” She mumbled softly and got herself some warm buttered toast and a peach. “This is Marta. She’s a roommate – I hope it’s ok that I invited her to sit with me..”   
Tom turned politely to Marta and smiled dazzlingly.   
“Pleased to meet you. I apologise for waking you last night”   
Marta looked like she was about to have a heart attack. She blushed bright pink. It clashed with her hair slightly.   
When he, smiling angelically, brushed his fingertips over her hand on the table she made a faint squeak and seemed near fainting.   
Hermione thought he was laying it on a bit thick and tuned the glowing girl out, attending to her breakfast.   
She took a sip of milk that Sorry poured for her. “Thanks!” she said automatically.   
She almost wore it when Dumbledore’s voice said directly behind her. “Ah Miss Schiller. So nice to see you’ve made friends already.”   
She put down her milk quickly before she could drop it.   
Dumbledore didn’t sound like it was nice that she’d made friends. He sounded like it was deplorable that she’d made friends.

“I’ve brought you your timetable and the texts you will need for today’s classes.”   
He passed her a sheet of paper and the levitated books in the air beside him floated down toward her.   
She caught them and held them to her chest. 

“Thank you professor Dumbledore” she said gratefully.

“You are most welcome, Miss Schiller. I know you will make good use of them. The others will await you in your room this evening. Oh.. and please be careful navigating the school. It can be quite confusing for newcomers.   
I’ll see you later in transfiguration, my dear. Have a good morning!” 

She smiled at him and as he walked away back to the head table she tried not to let her face fall into a rictus.   
When she turned around Tom was looking preoccupied, sipping a glass of orange juice.

Marta was still staring at him with shining eyes. 

She examined her timetable. She would have herbology, runes, DADA and then transfiguration today.   
Sorry and Abraxus looked over her shoulder at the list. Abraxas swore in shock..   
Tom clicked his fingers and gestured for the timetable. She passed it over and took a few grapes from the fruitbowl. 

“We have most of the same classes” he observed approvingly. I have arithmancy when you have runes, runes when you have languages and I’m taking magical creatures and divination in addition to these but otherwise, our timetables are identical.”   
Marta gaped overawed and Hermione scowled to herself. She had thought about adding magical creatures and magical history.. but it seemed a bit unnecessary to take eleven subjects here when she didn’t need those two papers for anything practical. Finding out Tom was taking that many papers.. and sounding so offhand about it.. made her want to seek out Dumbledore and ask for more.   
She heard Tom chuckle low. “Don’t worry Maia. Nine papers is a lot. Septimus is only taking eight and he’s the most scholastic of the others here.   
The boy in question smiled appreciatively at the compliment. Amalthea put her hand on his forearm as if in ownership and he looked down at it with an imperiously questioning eyebrow and shook her off in order to pour himself another tea.   
She narrowed her eyes at Hermione as if she’d done something. 

“Why do you take divination?” she asked Tom peevishly. “it’s entirely useless.”   
She was thinking to herself that magical creatures wasn’t all that useful either but out of respect to Hagrid she left the comment. 

Tom shrugged.   
“It’s interesting enough. Professor Speckter isn’t bad. I’m still undecided as to the eventual merit of it.” 

She wondered at the mention of this other professor, whether divination might have been acceptable if not for stupid woolly professor Trelawny.   
A bell clanged distantly and the students around her in the room started to gather up their things. Hermione too, accepted her proffered timetable from Tom and took up her books, shrinking them and putting them in her pocket.   
“Hey, that’s not bad!” Sorry commented. “You must be great in transfiguration!”   
She shrugged. The others were exchanging parting comments around her. 

She wandered into the current of students washing down the aisle and was joined by Tom, Septimus and Sorry at the main doors of the building. Apparently the ‘group’ was really more like two or three groups. Abraxas didn’t take herbology but she saw Cygnus and Benji joined at the hip, wandering toward the greenhouses already, not waiting for the others. 

Tom fell into step on one side of her and Septimus nudged Sorry out of the way, taking up her right side. Sorry drifted a little further to the right and walked alongside him.   
She talked with them amiably as they walked down the slope to the angular peaks of the greenhouses. Septimus it seemed was more tolerable the fewer people were around him. He virtually monopolised her attention, making dry witty observations that she laughed at once or twice. Tom joined in the conversation here and there, seeming quite light hearted but his eyes were elsewhere as he looked about the grounds. 

She barely even noticed the flicker of red and blue before Tom’s arm had shot up and he’d cursed it soundly. 

The bird dropped in a flutter to the ground squarking pitifully.   
Tom strode over to it swiftly, his wand still trained on it. The bird held a tiny white scroll in one claw and lay on its back, its head turned to the side, wings akimbo.   
Hermione rushed over an inch behind Tom and now dropped to her knees beside it horrified.

“You killed it! Why?!”

She reached out to pick it up and Tom yanked her back away from it by the collar, barking sharply. “It’s not dead. Leave it alone.”   
Septimus and Sorry stood either side of them utterly baffled by this display of clay pigeon shooting with parrots.   
The tiny scroll that the bird carried detached itself and floated up into the air as Tom summoned it. 

She flinched when the bird on the ground suddenly raised its head and squarked angrily before seeming to turn in on itself and disappear in a white flash. Urg. That could have been her if she’d touched it.   
Looking up at Tom, who had opened the scroll in midair without touching it, she saw his face darken and he incinerated it before she could read it.   
“What did it say?!” she demanded, panicked   
He shook his head and held out a hand to help her up. After she had scrambled to her feet he almost dragged her bodily down to the greenhouse, Septimus and Sorry hurrying after.

 

 

“Late!” The tall rake thin woman with black and grey hair in a bun and a pointy hooked nose face spat at them.   
“Five points each from Slytherin. Get to your places. Mr Riddle, I’m surprised at you!”

“Sorry Professor” he responded automatically and dragged her down the rows of tables to their places. 

The rest of the class was horrid. They had to carefully depot, Identify, dissect and sketch seedlings from three different but similar plants and no one spoke a word to each other the entire time.   
She was going mad wanting to know what the blasted note from Grindelwald had said. 

When it was finally over, Tom had somehow managed to slither his way out through the press of the slythenclaw mix and was gone by the time she reached the door. She growled in fury.   
Septimus carefully took her by the elbow, with Sorry on the other side and started to walk with her back up to the main building. 

“What was that about then?” he enquired low and uneasy.   
“I can’t tell you” she snapped. “Ask Tom.”   
He nodded and changed the subject, discussing what they had each thought about the plants they’d dissected.   
She realised as he went on that she’d missed a couple of the differences in two of the samples and that Septimus almost certainly rivalled Neville in herbology.   
Sorry hadn’t done as well as she had, but it didn’t seem to bother him in the least. He took a somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward classes apparently. He informed her that his parents didn’t care a jot how well he did on the NEWTs.   
She didn’t understand how it mattered so much to everyone what their parents thought about their grades.   
She had no parents anymore but she’d be mortified if she didn’t do well. 

When they entered the building Sorry said his farewells and headed down a corridor back toward the dungeons and Septimus continued with her alone to runes.   
His tall.. disturbingly familiar.. form hovered quite near in the wide busy corridors. They didn’t speak all the way there although she glanced at him a couple of times.   
In class Septimus was extremely still and focused. He took even more notes than she did.

The class was..fine. Just fine. She listened and wrote. It was..interesting enough.. she supposed.   
Professor Rennis was almost as dull as Professor Binns but she figured she’d read up on the work later herself.

After class they walked slowly toward DADA. Septimus was sardonically commenting on the runes lesson, essentially monologuing as she was merely hmming and nodding back.   
He looked at her irritatedly, apparently not accustomed to being virtually ignored and asked out of the blue. “How long have you known Tom?”   
She stopped in the middle of the corridor and thought about it. Had she known him since she’d known of him? Did she even really know him now?   
“Not long” she said neutrally and started walking again.   
The Severus lookalike next to her seemed pleased with that.   
“You know he never interests himself for girls for any great length of time” he tossed at her exploratorily.   
She shrugged. “Maybe.”   
A dark expressive eyebrow was raised at her. “What will you do when he discards you?” he asked with a faint smirk.   
She scowled.   
“Oh.. probably cast myself into the sun I expect” she snarked back. He snorted, amused.   
“Well.. there’s no call to go to extremes..” he looked away seemingly pleased at her response for whatever reason. 

They arrived at the DADA classroom door and found Abraxas waiting outside the door. He frowned at Septimus as they walked up.   
“What the hell happened this morning?! – he’s in an absolutely foul mood!”   
Septimus sniffed and shrugged. Hermione approved his silence. If he’d just gone and told Abraxas about what had happened, in the middle of the corridor no less, she’d have been pissed off.. and she knew Tom would have been pissed off.   
Abraxus turned his manicured attention upon her.   
“Hello Maia.. Have you enjoyed your classes so far? I’ve been looking forward to double DADA since last night. I’m sure it will be very interesting.” He said obliquely, offering her his hand and sweeping the door open.   
She took it and let him guide her in. 

The room that was exposed was much larger than the one she knew from her own time, much like a gymnasium.   
The floor felt slightly spongy though it looked like stone. Large vaulted ceilings soared overhead.   
She saw that the class was Slythendor. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were sharply divided into two camps on either side of the room.   
Behind the larger mass of Slytherins, Tom and the entire group of knights lounged on benches at the left side of the room. They seemed relaxed and unconcerned.   
Tom’s face however was serious and he was not participating in the conversations around him.   
The golden sunlight filtering through the high peaked windows in the wall shot his hair into curls of golden flame. 

Over on the Gryffindor side another similar cluster stood toward the back of the group and the Harry look-alike that seemed to head it said something to the two boys next to him, causing them to look around quickly at Hermione, Abraxas and Septimus in the doorway. 

“Who’s that?” she asked Abraxas, nodding to the Gryffindors.   
He looked displeased with the question. 

“I assume you’re talking about the black haired one in the middle. Thats Potter. He-“ she interrupted him “What’s his first name?”   
Septimus snarled at her, pushing her forward slightly toward the Slytherin corner, “Alex. Alexander. He’s waiting. Come on.”   
She let herself drift along beside them toward the place where the Slytherins lounged. Tom wore an unimpressed expression.   
“What was that?” he asked her acidly, ignoring the others.   
She looked back at him challengingly. “Thought I recognised one of the Gryffindors from somewhere. It’s not important.”   
He gestured curtly for her to sit beside him. Roan moved hastily along a bit further.   
Not far enough though as Septimus walked over, pulled him up by the back of his shirt and tossed him aside, taking the place next to Hermione.   
Abraxas stood in front of them all with his arms folded, inspecting the tension between them.   
“Did we have a spat?” he goaded, tempting fate. Tom glared up at him.

“GOOD AFTERNOON STUDENTS” Professor Merrythought boomed, bounding into the classroom like a perky whirlwind.   
She beamed at them all and strode to the centre.   
“Right now! Get together.. come-on, come-on. We don’t have all day.” 

The students wandered to the centre of the room. A discernable metre-wide no-mans land still separated the Gryffindors from the Slytherins.   
Why oh bloody why did they always put Gryffindor with Slytherin Hermione wondered.   
It was patently absurd. The two houses hated each other. This was a potentially dangerous class even at the best of times. Why not add actual loathing and spite to the mix. That’ll make everything much more educational. 

“Alright. Now I’m sure you’ve all been practicing the shield spells we learned last year so I think we’ll warm up with some brief duels. We’re going to be using martial spells for the rest of the lesson.” 

Many of the students brightened at this. Hermione was pleased too. In her time DADA consisted a lot of the time of reading about various dangerous things which was.. naturally.. useful but wouldn’t necessarily always help one if faced with an actual risky situation.   
For example.. knowing that vampires were beautiful, powerful and seductive with the ability to blurr ones rational thinking had not actually enabled her to retain a cool enough head to remember that if she offered herself to one, she’d belong to it..   
Damn.. She had to remember to deal with that situation too. 

Professor Merrythought was calling out names. Hermione’s attention was drawn to her again when she called out “Diggory, Mulciber”   
She looked around and saw the back of a short auburn ponytailed girl heading off toward Roan at the back of the room.   
Looking around she realised that there weren’t many girls in this class actually. She could only see another three actually. Two of them were Gryffindors.   
One was clearly a Weasley and the other she recognised as the black curly haired girl that Potter had been talking to at dinner last night.   
The other Slytherin girl was a tall messy haired Goyle lookalike. 

“Potter, Riddle”   
She looked back around in time to see Tom stalk off with a satisfied expression.

“Claverton, Coote; Wood, Malfoy; Frobisher, Prince; Schiller..” Professor Merrythought hesitated. “Schiller?”   
she looked around and caught Hermione’s eye. “Have you duelled before, girl? I don’t want to have to take you to the infirmary.”   
Behind her she heard Cygnus snigger.

“Yes Maam” she said dutifully. “You don’t need to worry” 

The woman looked undecided. “Well.. I’ll put you with Brown. Go easy on her Brown – Don’t begin until I’m there to look over you both.”   
The curly black-haired girl nodded and turned on her heel, striding off toward the Gryffindor side, obviously expecting Hermione to follow. 

She raised her eyebrows and walked slowly after her, astounded at how life worked out. Here she was in the past facing what was obviously Lav lav’s well.. she’d say grandmother, but who knew really. It could be her great grandmother, depending on how fast the brown family bred.   
The girl looked like an older, less primped and groomed version of Lavender. Her nose was different and instead of curly brown hair she had curly black.   
That was the extent of the difference though. That same vapid, superior, pitying look was on her heart shaped face with the cute little turned up nose. 

Hermione felt a small inner excitement at the thought of absolutely demolishing lave..uh.. whatever her name was. What a pity lavender brown was dead in her time. She’d always regretted not having the chance.. no.. not having the intestinal fortitude to really lay into the horrible witch at least once.   
She looked at the snitty girl now and resolved to remedy that omission. 

Professor Merrythought had finished dividing up the class and was wandering around.   
Some of the others had begun their duels already and she could see Tom and ..Alexander.. casting far above the gentle level of classroom duels. Their professor was looking in the other direction however, watching over Claverton and Coote who were struggling to hold their shields steady. 

She looked to the girl in front of her and deliberately cast a poor and basic level shield, out loud.   
A bluish pane appeared in front of her, slightly flickery but visibly there. Brown sneered a bit and cast her own aloud.   
It was a mid level shield – better than Hermione had expected of her actually, but she’d cast it aloud so now Hermione knew which one she was using.   
Not only that but it was visible and she’d picked one that was one sided, like the basic one Hermione was using. 

Hermione surreptitiously silently charmed the wall behind her to a reflective surface.   
Her opponent was too busy looking at the professor who had now turned and was coming toward them both. 

“Girls, I don’t expect I’ll have any problems with you two. Miss Brown, please begin.” 

Hermione stepped aside nimbly as Brown cast an expelliarmus at her. The spell whished past her unimpeded and fizzled against the wall. 

“Excellent reflexes Miss Schiller” professor Merrythought complimented. “But the point is to test your ability to maintain a shield under fire. Please do not dodge this time.” 

Hermione nodded as she got back into place silently casting a second high level shield beneath her shaky visible one.   
It barely shimmered in the air as it formed and then became invisible.   
Brown cast a jellylegs jinx at her and it bounced off harmlessly. The girl looked disappointed.   
Professor Merrythought clapped her hands once and commended her. “Exactly so. Very good. Continue, both of you.” 

Hermione allowed Lavlav’s ancestor to fail to curse her with tickling and itching and babbling jinxes while Professor Merrythought wandered on.   
When she felt the professor was far enough away that she was unlikely to notice, she turned and silently cast a silencio at her opponent. The girl watched it sail past her and sniggered at Hermione’s poor aim.   
She didn’t notice when it bounced back off the wall and struck her.   
That was when Hermione launched off three further spells in quick succession. The first a fixation charm, the second a mild blasting curse that would normally toss a person back several feet as if punched and the third a burning illusion curse which created the painful sensation of being in flames without actually sustaining damage. 

She’d learned the latter from Morgan Le Feys diary and hadn’t had the chance to try it on a subject yet.   
Possibly it might be worse than the pain curse she’d used on Avery last night but she hadn’t wanted to use an untried spell on him, and had no wish to share this one with the others. It was not just a wee bit greyish in nature.. it was downright dark and, she discovered, also unbelievably satisfying.   
Not only was the curse accompanied by a pleasant sensation, much like that which casting unforgiveables infamously produced in the caster, but it was amazing to watch the silent frozen scream in the completely immobilized girl’s eyes as she stood casually, smiling a faint superior smile; her wand raised as if she’d been about to cast. 

Hermione held it on her for a minute or so until tears started to run down her cheeks and then released it, wondering whether she could get away with an obliviate..   
She settled for a confundus and a mild forgetfulness jinx and then released the girl. 

Brown looked at her in vague horror and wiped the tears from her face. “You.. what-..”   
she looked afraid and confused. Clearly she had forgotten for the moment what had scared her.

Hermione nodded understandingly “Your confundus bounced back off my shield and hit you. Sorry. It should last for a little while. Maybe we should tell professor Merrythought and you can sit the lesson out.” 

The girl agreed with her hesitantly and they both went to professor Merrythought.   
Brown massaged her back absently as if it were sore. Hermione imagined the effects of the blasting spell would leave nasty bruises later on. It was all she could do to preserve a regretful sympathetic face.   
She avoided Tom’s eye who was looking at her like a dog who’d unexpectedly dragged in a priceless treasure and dropped it at his feet.   
Alexander Potter had been facing in the other direction during their duel and obviously had missed the show. 

Having no partner she was forced to sit at the side and watch Tom and Alexander duel.   
Tom was holding back.   
She wasn’t sure whether Alexander was but it was possible. The curses they tossed were nasty but not dark. 

“I think that’s enough warming up” Professor Merrythought called to the class. “Everyone gather round.”   
The students all milled back. The no-mans land between the houses was a bit more scattered now, zigzagging about.

“Now.. in third year we learned about Boggarts. Someone remind me of the spell used to dispel boggarts” 

She selected the raised hand of a boy in the front, who told her.   
“Yes. Five points to Gryffindor. Well boggarts are part of a group of creatures that are distantly related to ghouls and vampires as some of you will know. Can anyone tell me about the other four creatures in the group I’m referring to?” 

Hermione’s hand shot up. She saw Tom’s, Alexander’s and Septimus’ hands were also in the air

“Miss Schiller. Let’s see if you know.” Professor Merrythought offered sceptically. 

Hermione breathed in, relieved. “The other creatures are succubi/incubi, dementors, gemares and haggarts. – the unifying factor in the group known as ethivores is feeding on the energy, rather than the physical substance of other beings. Succubi and incubi feed on sexual energy accessed in a dream state, dementors on any positive energy-mostly through accessing memories, gemares feed on anger and frustration and haggarts and boggarts both feed on fear.   
Ethivores tend not to interact with their environment tangibly, although dementors can manipulate objects in space when it suits them, using a form of psychokinesis.   
Gemares are hardly ever seen at all, preferring instead to engineer infuriating situations and hide within the trap.   
Haggarts and boggarts are difficult to distinguish on first contact, appearing as whatever the victim fears most, however boggarts are essentially harmless and can be destroyed using the Riddikulus incantation, or at worst, they will leave when they are sated, which generally occurs before death of the victim, whereas haggarts will follow or trap a victim and feed from it until it dies. They are also impervious to the riddikulus and capable of attacking both conscious and sleeping victims, who die of fear related physiological or psychological effects, such as heart attacks, suicide or exhaustion.”   
She gasped, finishing her monologue. 

The professor beamed at her. “Well done, Miss Schiller – A very thorough explanation - Twenty points to Slytherin.”   
Hermione smiled broadly and someone patted her on the back congratulating her. She looked over her shoulder at Sorry who grinned in a familiar way. 

Professor Merrythought started talking about haggarts and the dispatching of them while she stared and thought idly about Rodolphus and how nice it would be to see him again.   
She didn’t really mind anymore what he’d done. She knew it was just the blood bond acting on her that made her feel that way but she really quite wanted to see him – it had been more than two weeks now. Almost three!   
She needed to sort this out soon. 

“And now we’re going to practice it.” Professor Merrythought said as if she was giving them all a great gift. “I’ve managed to acquire a haggart and we’ll go through you all one by one using the containment spell.” 

What containment spell, thought Hermione. Oh hell!   
She turned to sorry urgently “I wasn’t listening.. what’s the spell”   
He looked at her distractedly “What?”   
“Whats the spell?!” she hissed.   
He frowned. “um.. interim asphobate lenicanular” he muttered.   
She repeated it.   
“You’re really serious? You weren’t paying any attention at all?!” he asked incredulously. She shook her head. 

They were all drifting into a vague line now.

“its interus peribus placular” he whispered. She repeated this. He tapped her on the shoulder again. She looked at him wide eyed trying to remember the other incantation.   
“Actually its interimus aprobus retrophate” 

She gaped at him.

“you UTTER UTTER BASTARD!” she hissed.

Several people turned around and looked at her amusedly. She jumped out of line intending to go ahead several places to Tom but professor Merrythought told her to get back in place.   
She turned around to rodo..Sorenson and hissed at him very low and very serious “Tell me the incantation or I swear I will put you in the bloody infirmary.” Sorenson just grinned. 

Abandoning the little brat, she paid very close attention to the people in line in front of her. Most of them were casting silently and demonstrating success after a few tries.   
The haggart was mainly presenting as spiders, snakes, parents, teachers, dragons.. various things of that nature.   
One or two people incanted out loud but it was hard to catch what they were saying. Interus or internus..specurare, speculare, speculara, prenosis, prenotis, prenozis.. She didnt know.   
She kicked herself for cursing Brown..that girl would have incanted aloud and she didn’t mumble. 

Tom, three places in front of her had reached the wardrobe. Professor Merrythought opened it and it whooshed out.   
She was only briefly able to see the shape of Tom on the floor dead, his eyes wide and empty, for a second before he’d bound and returned the thing to the wardrobe.   
He sauntered off looking satisfied until he saw her horror stricken face and realised there was something wrong with her.   
He started toward her but professor Merrythought instructed him to go and sit down.   
He frowned, looking at her worriedly, obviously afraid of what she might produce. 

The two boys in front of her struggled but managed to capture the rotting corpse and werewolf in front of them respectively. 

“Stop!!” she cried at professor Merrythought. 

The witch looked at her impatiently. Half the class stood behind her and she was wasting time. “Yes miss Schiller?” 

“I’ve forgotten the incantation. Please could you remind me?” she pled urgently.   
The professor rolled her eyes. “Internus speculara prenozis” she recited. Swish, quarter twist counterclockwise and flick.” 

Hermione nodded, still slightly panicked. The professor opened the wardrobe. 

At first her haggart became the same as Tom’s had been - Tom Riddle on the ground, black hair, eyes wide and unseeing. Several students started gossiping behind her.   
She cast the spell.   
Nothing happened.. But the haggart changed. Suddenly it was a necklace.. floating, open, with a black bead on it.. it floated toward her as if to put itself on her.   
She backspun and crashed into Sorry who caught her, shocked. 

“No..” she mumbled. Feeling herself actually physically want to flee from the thought of allowing her magic to be bound again. “it’s just a haggard!   
Internus speculara prenozis!”

The necklace continued to advance and she whimpered.   
Suddenly it changed again and Harry stood before her, taller, his green eyes glittering dangerously, wand drawn.   
He strode up to her, smiling like Lord Potter. 

“I killed him, Mione.. I won!” he said triumphantly. 

She screamed and spun backwards, off Sorry and ran past the others in the line trying to get away. It would stop if it fixated on someone else.   
But it was a haggart not a boggart and it followed her. 

Harry raced after her till he had her up against the wall. The rest of the room was in uproar and professor Merrythought was striding over angrily shouting something about stupid girl.   
Harry leaned in and pressed himself against her while she sobbed and pushed at him ineffectually. 

“Now you’re mine, Mione.. forever!..I killed them all.. Severus begged to die in the end..”   
He produced from his pocket the silver necklace with the bead.   
“Be a good girl now..” he said soft and dark. “and maybe I’ll let you keep the memory of Draco.” 

She screamed and pulled at the raw magic and lit the creature on fire somehow.   
It burned with pale pink flames, screaming in a voice like wasps and the image of Harry dropped off it like water to reveal a small black prickly thing not unlike a house elf.   
She sagged to the ground as it thrashed and finally stilled. 

Professor Merrythought stood a few metres away scratching her head seeming undecided between anger and amazement. “Well I never.. I didn’t even know that was possible.. how did you do that miss Schiller? Haggerts aren’t visible in their true form and I’ve never heard of one dying.   
Goodness.. to think they look like..that. CLASS, over here quickly and look at this! It’s something you may never have the chance to see again!”   
Everyone rushed and crowded. 

Tom struggled through them all and dropped to the ground beside Hermione. “Are you alright?” he asked urgently. His eyes captured and held hers, burning into her.   
She nodded dazed and remembered something.

“Sorry professor Merrythought..and everyone who didn’t get a turn. I didn’t mean to. I don’t know what I did.. I just wanted it to stop and the incantation didn’t work” 

She looked around the faces. They looked alarmed and confused for the most part. Alexander Potter far more than the others. He looked down at her distraught, a brown eyed Harry without glasses.   
Other students kept looking at him accusingly as if he’d been secretly torturing Hermione.   
He seemed on the verge of asking her when Tom spoke up

“Professor.. Maia is upset. May I take her out of class to calm down, please?” 

Professor Merrythought was on her haunches inspecting the still corpse of the haggart on the floor, turning it carefully with her wand.   
“Hmmm? Yes. Of course Mr Riddle. Some fresh air might do her good I think.” 

Tom helped her to her feet and pulled her out the door and down the corridor before she could blink.   
She started to speak but he shook his head.   
“No. not here.”   
He dragged her on till they reached the room of requirement and only when they were both inside her bedroom did he speak. 

“What the fuck..was that?!” he raged. 

She backed away rapidly. “I can’t-” she started to say and he exploded, advancing on her threateningly

“Don’t tell me you can’t fucking tell me.. That was Alex Potter – or one of his descendants more likely – why are you terrified of him?! What was that necklace?! He had it at the end before you torched him..-it. What is it? What does it do?” 

She shook her head frantically. “Nothing. Its nothing. What was in the note this morning?” she redirected. 

Tom bared his teeth at her as if he were an animal. “He called you Mione. That’s your name, isn’t it? Mione”   
She flinched and whimpered   
“Don’t call me that.. please!.. its..no - it isn’t my name.”

Tom turned and paced away, one hand going to his hair and gripping the golden curls in extreme frustration and distress. He drew his wand and then put it away again and then drew it once more and turned back, stalking up to her and pointing it at her forehead.   
She shook and cowered away. “Please Tom.. please don’t-..” she begged, dropping to her knees and curling down into a prostrate ball. 

He roared in frustration and stalked away again. 

After a few minutes he came back slowly and dropped down to sit on the floor beside her.   
Gently he gripped her and pulled her to him, turning her body till she lay between his legs with her head on his thigh.   
He stroked her hair soothingly and sighed.   
“It was me.. wasn’t it?.. The one he said he’d killed. In the future there’s some descendant of Alex Potter who’s going to try to kill me.   
And whatever he was going to do to you with that necklace wasn’t good.” 

She mumbled against his leg “Binds my magic. Makes me a squib”

Tom puffed out air and bent down over her, as if to physically protect her with his body.   
“I’ll never let him do that..” he promised. “and he’ll never kill me”   
He sounded less sure on the last part.

“You don’t understand” Hermione muttered.   
Harry had never bound her.. Tom had bound her. in fact Harry was the one that released her.. but she knew..she just knew.. if he did kill Tom somehow.. that would be the first thing he’d do.   
And he probably would kill Severus..even after they’d.. and he’d definitely kill Rodolphus.. maybe Draco too..

Tom pulled her closer, sliding his hands under her body and lifting her to his chest.   
“Maybe not.. but it doesn’t matter. You’re here now. You’re never going back. We’ll figure it out later.”   
He stood, with some difficulty and carried her over to the bed, placing her down and climbing up beside her.   
She burrowed into his chest and he just held her, stroking her back and thinking. 

They lay there for an age before Tom said.. “The note this morning. It said – I quote ‘I’m growing impatient. If you come willingly i will allow you to bring your little ‘friend.’ I can be very good to you, you will find. ..keep hiding and you will see my other side.”   
Hermione groaned.   
“We have herbology twice a week.. and you have stupid care of magical creatures too. Theres no way to hide inside from a bird. And.. what if he actually follows through and comes to Hogwarts?! I mean.. really. What if he invades bloody Britain cause of this stupidity.   
Fantastic.. Britain goes down under the yoke of Grindelwald because Tom Riddle felt like a bit of excitement one morning and I was too daft to just take him to the zoo instead.” 

Tom sniggered underneath her and she felt unreasonably irate.

“And we have Dumbledore after lunch. Why are you taunting him with that hairdo?!”

Tom looked up at the clock on the wall. “Because I can. Because it bothers him and it pleases me to bother him. He’s been a thorn in my side since I met him.   
Did you know he tried to have me expelled last term?! ME! He tried to convince Dippet that I knew more than I was saying about..” Tom stilled suddenly. “...You’re a mudblood.. that slipped my mind for a moment. I ..don’t think of you that way.” 

She looked up at him snarkily, ignoring the slur.   
“I do know about the chamber of secrets, you know. Your wonderful pet petrified me a few years ago. It wasn’t a nice feeling.” 

The boy beneath her raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really?! I had decided I would not open it again. I must change my mind in the future” 

Hermione dropped her head back to his chest. “Yeah. Something like that” she mumbled.   
He sighed, abandoning the topic.   
“Shall we go to lunch? Or would you rather eat here? I think it would be better if we made an appearance in the Great Hall. It is bad enough that I pulled you from DADA in front of everyone. Rumours will fly.   
And after your..haggart-forms... you are bound to be even more the subject of gossip than you already were after I invited you to sit with me last night.” 

Hermione thought about the Great Hall in dread. “Thank you for letting me sit with you” she said softly. “I know you didn’t have to.”   
Tom laughed mirthlessly.   
“Yes.. well I find myself uncomfortable letting you associate closely with others.”   
He unfolded himself from her and got up off the bed.

“I’m going down to lunch. I need to have a quiet word with Septimus. You may remain here if you like.” 

She looked up at him wistfully.   
“Ok. Maybe I’ll come down in a while” He acknowledged this with a neutral nod and turned and left. 

She lay on her bed in her oh so familiar room, thinking about how much trouble she had gotten herself into.   
She had thought her situation dire before but this was a whole other order of magnitude of direness.   
And now..Grindelwald.   
In history he hadn’t come to Hogwarts, she knew. At least books had never recorded him coming to Hogwarts.. which wasn’t necessarily the same thing, particularly since all the books she’d ever accessed on the topic were from the library of Hogwarts while Dumbledore was headmaster.   
After lunch she’d have to face him too. She needed to get out of here. she needed to go home..

home.. it was a peculiar thing to think.   
She’d spent so little time in the company of Tom Riddle whether in her own time or here.. she’d spent so much more time with Harry and Ron and Ginny.. or with her parents.. yet Tom..her Tom.. in the future.. was somehow home now.   
She felt a pull toward him that was nearly painful.   
And..and Rodolphus.   
She acknowledged that she was starting to need to see him again. The feeling in the back of her mind like a reminder. Seeing Sorenson made it worse.   
She needed Rodolphus. 

As if in response to her feelings, the room of requirement shifted around her and she found herself lying on pillows, with a starry sky stretched above her in his round room.   
It was very still and peaceful.   
It was also empty. That made it meaningless somehow. This place was only good when the rough warm dangerous shape of the vampire..her vampire if she dared to use the possessive...was looming over her. 

She started to reach for the magic automatically and barely managed to stop herself.   
She hadn’t been thinking to sever the connection, she’d been thinking about Rodolphus being here with her now, in her current location.   
That was unthinkable.   
But it was hard to think about severing the connection instead because.. if she was honest with herself.. she didn’t want to cut him out of her. It was probably the effect of the bond that caused it, logically, but she really just wanted to satisfy her need, not remove the need altogether. 

Growling angrily at herself she pushed up off the bed and strode to the door that appeared in the wall of the round room as she approached. Letting herself out she marched through the empty echoing corridors thinking to go down to the great hall for lunch after all. 

She was stomping at speed down a corridor on the second floor, entirely unawares when the tripping hex sent her flying, skidding over the stones. When she turned over three nasty looking Gryffindors were standing over her with their wands on her.   
She wanted to draw her wand but the warning look of a blond pug faced girl stopped her before she moved.

“You slimy little snake!” another girl spat at her. “I don’t know what sick little fantasies you’ve got about Alex but you’re insane if you think he’d ever be interested in a worm like you!”   
The pug girl agreed “Disgusting Slytherin bitch. I heard what you did in DADA. You leave him alone!”

The third girl didn’t say anything but glared down at her just as poisonously as the others. 

Horrid girl number one started again “He’s too nice to hex you but I’m only too happy to do it for him!   
You need to learn how things work in this school. You have no place even looking at Alex.. or any other Gryffindor.   
You’re a snake.. the lowest of all the houses. You’re only fit for the despicable creatures in Slytherin. If they’ll have you..Schiller.. you muggle tainted filth.” 

Hermione swallowed. This wasn’t going well. She might be hexed here.   
She could stop it.. but.. but it would be better not to risk it. She couldn’t afford to be discovered. You never knew who might be observing..   
Dumbledore was suspicious. He could find out. 

And then it was too late to think about whether or not to use raw magic to defend herself against the three because pug girl was already hexing her. She flinched and cramped as her muscles protested the twisting jinx.   
It was dropped and bitch number one cursed her with something that felt like itchy spots all over her face. Great.   
The two girls laughed and the third just stared down at her balefully. She was a slender willowy girl with long dark brown hair that fell to her waist and a narrow thin lipped face.

The first two girls started to walk away and called to her to come and she spoke up for the first time.   
“Just a second. I want a word. They continued on more slowly.   
The girl with the long hair crouched down on her haunches over Hermione, her wand still on her and then she felt a silent petrificus totalus pass over her. She fought ineffectually against the dead stiffness in her limbs.   
The girl hissed, barely audibly   
“I saw what you did to Perrin, you bitch. Thanks for the idea!   
Now listen to me you slag cause I’m only going to warn you once. I could give a toss about Alex Potter.. I’m telling you to stay the fuck away from Tom Riddle. Whatever you’ve done or are doing to make him pay attention to you.. to pander to your worthless hide – you’re going to stop it!.   
I can’t imagine he’d ever touch someone as ugly and tainted as you so you’re probably blackmailing him somehow.   
If you don’t stay away from him- be prepared to spend a lot of time in the infirmary.” 

At that she stood swiftly and started kicking Hermione’s petrified form in the ribs repeatedly. 

The two girls down the corridor sounded far off and distracted as the willowy girl kicked Hermione in the face hard and then stalked off out of her dazed field of vision. 

She felt blood dripping down her face from her, almost certainly broken, nose.   
Lying there in the quiet, feeling the blood trickling down her face, she thought again about just using magic to free and heal herself.   
It would be so easy. And ..she couldn’t go to the infirmary. Someone would see her mark.   
She needed Tom. Or anyone really. Someone to come and say- 

“finite incantatum” the voice said softly.   
Her body slumped and the pain began in earnest.   
She whimpered under her breath, feeling her ribs grate together when she breathed. 

Alex Potter walked up to her looking shocked and upset.

“Merlin.. What happened to you?! Who did this?!”   
He stood, shaken, looking at her as she gingerly flicked out her wand and started to work on her ribs, flinching as the tensing muscles made them spike in pain when she raised her arm.   
Alex seemed to wake up somewhat then and approached her cautiously, dropping to his knees and passing his wand over her face.   
She winced as her nose ground back into place and a fresh warm rush of blood spilled down her face.   
He scourgified it away. 

“You’re covered in green spots” he said hesitantly. “I don’t know what jinx was used”

She scowled, finishing her ribs and dropping her hand back to the ground.  
The bones were healed but the soreness would remain for a few hours.

“Thanks” she said weakly. “Don’t worry about the spots..or who did this. I’ll sort it out. Thanks for freeing me but you should probably go.” 

The boy’s face hardened.   
“I want to know what happened in DADA. Why did you see ..your haggart looked quite a bit like me.. I don’t even know you! Are you afraid of me?!” 

He looked a lot like Harry sometimes had when he was younger. The expression of unwilling fierce determination.   
She closed her eyes. Her spots itched. 

“Look.. I wouldn’t hurt you.” Alex said tentatively. “I.. well.. I just wouldn’t. If you’re scared of me for whatever reason.. don’t be. Okay?”

She sighed and opened her eyes, looking up at unfamiliar soft brown eyes. His chin and his lips were a bit different to Harry’s too.. but the overall effect was one of familiarity. 

“It wasn’t you. It was just someone who looked a bit like you” she explained tiredly.   
“Someone from where I used to live. A friend. He..he became a dark wizard. I’m sorry if it upset anyone.   
I was shocked when I first saw you at the sorting because you looked so much like him. It must have jolted that memory into the front of my mind to see you duelling with Tom.” 

Alex seemed to process this and looked relieved.   
“Well.. my family does have some branches that wandered off into Europe a few generations ago. Maybe he was a distant relative.” He seemed to think of something else.   
“Riddle is..very kind to you..for someone who’s only been here such a short time.. and.. well.. someone with your background.”

She gritted her teeth. She was going to hear about her unacceptable blood status from everyone here non-stop it seemed. Gah. The forties sucked!   
She explained, wondering why she even bothered “He was the one who found me at the gates and took me to the headmaster. He said he’d look out for me a bit. He seems a nice person.”   
There. Every single statement there was absolutely true – Tom did seem a nice person. 

Alex frowned. “Watch out for him. He’s not a nice person.. he’s dangerous. If he’s being nice to you, there’s an angle somewhere. Don’t let him make you do ..anything.” The boy trailed off uncomfortably. 

She almost smirked. Lucius and Rodolphus on either side of her..inside her..her moaning and loving it.. and Alex Potter was concerned about her virtue.

She nodded seriously. “I can’t believe he’d do anything like that but I’ll take your warning under advisement.” 

Alex hesitated, seeming conflicted. When he finally spoke he sounded uncertain.   
“if.. if anything happens..or if you just need someone to talk to.. you can come to me, you know.”   
He studied her with concerned eyes.   
She didn’t really know what to say. ‘oh.. hey thanks but that would be the worst possible idea. Please stop talking to me. Don’t start liking me. Leave me the hell alone!’   
Internally she shrugged. That wasn’t actually too bad a plan. 

She sat up and started to get to her feet slowly, tossing at Alex “Look.. thanks for helping me and all.. but it was your fan club that did this to me. I really don’t want to make things any worse by being seen anywhere talking to you so if you could just leave me alone, I think I’ll be fine. You’re far more dangerous to me than Tom Riddle is, clearly.   
I don’t mean to be ungrateful – really – thank you for helping me – but It’s just better if we don’t talk to each other again, ok?!” 

She turned and strode off down the corridor leaving Alex picking himself up off his knees and looking after her.   
He didn’t follow however and she turned off on the first floor into the bathroom to check out the state of her face.


	59. Chapter 59

The green spots proved difficult to remove without using her ability so she slapped a glamour on over them and headed on down to the great hall. She arrived just as lunch was concluding and had only just reached the end of the Slytherin table where Tom, Septimus, Abraxas, Amalthea, Aorry and Dolohov sat when the table cleared itself of food.

Tom was looking at her strangely. 

She brightened when Sorenson passed her an apple he’d apparently saved from lunch and thanked him, relieved she wouldn’t be going without till dinner.   
Septimus got up from the table, as many of the students in the hall were doing, and looked her over condescendingly as he passed. “You seem lost Maia. Perhaps you need directions to the correct part of the table.   
See you all in transfiguration” he said to the others as he swanned past her while she gaped irritated.   
What the hell had she done to him?!

Sorenson was on his feet and at her side almost immediately. “I’ll walk you there” he said quietly, looking back at Tom for confirmation.   
Tom nodded and turned back to Abraxas, seemingly uninterested in any further interaction with either of them. 

Bemused, she allowed herself to be led out of the great hall and through the crowded corridors toward the transfiguration classroom.   
Without warning however Sorenson dragged her into an alcove and pressed a stone on the wall, sliding back the secret passage and shoving her inside.   
She turned around indignantly “Hey!-“   
the familiar face was serious. “Quiet.” He said low and clear. “Tom told me to tell you that you aren’t to talk to him in classes or in the halls anymore. Sit with your roommate and her friends. Don’t act like there’s anything between you.   
As far as the rest of the school knows – he’s just been being exceptionally nice to you because Dippet asked him to.   
That ends now though. If you come to our end of the table again he’s going to have to dress you down in front of everyone and you won’t like it – so don’t make him do it.”   
The boy looked at her with a mix of threat and pleading. It reminded her strongly of how Rodolphus had looked at her before harry had stunned him. 

“Look.. you need to stay away Maia.” He said quietly. “You can only be around him when he calls us for meetings.   
The rest of the time.. well.. he said nothing like what happened in DADA can happen again.   
The entire school is talking about it. Everyone’s watching you.” 

She nodded. “Ok. I’ll.. I’ll stay away.”   
She stared at Sorenson’s familiar face wistfully, thinking of Rodolphus again, a pang of need stabbing her.   
He shifted uncomfortably. “what?.. “ his eyes widened.   
“Oh shit.. don’t look at me like that.. You don’t know what he’ll bloody do to me if you..” the boy took two steps back.   
“I’ll see you in class, ok. Just don’t acknowledge any of us if you don’t want someone to make a nasty comment.”   
A moment later he was gone, out the passage and back into the slipstream of the busy corridor. 

She leaned against the wall sighing.   
Now she was alone here. ...Great. 

The passage behind her, she knew, came out on the third floor behind a statue of Wilfred the wild.   
The transfiguration classroom however was on the second floor.   
It would be easier not to have to explain knowing about the passages if anyone..Dumbledore.. saw her on the third floor emerging so she stepped back out into the corridor and looked back at the wall suspiciously as if trying to memorise where the passage was and then meandered up to transfiguration.   
When she entered, the rest of the class was already seated and professor Dumbledore looked up brightly at her.

“Ah miss Schiller.. I see the geography confounded you slightly after all. Try not to make a habit of it and take your seat if you please, I was just about to begin.” 

Two seats were free, one was next to Roan and the other next to a blonde girl from Ravenclaw.   
She looked at the cluster of Slytherins unhappily. Abraxas and Septimus sneered at her and Roan glared overtly. 

Sighing she asked the blonde Ravenclaw politely if she might sit next to her. The girl shrugged disinterestedly.

“Excellent. Well then. Let us return to the wonderful art of making the world into what we wish it to be!” Dumbledore started “I know you have all enjoyed a wonderful summer break and I don’t expect you to have spent all your free time practicing what we learned last term, but let us see if we cant all manage to get into the right spirit of things and transfigure our quills into silver pocket-watches.”   
He waved at the class to begin and turned to the board, waving his wand and making notes appear on solid to liquid and liquid to solid transfigurations. 

Hermione tapped her quill and it immediately twisted and hardened into a silver fob obediently. She turned and looked around the classroom. Several others were also sitting with various clocklike objects.   
Tom was of course one of them.   
The Ravenclaw next to her had failed at first but now she too had a delicate engraved silver watch head. 

“Thank you for letting me sit with you” Hermione hushed at her unobtrusively. “I’m ..not exactly popular in my own house at the moment.”   
The girl turned pale blue eyes on her and smiled understandingly. “Yes.. I heard that there was some trouble earlier.   
My name is Beatrice Willowstead. Pleased to meet you.”   
Hermione could have kissed her. 

The relief on her face must have been visible because the girl chuckled slightly. “That bad there, is it? I’m sorry for you.. It’s a shame you’re a Slytherin. They are a bit funny about some things”

She sighed..   
“It’s my own fault really. I asked the hat to put me there. When I first arrived Tom riddle found me and he was nice.. polite.. you know? I thought.. it would be better to be in whatever house he was in.   
The hat told me I’d be better off in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. I should have listened!” 

Beatrice looked at her sympathetically. “Well.. you’ll find a way to adapt.. and there’s no rule that says you have to associate only with members of your own house.. although..   
people are a bit reluctant to be friends with Slytherins i have to warn you. They have a reputation for being untrustworthy.” 

Hermione was about to respond when Dumbledore demanded everyone’s attention once again.   
“I see most of you have pocket-watches or something close to one. Let’s move on then.   
Most of the transfigurations we have covered in past years have dealt with size, colour, shape.. we have altered the configuration of substances somewhat – as in the case of the quill before you.. or transfigured specific complex objects or animals with dedicated spells – as with the pocket-watches you should have remembered from last term, but now we will embark upon something a little more advanced.” 

“All the objects we have dealt with thus far have been solid. When you begin to consider other mediums, such as liquid, air or even etheric forms – transfiguration becomes more complex. You will soon see why.” 

“I will give you each a block of ice and I would like you to transfigure – not melt, I will know if you have used a heat spell, the block of ice into a liquid state, retaining the original shape and substance.” 

He walked around the classroom levitating small ice-cubes onto each desk as he went. 

Hermione frowned – she didn’t see how this should be any trouble at all. She raised her wand and transfigured the cube into liquid.. which then promptly fell into a puddle on her desk.   
Drat.   
It would be easy to summon and levitate the water into the right shape.. but she thought that probably wasn’t the answer. 

She saw everyone around her who managed the transfiguration having similar problems. Beatrice was trying to use a levitation spell to coax her water into cube form, although it wasn’t behaving. 

“Well done Mr Riddle” Dumbledore said quietly and Hermione whirled to see that a cube of liquid floated in front of Tom, who held his wand on it in concentration.   
Damn it! How the hell did he do that.   
She looked at the puddle of water on her desk and gathered it together, trying to make it form a cube. Nobody else in the class was managing either. 

“Alright. I see you’ve all grasped the problem now” Dumbledore said, returning to the front of the room. “Liquid does not have a natural shape or state. When you transfigured the substance, it became undefined and took the most natural shape, which is that of whatever contains it. Tell them, Mr Riddle, how you solved this dilemma” 

Tom smirked slightly. “I warded the icecube in before I transfigured it” 

Dumbledore nodded agreeably. “That is one manner of solving the problem, indeed. There are others, of course.   
This is.. somewhat of a cheat – to use an external containment field. Perhaps Mr Riddle, you might demonstrate next lesson another method without such a ‘container’.. but let us move on.” 

Tom’s face tightened in anger momentarily but the expression faded immediately.

“I would like you to transfigure the liquid back into solid now. Try, if you would, to obtain as cubelike a form as you can” 

The class embarked with frustration upon this task. The water didn’t want to take a cube shape. If you levitated it into a cube..ish.. shape it would fall while you were trying to transfigure it.   
Hermione didn’t see how they were supposed to complete this task. She saw tom’s ice cube floated but he looked at it in dissatisfaction now that Dumbledore had accused him of using a cheat-way around the task. 

Dumbledore was walking around the classroom talking to the frustrated students. 

Hermione had an idea. “You do mine and I’ll do yours” she whispered to Beatrice. The girl understood immediately and levitated her water into a cubish shape. Hermione transfigured it in mid air and a somewhat rounded cube of ice hung there. She looked at her gratefully and lowered it to the desk. They repeated the process for Hermione’s water. 

“What have we here?!” Dumbledore’s voice wondered from behind them both. “It looks like you have found a way to get around the limitations of liquids. What did you do?” 

Hermione looked over her shoulder nervously, up at the man who was certainly no older now than Severus had been in her time. Dumbledore’s quick blue eyes twinkled at her knowingly and his small red goatee twitched as he smiled.

“Um.. we ..cooperated, sir. Sorry. We couldn’t find a way around the problem” 

He chuckled. “I thought as much, Miss Schiller. That is no problem. It is.. as you see – a solution too. But.. as I told Mr Riddle - perhaps next lesson you might demonstrate to me a better solution.” 

He moved on and for the rest of the lesson lectured them about properties of liquids and solids in transfiguration.   
He was an entertaining lecturer and Hermione realised she was glad to have had the chance to have him as a teacher rather than a headmaster. She listened eagerly but toward the end of the lesson found her mind wandering slightly, against her own will.   
She wondered what Dumbledore had looked like when he was younger. When he was her age.   
When he was with Grindelwald.. her mind supplied. Looking at Tom with his golden locks made her wonder what a young Dumbledore might look like, entwined around him as Severus had been entwined around her Tom. 

It occurred to her vaguely that she could find out what a young Dumbledore looked like.. if she wanted. She could-..   
She bit the thought off furiously.   
‘Centre of the sun. Centre of the sun. Stop meddling in things. Don’t use it again, damn it” she cursed herself.

Shortly thereafter class finished and she farewelled Beatrice politely and left, uncertain really where to go now.   
She thought on her homework in runes and the task Dumbledore had set her in transfiguration but neither really appealed. She didn’t want to wander around alone either, in case more groupies of the Gryffindor or Slytherin heroes jumped her.

Reluctantly she wandered back up to the library and pulled some books on ancient runes, reviewing what she’d learned in class and reading further for a few chapters. Then she dragged out some texts on transfiguration and looked for solutions to the solid/liquid problem.   
It was already dinnertime when she finally dragged herself out of the library again, checking out a couple of the transfiguration texts. She was also curious whether the air to parchment thing was actually possible and hoped one of them might mention something about it. 

She headed down to the Great Hall reluctantly and, sighing, seated herself alone in a gap between two groups at the middle of the long table, far, far, from Tom and his ..compatriots.   
She didn’t even look in his direction but simply served her plate, ate with her head lowered, ignoring the whispers and comments around her and the eyes she felt on her back, and left with her books for the dungeons, not staying for dessert. 

Down in her room she found a large pile of texts but also a small trunk in front of her bed.   
Opening it, she discovered clothing, a selection of skirts, blouses, nightdresses and underwear, a couple of pairs of shoes, some socks, several jerseys and cardigans.   
She smiled, relieved she wouldn’t have to live in just her uniform. 

After she had taken a shower, she got ready for bed and retired early, closing the curtains around her bed and warding herself in thoroughly. Then she read the transfiguration text for a while, ignoring the sounds of her roommates when they eventually came in an hour or so later, talking and giggling loudly. She cast a silencing charm and attended to her reading. 

Eventually she went to sleep, the book cradled in her arms like a teddybear. 

 

 

The next day when she woke, the room was empty. It seemed Marta was not interested in waking her if there was no chance of using her to weasel her way into Tom’s presence. Such a nice girl.   
Oh yes. Slytherin was just FULL of really lovely people.

She checked her timetable. Arithmancy, charms, runes and astronomy. Bleah. She didn’t feel like any of those subjects today. And if she didnt hurry, she was going to be late for arithmancy. A tempus spell informed her that she had missed the first half of breakfast already. 

By the time she was ready she only just had time to rush up to the arithmancy room on the fourth floor and arrive before Madame Le Gaut.   
As it turned out Madame Le Gaut was even stricter than Professor Sinistra had been.   
Hermione kept her head down and calculated like her life depended upon it. 

Septimus, Abraxas and Cygnus were in the class with her and all three ignored her completely, arriving after her and sitting on the other side of the room, talking amongst themselves. 

When she submitted her work, Madame Le Gaut looked it over and offered her a wan smile.   
“Your logic is correct but your presentation leaves much to be desired. Please work on your untidiness in future.” 

Hermione gritted her teeth, hearing Abraxas snigger from somewhere behind her and thanked the old bat politely before hurrying off to her next class. 

This pattern continued in runes and then in charms. Unfortunately, as these were Slythendor rather than Slythenclaw mixed classes, she couldn’t very well sit down with someone outside of her own house. She ended up sitting in the back of the room miserably, next to a snarling Slytherin she didn’t know and who obviously didn’t want her anywhere near her. 

Tom was brilliant in charms and the teacher, Professor Peloris – an old fellow with a mass of grey hair and a beard down to his knees, obviously thought the sun shone out of Tom’s posterior. He called on him for nearly every single question and Slytherin was awarded a total of fifty points before the class was over. 

By the time she’d sat through a lonely lunch and a free period in the library she was really not in the mood for astronomy. In fact she was beginning to think she wasn’t really suited for Hogwarts at all anymore.   
The mere idea that she could be somewhere actually working on practical applications.. that she could be somewhere without a uniform, where she could rise when she wanted and eat when she felt like it.. and naturally.. where the stupid cliquey melodramas of student life were far from her concern..was very, very, appealing.   
She wondered about getting home again.   
Perhaps it was as simple as the wizard of oz.. if she just wished to go back there and pulled as much magic as she could.. maybe she’d just wake up in Tom’s bed again and he’d let her do as she pleased. 

She didn’t think she wanted to work with Severus anymore. At all.   
While the blood bond was making her pine for and therefore forgive, Rodolphus – the same effect was not occurring for Severus. When she next saw him she would exact painful revenge, she was absolutely decided.   
AND he would never bloody put that necklace on her again. She’d kill anyone who tried it!   
She would not be chained up helpless like a dog. She had had access to her magic for an entire week and quite apparently the world had not ended. She was damned if she would submit to helplessless ever again. 

Ignoring her own internal resistance she forced herself through the corridors and up the stairs to the astronomy tower.   
She was somewhat early and only two other students were up there waiting, neither of whom she knew. One was a Ravenclaw and the other a Slytherin so they were standing very far apart and pretending not to see each other. 

She ignored both and went to the edge of the tower, looking out over the view. 

It was a partly sunny day, the clouds sweeping in from the north promised showers later in the evening and there was that first faint scent in the air that hinted at the oncoming autumn. She leaned against the balustrade and sighed. 

A chirrp made her shreck back in shock.   
The parrot whistled at her from a little further down the balustrade as if amused and sat quite amiably, not in the least trying to grab her.

The Ravenclaw boy came over, interested.   
“Wow. Thats a vosmaeri isn’t it? You can tell by the colouring.. How did it get here?!” 

Hermione shrugged. “I dont know. I’ve seen a few of them lately though” 

The bird chattered as if complaining at her. It raised a leg revealing a string hanging down.   
After some hesitation she retrieved the object on the end of the string, which seemed to be a tiny phial wrapped in a scroll. Ignoring the Ravenclaw’s curious demands to see what it was she put it in her pocket. 

The bird chirped again and edged closer to her.   
Uneasily, afraid she would be whisked away the moment she touched it, she stroked its breast gently with the back of her finger. It trilled happily and then fluttered off, curving up above the roof of the astronomy tower out of sight before a faint white flash announced its departure.

She moved away, probably quite rudely, from the Ravenclaw who was banging on about birds and climates and his auntie. When she turned around, Septimus was standing there looking at her with suspicious ire.

“How long have you been standing there?” she wondered aloud. 

“Don’t speak to me, halfblood” was his only response as he strutted off toward the other side of the room to stand next to the other Slytherin.

She sagged against the parapet. That long huh.. she thought dismally.   
As soon as Tom arrived Septimus would tell him about the parrot and then he’d be pissed off. He’d almost certainly demand whatever it was that she had in her pocket now and he might even punish her for touching the bird when he’d told her specifically not to. 

Well that sucked...

She stood apart from the other students as they all gathered and as soon as the professor – a tiny woman with bright orange hair – came in she immediately approached her, asking to be excused from class due to.. female..problems.   
The wiry little woman looked at her cynically, obviously not believing a jot of it, but allowed her to leave even so. 

She escaped into the corridor not looking back once to see the expression on Tom’s face. 

Downstairs she skidded into a run, heading for somewhere she thought Tom would not immediately look for her – a small defunct staircase at the top of the fifth floor that led to a small dusty old platform just under the roof.   
She’d sometimes come here in her time when she wanted to be alone (and cry).. when Ron was being a git. 

Casting a small light orb she took out the scroll wrapped object in her pocket and unfurled it carefully.   
It was much longer than the last missives and written in tiny script, the curls and flourishes on the letters delicate.   
She wondered whether it had been written at full size and then shrunk down. 

She read: “Maia, I know that my last message to you was intercepted. Your young wizard harmed my familiar and I will no longer allow you to bring him with you here.   
I had thought you his mistress, or an equal..perhaps a lover..but from what I have learned, you are his servant.   
That changes many things. There is no reasoning with a boy such as he.   
If I must destroy him to claim you, I shall do so.   
I think you do not know me well. Perhaps if you knew me better.. you might make the right choice.   
I have sent for this reason a memory for you. If you lack a pensieve you can..absorb it.. it will not harm you.   
In future Mencius – my parrot – will only come to you if your master is absent. I await your response, schaetzchen.” 

She finished reading the message and unexpectedly it flared into flame and incinerated itself into fine grey ash in half a second.   
‘Ok... that was a bit mission impossible’ she thought to herself.

Raising the tiny phial she inspected it cautiously. It was a miniature ornate royal blue bottle with a glass screw cap.   
It was quite a pretty thing actually. She tilted it and saw the pearly sheen of liquid within. A small amount of liquid. Perhaps a thimbleful.   
The thought of ‘absorbing’ anything that Grindelwald might send her was unacceptable. She needed a pensieve. 

Slipping the bottle back into her pocket she crept down the stairs, thinking to go to the room of requirement. 

She was halfway down the empty corridor when debilitating pain shot through her arm up to her back and then down her spine. She crashed to her knees unexpectedly, crying out and gripping her arm at the elbow as if to cut off the blood flow.   
Like it would help. Tom was pissed off it seemed. It was all she could do to take out the little bottle and levitate it up to the roof, hiding it in the rafters.   
She could barely move and she had the strong foreboding that Tom would be here very soon. If anything the pain was increasing.   
She let herself sink down to her side on the floor, curling into a ball and gripping her agonizing arm.. it was like a localized and heightened form of the cruciatus that flared out from her forearm affecting the rest of her body.

It seemed like an age before she heard the sound of slow approaching footsteps. One person. She could feel it was him. 

“Oh Hermione..” Tom said chidingly and her hair stood on end at the use of her real name.   
“Did you think I would not find out? You are never alone, no matter how it may seem. There is always someone watching over you.   
I told you not to touch that thrice damned bird.. and what do I discover? You accepted another message. Give it to me!” 

He crouched down beside her shaking agonized form and the pain abated enough so that she could talk and move.   
She looked up at him pleadingly

“It destroyed itself after I finished reading it. It said he knew you intercepted the last one and he wouldn’t allow you to come to him after you shot his bird and that he thought I was your equal but now he has learned somehow that I’m your servant and he’ll kill you since someone like you can’t be reasoned with!!”   
She blurted it all out in one long string of words and Tom blinked in surprise and made her repeat it all slowly.   
The pain in her arm faded away to a mere ache. 

Tom sighed, looking down at her.   
“Don’t worry. He will not kill me either. Come.. sit up. Come here.” 

She complied and he put his arms around her and pulled her close, rocking her slightly.

“You know I had to punish you, don’t you? Your behaviour has been unacceptable – taking the message against my explicit orders and then leaving class, where you knew I would be waylaid, in order to read it.   
How am I to deal with this?!..   
Now that you will not be among my group, I must rely on other’s reports of your actions.” 

She said nothing and let herself be rocked. After a time he sighed.   
“I must go. You are to attend all your classes and keep your head down exactly as you have been.” 

At this she looked up at him distressed. “But..how long?! You said-.. “ she wanted to cry.   
Didn’t he want her at all anymore?!

Tom smirked. “Hush.. I will not reward your insubordination with the honour of my affections.   
Prove to me that you are capable of obeying me and on the weekend I will find a way for us to be together.”

She crumbled and bowed her head. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I thought I wanted to be back at Hogwarts for so long..but i hate it. I hate everything about it.. I hate my dormmates and I hate the classes.. I hate meals in the great hall.. all of the professors are horrid and I don’t see the point of NEWTs at all anymore.   
I just want to go home..”

Toms hand was around her neck before she could think and he wrenched her head back by her plait.   
His face was a black snarl.   
“You are NEVER going back! Do you hear?! NEVER. You will stay here with me and You. Will. Obey!”

She didn’t want to but found herself starting to cry. He released her in disgust, standing and turning on his heel. He spoke in a low threatening voice. “I don’t want to hear you talking about ‘going back’.. it’s not going to happen. This is where you belong now.”   
Without another glance at her he strode off down the corridor and was soon gone. 

She sat there, with her knees pressed to her chest and her arms wrapped around them and cried for a while.   
She really did just want to go home now.   
But eventually she cried herself out and after sitting staring at the wall for a long time she summoned the bottle back down from the rafters and pocketed it, scourgifying the tears from her cheeks. Her eyes would still be puffy but she simply removed and reapplied the glamour and was good as new again. 

The room of requirement was the next destination if she wanted to understand what it was that Grindelwald had sent her.

 

 

Walking back and forth in front of the wall she asked for a secure place to view a memory. When she opened the door she was comforted to find herself back in Tom’s viewing room.   
The door behind her closed with a decidedly heavy sound and she turned to find large metal braces bolting themselves over the door. Nobody would be entering anytime soon, she smirked. 

The next thing she did was to utilize a tiny amount of raw magic and heal the blasted green spots from all over her face – there was no need to go through life glamoured – she might run into someone in the bathroom tomorrow if she didn’t sleep in and then everyone would talk about it within the hour.   
It took almost no effort at all to remove the spots. She was certain now that it was becoming easier to use her ability.

She moved to the wide shallow pensive and sat down, tipping the miniscule splotch of memory into the bowl.   
It unfurled and curled around like a strange silvery minnow, growing rapidly larger. She leaned over, watching it coil and flow and finally, taking a deep breath, she dipped a finger in the pensive.

 

She found herself standing in a beautiful garden. Exotic flowers and plants grew in all the colours of the rainbow.   
It was not a jungle, although there was a certain chaotic disorder to the many different, bizarre and thoroughly incompatible plant species.

“Maia..” a voice said deep and soft behind her. 

She whirled and Grindelwald stood, in a royal blue and black robe with a sable furred cloak, bent over slightly inspecting a peculiar sky blue funnelled bloom. 

“Come and see this..” he urged her. 

She knew he couldn’t see her.. he must have created this memory purely for her.   
She was therefore safe.. although it was a bit creepy to have someone talk to her in a memory – he was obviously in this place talking to himself and thinking of her watching it. 

She went over to look at the flower he was indicating.   
Inside the horn of the sky blue lilly she saw a tiny purple and blue furred figure curled up sleeping, like a fairy but much smaller. It looked like a tiny miniature boy with big fuzzy hair on his head and short fur on the rest of his body. 

“It is a sprite” he explained. “I have only recently managed to create a place they might live.. they are such sensitive creatures. They do not take well to humans.” 

He stood and looked about the large environment. She looked up and realised it was a greenhouse of sorts.

“There are dozens of them here now. They are quite happy. I have given them everything they want and they live here without predators.” 

“Sometimes they let me catch sight of one of them.” 

“I will leave them dandelion honey and pomegranate jelly later for allowing me to make a memory of this one for you. Come..”   
The curly haired man turned and strode away through the foliage. She followed after quickly.   
He passed through a tall arched door and strode through the room, through several icy opulent rooms till he reached a golden stair, which he descended.   
Below he paced along a white ice corridor to a silver door. She followed after him as he left the door open.

Inside she gasped and wrapped her arms around herself in shock. 

A black haired Tom hung from golden chains on the wall, his face looked bruised and he wore a shredded black robe.   
An unnatural expression of terror haunted his features.   
She had never seen Tom wear that expression, not when he was being raped and beaten in the orphanage.. not even when he had been distraught at the possibility of Severus dying. This tom looked mortally afraid. 

“I am sorry Maia, that I must show you this..” Grindelwald said, leaning against the wall on the right side of the room casually, his face turned toward the centre of the room – the effect was such that it felt like he was looking at her.   
She almost wanted to speak to him – tell him to stop this.. not to hurt this boy who looked like tom. 

“It is a glamour of course.. The boy is simply some young fellow who was in the wrong place and dared to cross me.   
...As your young man has.. your master...   
And so I will show you what I will do to him if you do not come to me. And then perhaps you will come and I will not have to kill your ..Tom.. after all.” 

He pulled out an object from his pocket that looked like a tight little spring. Shaking it out it became a thin golden cord. But unlike a cord it flicked and coiled and writhed like a snake.   
Grindelwald stroked it with his thumb smiling slightly and then he tossed it at the chained tom on the wall.

The boy was silencioed and screamed unheard as the golden cord flew to him and immediately burrowed into his skin. 

Hermione shivered. She could see the raised line of it moving around his neck.   
The Tom lookalike screamed and screamed in panic fighting against the manacles.

The gold snake twisted up and over his jaw onto his cheek and then came out his wide mouth, only to delve back into his flesh on his chin and burrow back down, digging through his skin down his neck and onto his chest where the raised line of it dipped down and vanished. The figure of Tom started to cough blood in between his silent cries. 

Grindelwald sighed. “Such a strange little toy. But let us move on.” He flicked his wand and a long white glowing whip emerged from the end. 

She pressed her fists to her mouth moaning in horror while Tom’s flesh was burned and cut away till he was a mass of blood, bone and quivering exposed raw muscle.   
And still the little golden cord wound in and out of him here and there. 

The boy’s..Tom’s.. head hung exhausted and in agony, even as his mouth moved in pleas that Hermione knew were not for healing but for the most permanent kind of release possible.   
And Grindelwald obliged. The golden cord crawled up his body, coming out through his jugular and then diving back in through his eye socket. His spasming shaking suggested that it was mincing his brain.   
Then he was still.   
Dripping and hanging and dead and still Tom. 

She backed up frantically, choking down the bile that was rising in her throat and coughing in horror and disgust.   
That was.. THE worst thing she had ever seen.. it was worse than anything she’d seen in the dark lords domain.   
Worse than Bill Weasley..   
It was ..inhuman... 

She had to drop to her knees, turning away from the poor wretch that Grindelwald had used purely as an example to her, whose death had not even been for his own merit but in proxy of someone he’d never met.   
And the man hadn’t even dirtied his hands.   
He strode out of the room with the same cool elegant composure as he’d had while he was showing her sprites in the greenhouse.   
She struggled to her feet and trailed after him helplessly on shaking knees as he went back upstairs and made his way through several rooms and to another staircase, which chimed in light crystal tones as he climbed it, its glassy steps suspended by golden threads.   
She pulled herself up it on hands and knees almost. 

Upstairs he walked along a corridor till he came to a room. 

She was disturbed to find it a bedroom when she caught up to him. 

Of course. Naturally. Shades of Lucius, she thought as the blond psychotic despot sat down on the edge of the bed to remove his boots. He looked down, attending to their buckles as he spoke.

“You are angry with me.. and afraid.” Grindelwald said to his boots.   
“I wish I did not have to show you that terrible thing..but I promise you.. this and much more I will do to your Thomas marvolo...that is Tom Marvolo Riddle.. if you do not come to me.   
It is pointless to fight me, Maia. I am closer than you know.” 

His boots and stockings removed the man stood, removing his cloak, which flew through a door into what Hermione assumed must be his dressing room. He started to unfasten his robes. 

“I will take you by force if you remain in Hogwarts.. I will destroy the school..   
...but I do not wish to do that. I would much rather you come to me willingly.” 

“I want for you to bend beneath me sweetly.. but I will break you if you leave me no other choice.”

He removed his royal blue and black robe, revealing a broad strong well formed chest covered in sparse dark blonde curled hair. He wore black trousers. These came off soon after too.   
He pulled down black underpants with the trousers and then he stood before her in all his glory, so to speak. 

“I wish for you to see me...to know me as a man. I will please you more than your ..boy...   
I am a master in these arts.”

He clicked his fingers and a corn-blonde girl stepped out of his dressing room shyly.   
She was not the blonde he had been with in Berlin, she was smaller, very young, more petite. A mere slip of a girl.   
About her own height, Hermione reckoned, already anticipating what would come next. 

Grindelwald summoned the young girl and she walked over, looking a bit afraid and overawed.   
He whispered in her ear and she frowned but nodded. 

Then he glamoured her to look like Hermione herself. 

She took a deep disturbed breath looking at her own face, her own image – the girl had slightly smaller breasts – but the match was not that dissimilar. 

Grindelwald pulled the young girl gently to him and kissed her tenderly.   
She could see he had hardened since he’d applied the glamour to her and now he picked her up and carried her to the bed as if she were made of air. 

Hermione backed up and leaned against the wall shocked and perturbed as she watched the man pamper every part of the young girl and tease her to gasping joyful climax after climax.   
He hadn’t even penetrated her yet. Not even with a finger.. she could see he was using some kind of spell on her at times that made the girl moan and cry out in pleasure. 

Swallowing she rested her head back against the wall. This was very bad. Thank god she hadn’t shown Tom this – he would have gone absolutely mental.   
On the bed, Grindelwald was licking the girl, who was apparently enjoying this to an astoundingly enthusiastic degree.   
She banished the momentary curiosity that flitted through her mind like a traitorous shark in the placid waters. 

Watching the two was unnerving.   
The horrible..horrible.. man was ..um.. quite passionate..   
and indeed very experienced in wringing pleasure from the female body it seemed.   
The girl was begging him to take her, pulling at him and pleading but he pulled away then and merely knelt, looking down at her with lust and stroked himself until he came. 

Hermione discovered she was slightly disappointed. She’d wondered how he..um..well.. anyway it was probably good that he’d stopped. Definitely. 

The girl looked heartbroken. 

He scourgified them both and dismissed her and she walked away slowly, looking back with longing even as the glamour fell away and she left the room. 

Grindelwald turned then and got off the bed, lifting the covers and tossing some of the pillows to the floor at the foot of the bed carelessly.   
He got in, sighing and lay, his arms folded behind his neck. He stared apparently discontentedly at the ceiling and then closed his eyes.   
His voice was soft.. and she had to move nearer to hear him. 

“I did not take the girl because she was not you. I cannot get you out of my mind. It must be an enchantment of some kind. I find suddenly I want no other.   
You must come to me Maia. I will tear the world apart to have you here with me.   
My bed is empty.. this fortress is empty.. though it is filled with pleasures.   
Come to me, Maia.. I will make you happy. There will be no death if you come..”   
He sounded wistful and white fog began to blur the edges of everything as she fell out of the pensieve again to lean back, breathing fast, on the sofa. 

‘Well.. that was intense. What the hell do I do now?!’ she asked herself. 

 

 

With her wand she collected up the memory and replaced it in the tiny bottle and then had the room open up to the crowded junk filled place where things were hidden. She placed the bottle inside a pillow that lay discarded behind some paintings and then returned the room to her own bedroom to take a long, somewhat haunted, bath. 

The idea that Grindelwald was closer than she knew kept repeating in her mind. What did that mean?!   
He threatened to destroy Hogwarts. She should go to professor Dumbledore – or Dippet.. or at least to Tom.   
But she didn’t want to explain to Tom how she knew and if she went to Dumbledore or Dippet she’d need to explain why and how the most powerful dark wizard in the world had suddenly developed an irrational obsession with her. 

She suspected the small fact that she a) had lied about her age, her name, her background, b) had apparated to Berlin last week just asking for trouble and c) was a bloody conduit and therefore capable of destroying them all effortlessly.. might not put them necessarily firmly on her side. 

That was.. of course.. another idea. She could just go and kill Grindelwald herself...   
That was an option. It wouldn’t be hard..   
except that Grindelwald was not killed. He was defeated by Dumbledore and interred in his own castle. It was a known historical fact. It was accepted by everyone.   
And since going to Dumbledore and asking him to please hurry up and go and lock up the boy..well man now.. he supposedly loved.. was only going to force her to confront points a, b and c – she couldn’t do that either. 

Eventually she got out of the bath and went back to her room. 

She required some parchment, a quill and ink and then sat down to write a letter.   
It began “Dear Gellert...”

After she had finished writing she folded the letter into a paper plane and had the room open a door into Nurmengard. 

The moment she opened the door alarms went off both in Hogwarts and, she could hear, in Nurmengard also. 

She stood in her black fluffy towel, with wet hair, blinking in shock at the distant form, equally shocked, of Grindelwald, two rooms away, and tossed the paper plane through the doorway, slamming the door immediately. 

The alarms in Hogwarts did not end when the door closed and she panicked, quickly summoning her clothing and dressing. 

A bang at the R.o.R door informed her that someone, probably more than one someone, was very interested in the current goings on inside the room of requirement.   
She quickly wished a new door into existence, that opened into the abandoned fifth floor corridor where she had been earlier with Tom. 

She wished her room away, transforming it into an empty white room even as she darted through the door and heard a blasting spell being used on the entrance to the room of requirement. 

Slamming the door she ran at full speed to the side stairwell, pelting down it like the clappers all the way to the third floor where she transfigured her towel into a robe and disillusioned herself before racing along the entire length of the floor, past the Gryffindor common room entrance and to the shifting stairwells.   
These were not moving and she ended up having to double back and take the secret passage down to the ground floor where she could dash out translucent and practically fly to the dungeons.

The shield wouldn’t open so she had to use one of the alternate secret entrances but finally..finally... she reached her bed and plunged under the covers, dressed and shaking, terrified that at any second the entire Hogwarts staff and aurors and Grindelwald and Tom would all descend upon her and tear her to pieces.

When she had lay, unmoving for almost an hour she crawled cautiously back out of bed, took off her robe and put on her nightdress.   
A tempus showed that it was almost half an hour after dinner should have finished but not so very late that the empty state of her dorm room was unthinkable. Everyone was probably elsewhere.   
She got into bed. 

The voices of her roommates coming in woke her later.   
She cast a tempus. Almost midnight. That was late.   
It became apparent why they were so late when she listened to their complaints and gossipy wonderings. 

Apparently they had been at dinner when the ward breech alarms sounded and the Grand Hall had been locked and protected by the castle while the professors were searching for the source of the threat. 

Hermione wondered idly why the alarms hadn’t gone off when she’d opened portals in Berlin and America..   
perhaps it was something about the warding on the other end.. or maybe   
.. she gave up speculating. 

The students hadn’t been released from the great hall till a few minutes ago it seemed. 

Hermione felt a bit guilty. Well.. guilty and hungry. But mainly guilty. She pulled the covers up higher over her ears and tried to go to sleep. 

Then her mark burned. 

‘Gah!’ she thought. ‘No. I’m comfortable. Amalthea and Antonia are standing out there chatting. I am not under any circumstances going to get up and bloody wander down to a cold drafty secret lair and receive a stern talking to or any kind of further punishment.’ 

The burning increased to a painful level over the next few minutes. 

‘Shit.’ She cursed under her breath.


	60. Chapter 60

The burning increased to a painful level over the next few minutes. 

‘Shit.’ She cursed under her breath. 

She summoned two quills from her trunk silently and transfigured one into a glass phial.   
She inscribed on the front “removed m. Replace after T.” Then she extracted her entire memory since the time Tom had left her in the hallway and put it inside.   
She stoppered it and slipped it under her pillow. 

The pain in her arm was really quite horrible now and she thought that if she didn’t go soon, Tom might actually come down here after her.   
She disillusioned herself unhappily and slipped from her bed past the jabbering forms of her roommates and, casting a notice me not on the area, out the door, up the stairs, through the common room and down to the entirely uninteresting stretch of wall where the entrance was.

Just as she placed her hand on the stones she cast an obliviate on herself. 

She’d never used this spell on herself before and was quite afraid it wouldn’t work or it would delete her entire mind or something horrible but she couldn’t exactly walk in with the memory of Grindelwald. 

After she’d cast it, she wasn’t sure what she was doing, standing here suddenly with her arm killing her.   
She fell through the stones without trying to and then hands were grabbing her and dragging her into the centre of the room where no table and sofas were anymore but where Tom and the rest of his knights stood in a circle. 

“What?!” she cried out, confused as Dolohov tossed her into the centre of them and she crashed down onto her knees. 

“Finite incantatum” Tom cast upon her coldly and she felt herself warm as the horrible cold ice water dripping down feeling of the disillusionment charm faded.   
Tom looked more than pissed off, he looked enraged. Everyone else looked irritable but confused. 

“Where were you?!” he demanded, glaring down at her. She flinched back. 

“When?! What are you talking about?! You were just with me. Why am I here?!” 

Tom tilted his head thoughtfully and then he pointed his wand at her. “Legilimens” he murmured.   
She felt him suddenly inside her mind, flicking through things, poking around.

He pulled out quickly and his eyes narrowed. “You’ve been obliviated.” he muttered.   
The other boys murmured concernedly to each other. 

She jolted and started to panic. “When?! What’s happened?! Who obliviated me?!” 

Tom shook his head pensively. “I don’t know. The entire time since I left you is gone. The spell was cast very recently.   
It’s possible we may have been observed by someone.”   
She looked up guiltily and his eyes sharpened on her.   
“What.. what haven’t you told me?!” 

She bit her lip.   
“It happened after DADA.. you know? I was jumped by three Gryffindors and two of them cursed me because of Alex potter and one of them petrified me and kicked the crap out of me over you.   
Alex found me and released the petrificus and helped me heal myself.   
...I told him I couldn’t talk to him again.” 

“Other than that.. nothing’s happened.   
Amalthea and Antonia haven’t said boo to me. I..I dont know whether anyone else has been around.” 

Tom growled and legilimised her again, locating the memory quickly and pulling out again.   
“I know the girls in question. The one who kicked you might have it in her to obliviate you but if she had, I think we’d find you in the infirmary and there is the small matter of the Hogwarts ward breach – it is rather a large coincidence that you are missing time and the wards are breached at that same time... In fact...”   
His expression darkened   
“Remain here with her!”   
He barked the order and then stalked off toward the wall and left. 

She pulled her white cotton night dress down to cover a bit more of her legs and shifted to kneel on the stone floor in the centre of the eight boys. It exposed less of her body that way.   
She glanced up at them uneasily. 

Septimus was smirking nastily and looking down at her with his head slightly tilted and a dark look in his eyes.   
“You know.. He thinks you obliviated yourself..  
I’m inclined to agree with him. I wonder what is so terrible that you would risk your own memory to prevent its discovery.. and I wonder if you had the sense to hide it well.” 

She wrapped her arms around herself. Had she obliviated herself? She wondered.   
She could remember putting the little memory bottle up on the rafter.   
Perhaps she’d watched it and it was something bad..

Abraxas shifted uneasily and she bowed her head.   
The others were just out of her peripheral vision.. but Abraxas and Septimus were tom’s left and right hand knights.   
Inwardly she snorted at how little things changed.   
She wondered if Abraxas would find it interesting if she told him that his son was going to kill him over grades and then be someday killed by Tom because he wanted her.   
..Or if Septimus might be appalled at the thought that Abraxas son was going to rape his nephew..   
...that his nephew would betray Tom for his rapist. For Lucius of all bloody people. Sadistic homicidal bastard Lucius.   
What was wrong with all these people?! 

The slap of shoes on the floor informed her that tom had returned. From the sound of his walk he was not happy.   
She supposed he didn’t find whatever he looked for. 

“Hold her.” He hissed and her head flew up in panic as Septimus and Abraxas leapt to restrain her in place, each taking one arm.   
She looked wild eyed at Tom, who was almost steaming with anger.   
He held a small glass phial with a label on it. 

“I quote: ‘removed M – I assume that means memory, what a clever code, I’d never figure that out – replace after T.   
-Which only emphasises your determined intent to keep this memory from me!   
Unfortunately.. or fortunately – you weren’t determined enough to hide the memory thoroughly or to simply obliviate it without saving a copy.” 

He uncorked the small flask and swirled the silvery fluid in it thoughtfully.   
“Let’s see what was worth risking your mind for..” he hissed and then upended the flask over her head. 

She whimpered at the horrible alien feeling of cold slimy tentacles of memory seeping beneath her skin, slipping into her brain.   
Then the memory was suddenly there.   
She remembered and looked up at Tom with a new terror.   
He didn’t even pause before he began legilimising her. 

His rage was terrible, the entire way through. He felt her curiosity when she watched Grindelwald with the glamoured girl and his fury was like needles in her head.   
It simmered as she bathed and then almost boiled her alive when she wrote the letter..

‘Dear Gellert. I apologise for the harm to Mencius – Tom believed your parrot would abduct me.   
I cannot leave Hogwarts as I am marked and bound to Tom. He will inflict unendurable pain upon me across any distance if I am removed.   
If you kill him, I will die.   
Please do not attack the school. I will try to persuade Tom that it is better if we come to you. I need time. Maia” 

He watched her toss the letter through the door amid the alarms and followed her ensuing flight through the school down to her bed.   
When he pulled out of her mind it felt like cool balm compared to the searing heat of his emotion.   
She fell limp against the two boys holding her arms and heard tom stalk away. 

After a minute he muttered. “Septimus and Abraxas remain. The rest of you.. are dismissed. Go to bed.” 

There was no muttering. The boys behind her simply walked away silently and left. 

Tom stalked back and summoned from nowhere the wingback chair that had resided in the room last time she was here.   
He flung himself down in the chair in irritation. A moment later she screamed in the blinding pain as he wordlessly crucioed her.   
It went on and on and she struggled helplessly against the two boys holding her, shrieking and sobbing. 

“..My Lord..” Septimus said, disturbed, straining to hold her against the helpless spasming and flailing.   
“You wish her in the infirmary? Cruciatus damage is very recognisable.” 

The curse was lifted but almost immediately replaced with another. It felt like all her bones were burning inside her limbs. 

For what seemed like an hour, Tom cursed her with different dark hexes, ignoring her screaming and begging and crying.   
Finally he stopped. The cold fury on his face was only marginally softened. 

“Release her” he commanded. 

She collapsed helplessly to the floor as the arms propping her up flung her down.   
She could do nothing but pant and sob. 

“You have disappointed me Maia” he said in an icy low voice. “Weak... deceitful... foolish... little tart. I am not decided yet what I will do with you. Untrustworthy.. yet you know too much.” 

He turned away from her pitiful form on the floor and addressed his two closest servants. 

“Hogwarts is being directly threatened..” he began, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly.   
“- by Grindelwald.” 

Septimus and Abraxas to their credit remained silent and unaffected.

“You are both going to swear unbreakable oaths to me now, not to reveal what I shall tell you tonight.” 

Septimus flinched slightly. “Is that absolutely necessary my lord? You know that we are..”   
Toms gaze flew to him and it was shooting broken glass and red hot lava.   
“Do not question me! I am aware that you consider yourself loyal, Septimus. I will require an oath from you.   
You will give it.”

“Yes my Lord” he murmured, swallowing uncomfortably. 

Abraxas offered his wand and hand first, seemingly unconcerned about making the life threatening oath.   
Tom had him swear that he would not reveal any information discussed during this night to anyone who did not already know of it. Septimus completed the oath afterward and then Tom seemed to relax slightly. 

“One of my knights has betrayed me.” Tom said quietly.   
Hermione’s head flew up. That had not been the statement she had been expecting.

“One of us has gone secretly to Grindelwald’s side and has revealed my secrets to him.   
The entire situation is quite ridiculous and coincidental. ..Last week I had Maia apparate us to Berlin for a laugh.” 

She took in peripherally the appalled expressions on the two boys faces who knelt beside her.   
“A laugh?” Abraxas questioned astounded.   
“She can apparate to Germany?” Septimus questioned at the same time. 

Tom ignored them both and continued   
“We took a stroll down to Brandenburger Tor. There we unfortunately ran into Grindelwald.. -shopping no less.”   
The expressions of shock turned into horrified, appalled, shock.

“He took..shall we say.. a shine to her and determined that he wanted to possess her. He pursued us all the way to Australia...” 

Abraxas was gaping and dumbstruck trying to comprehend what was happening.   
Septimus was frowning and looked incredulous.   
“Australia now?! You’re telling me the witch cowering on the floor here is capable of apparating to the other side of the world?! That is patently ridiculous. It isn’t possible.” 

Tom went on heedless. “He followed us to Australia – he tracked her apparition to the other side of the planet and then he took us to Nurmengard...where we met his familiar – the bird you saw me shoot Septimus – and had an extremely brief tea before he tried to kill me.   
Maia saved me and then we fought him... and won.. and fled here.” 

At this Septimus expression darkened still further and became even more dubious and Abraxas sputtered “You beat Grindelwald in a duel?!! How the fuck did you do that..?!   
Why isn’t he dead if you beat him?!   
Why are you concerned now.. just beat him again!” 

Tom glared at him.   
“Perhaps we should be doing that. But I am rather disinclined to near the man at present.   
We only won because we were united. I believe that either of us alone would have lost.   
And..he was not truly fighting. He wanted to take us unharmed.   
You can imagine. If he no longer wanted to take.. one.. or both.. of us unharmed.. the situation might be very different.” 

“...He has threatened to attack Hogwarts to kill me and take Maia. He has implied.. as recently as this evening.. that he is possibly actually nearby or able to be nearby at a whim.” 

Severus spoke finally. “My lord.. I am aware that ..the girl is..quite attractive...skilled...a tasty bite in some ways.. but why exactly is .... one.. of the most powerful dark wizards in the world so obsessed with her after, according to your story, a single meeting, that he would wage war in England, purely in order to acquire her?!   
It does not make sense. He has access to thousands of pretty enough girls, some of which are probably reasonably bright or versed in dark magic.” The sable haired wizard looked at tom demandingly. 

Tom smiled wanly.   
“Maia..is different to other girls.. you may have noticed..both of you.. a certain desire for her which you tend not to experience with those of tainted blood on the whole.” 

Septimus’ face was carefully blank but Abraxas had the decency to look shifty and nod once.

Tom explained blandly “It is apparently a residual effect of a potions experiment she was exposed to, or so I’m told.   
A kind of..amortensia attraction.” 

Hermione thought to herself. ‘yeah.. potions experiment.. right.’ 

“Amortensia?” Septimus queried again dubious..   
“If such an effect exists – there must be a way to negate it.”

All three looked to Hermione questioningly.

She shrugged and managed weakly. “I’ve been told that there is none. It’s not actually a chemical or anything that can be analysed. Its..more fundamental than that.” 

Septimus eyes widened and he turned back to Tom. “Well then what will happen to those affected by her who are not permitted to sate their impulses?” 

Hermione answered snidely before Tom could respond.   
“All but one have tried to abduct or rape me. ..One succeeded.   
Except for one person, they were all killed.   
Those affected become more and more irrational and determined, even betraying their loyalties.” 

She looked at Tom with a hard gaze.   
“I did say that it would be a bad idea to bring me to Hogwarts. I’ve sat in classes with half the sixth year.   
You brought me to your knights.. Did you think that was wise?!” 

Tom snarled and raised his wand. “Crucio” he muttered. 

She cried out, cramping and shrieking at the pain. He held it on her for almost a minute sitting back in his chair with a very dark and pensive look on his face. 

When he finally released it she panted, wet cheeked, her face pressed to the stone floor, unwilling to move again.   
It was strange..she observed.. that the curse was horrible.. truly terrible to endure.. but that somehow, in the meantime, she actually could endure it.   
The last time Tom had cruciated her for a few seconds she’d been crippled for a day and that was with the healing potion.   
Was Tom weaker at this age? Had her ability to withstand pain increased? 

“My Lord...” Abraxas began. Tom narrowed his eyes at him. The blonde continued bravely. “It seems to me that there are two solutions to the problem”   
Tom gestured for him to go on.   
He licked his lips uneasily, his gaze flicking up to Tom’s face and back down to the floor.   
“Well.. it appears by bringing her to our circle you have now created.. so to say.. a vested interest for all of us in destroying Grindelwald. If this...affliction.. continues and he takes the girl, we will all be doomed to yearn for her helplessly till we become desperate.   
I would prefer not to face that future.   
I propose therefore that you either.. allow the knights who are affected to partake of her charms on occasion.. that we might be rational and able to stand with you against Grindelwald.. Or you kill her..   
\- One can hope that then the desire will fade and Grindelwald will lose interest in Hogwarts altogether.” 

Tom rolled his eyes and snorted.   
“What an excellent argument for me to allow you to fuck the girl I have already informed you was off limits to you.” 

Septimus spoke up quietly. “If it is as she says, it may be the only solution..   
on the other hand.. it may make the situation worse.. jealousy.. possessiveness.. and it does not solve the problem with Grindelwald. I agree that you should kill her and then send her body to him.” 

Hermione forced her dull slow mind to focus in the wake of so much cruciatus. She needed to focus. They were talking about killing her.   
Needed to heal.. needed to escape.. ...but the mark.. and and Rodolphus.. no. wait.. that didnt have anything to do with anything.. she wanted to go to Rodolphus. Needed him.. she was going to die if she didn’t get to him.. no. no focus.. she was going to die if Tom killed her.. Grindelwald. Something. Pay attention. 

“No. I will not kill her. She is mine. He cannot have her. I will not give her up because of that bloody kraut.” 

Tom.. his voice was so smooth and pleasant to listen to. He wasn’t going to kill her.. that was good. Wasn’t it? 

“Then what will you do about.. the other problem..with her, my Lord?” Septimus asked in a low even tone.   
There was silence for a long time. 

“Who is affected?” he asked after a while. 

She had the vague impression of glances being exchanged and then Abraxas spoke   
“Septimus and myself, obviously, Master.   
Palmer..unfortunately. Although maybe he just wants to kill her. It’s hard to tell with him.   
Sorry has been looking at her with puppy dog eyes but he would never dare to go against your orders, my Lord.   
I’m not sure about Cygnus – he tends to prefer boys. I think Roan perhaps but I’m not certain to what extent. He and Antonin were certainly interested when she...performed fellatio upon you.   
Benjamin is too enamored of Antonia I think and Clemens doesn’t like girls at all.” 

There was another long silence. 

“Do you believe Palmer will be a problem” Tom asked quietly after a time.   
The two men either side of her shifted uncomfortably.

“It is difficult to say” Septimus answered diplomatically.   
“Yes.” Abraxus responded flatly. “He’ll try and corner her.. get her alone..He’s not good at denying himself things he wants..” 

There was the sound of a sigh. And then finally.. “Maia.. come to me..”

she whimpered softly like a beaten dog.. how was she supposed to do that.. she didn’t think she could even get up. 

“Bring her to me” he commanded the two boys. 

She cried out in pain when she was lifted by the arms. “Stop.. please..stop.. it hurts.. please don’t!”   
They ignored her cries and heaved her to her knees then dragged her to Tom’s feet.   
He looked down implacably at her tearstained pinched face. 

“Tom..” she whispered. “I was only trying to buy time. I didn’t want you to be angry and hurt me again..   
Didn’t know what it was.. how you’d react. Then when I watched it.. I knew you’d be angry.. thought I could just..get him to back off for a while and we could think of something...I didn’t expect the alarms... I’m sorry!” 

The coldly perfect face in the chair scrutinised her own thoughtfully.   
“We will not talk about that for the moment, Maia. I will think about your behaviour further on that matter.   
I will ask you questions.. and you will answer them truthfully. If you do not – I will take the information from your mind and you know why you do not want me to do that.” 

She became fearful.   
Septimus spoke up peevishly “Why don’t you just take whatever answers you seek from her mind, my Lord?!   
The witch has only tonight attempted to deceive you about something of great importance!!” 

Tom turned to him with a dark expression. “Do not question me Septimus. You are not adequately informed to venture an opinion on this matter.”   
Hermione saw the man holding her right arm frown and look down.   
“As you say, my Lord.”

She swallowed and looked back to Tom’s face. He was watching her with a troubled slightly reluctant expression, as if whatever he was going to ask, he did not really want to know.   
After a moment’s thought he drew his wand and cast a hex upon Abraxas and Septimus.   
Abraxas flinched and asked what that was.. and then reached for his throat as if he was mute.   
He was not. He was deaf – but it took him a while to work this out.   
Septimus did not react at all. 

Tom turned back to Hermione and demanded irritably. “You belonged to me, yes? In the future? You were mine?” 

She whispered yes quietly. His expression hardened slightly.   
“Did I share you with any others?” he asked, his eyes narrowed. 

She hesitated and then responded in the affirmative again.   
His mood seemed to darken further.

“Who?!” he hissed icily. “Tell me or I will look for myself.” 

She shook her head pleadingly – “Don’t.. please! You shouldn’t! It.. if I tell you then it will happen because you knew it would happen! It’ll be like the name you called me there. Please don’t, my Lord!”

Tom snarled at her and she could tell that this meant exactly nothing to him.   
“Tell me!” he demanded furiously.   
“Who else has touched you? Who else has..been with you?.. I will have this information, Maia, even if I have to drag it out of you with curses and potions.” 

Defeated, she slumped.   
“As you wish, Tom.   
...You gave me intentionally to three others.   
A fourth person I was drawn to because he shares a similar effect to the one I seem to exert on others.   
And a fifth person forced himself upon me and then gave me to his friend when he had me in his power.” 

Tom looked aghast. “SIX?! That is unacceptable!! Who were they?! Why would I voluntarily share you at all?!   
And with three others?! Who raped you?!”   
His expression seemed to be flickering through many different conflicting states.   
She felt Abraxas and Septimus at either side of her shifting uneasily at the extreme reaction of their master. 

“You shouldn’t know, Tom. Isn’t that enough? To know that you did? You’re dangerously close to creating a ouroboros link!” 

Tom’s expression settled finally upon volcanic rage   
“I don’t fucking care, you little whore – TELL ME WHO THEY WERE!!” 

She flinched sharply and turned her face away. 

“Fine. You want to know all about your future?! Suit yourself.   
You shared me with your consort, Severus – who will be Septimus nephew.   
You forced me to submit to Lucius Malfoy – who will be Abraxas son. I was terrified of him but he had become obsessed with me and you wanted to pacify him.   
You also voluntarily gave me to Abraxas grandson, Draco..eventually.”

She sneered at the slight discomforted expression on Tom’s face   
“Not at the same time, obviously” she added, clarifying.   
“Draco had saved my life – twice actually. But I’ll say no more about that - I wouldn’t want to ruin all the surprises here, Tom.”

“..The one I was drawn to was one of your servants. It.. he.. I cannot say any more about that except that he was..is..no he will be the descendant of another of your knights.   
And in case you haven’t worked it out yet.. obviously the one who raped me was the descendant of Alexander potter.   
He in turn shared me, against my will, with a friend who had been obsessed with me for years.   
At the time my magic was bound and I was compelled to obey him.”

“That encounter was not completed because he changed his mind in light of the way the boy in question treated me – which was rather laughable considering his own treatment of me..” 

“Thats it. Four of your servants and one and a half mortal ememies.   
Are you content now? Would you like a blow by blow description of each encounter? An itemized inventory of orgasms?”   
She spat at him, feeling miserable and ashamed. 

Tom looked slightly shaken. He stared into her eyes indecisively.   
It took the longest time before he responded and his voice sounded..hollow. Unsure of himself suddenly. 

“I have given you to these..others.. and yet you are still..mine?... How.. why?!   
Why would I do that?! You are..precious..to me...even now.” 

She ducked slightly. “You still want me because I am an addiction. You enjoy me.   
You are able to share me because you are confident that you control me. I am yours. The others..even Severus.. may only see me at your will.   
You.. have bound me to you..” 

His eyes widened. He leaned forward suddenly and pressed his palm to her cheek.

“What you are saying must be true.. it is an ..addiction.. because it defies rationality that you have just angered me more than anyone has achieved in... well.. months at least.. and I have just learned of how thoroughly defiled you are.. and still Iyearn to throw you down and bury myself in you.   
Not even your blood status bothered me longer than a few minutes ...and I am planning to kill the most powerful dark wizard alive purely in order to continue enjoying you unhindered.” 

“Perhaps Septimus is correct and I should kill you...” 

She swallowed and lowered her eyes. “Do as you see fit.” She responded blithely. 

He hesitated and then wound his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back, dragging her toward him and roughly capturing her lips, kissing her hungrily.   
The kiss did not seem to sate him and became two, three, continual. He devoured her mouth with his own, tongue dominating hers.   
She sighed softly.. happily.. His magic.. so soothing.. unwinding her mind..   
When he released her she mewled disappointedly, her eyes half lidded. 

In her peripheral vision she saw Abraxas moisten his lips with his tongue, watching them together. 

Tom leaned back in his chair and looked at her thoughtfully, his gaze flicked briefly to Abraxus and then Septimus before returning to her. His hand, stretched out over the arm of the chair, still played with a few locks of her hair.

“And..if I decide to share you with others..here? in this time?” he questioned softly.   
She furrowed her brows.. “What?”   
He tilted his head curiously.   
“If I do decide to ..give you to certain of my knights? What will your reaction be?   
Will you fight it?” 

She felt a frisson of fear rush through her. “I..I.. will try not to.. if ..if you decide to do that. But.. I don’t know! ..Please don’t let Avery touch me, Tom!! And.. not Dolohov either.. Not anyone.. I just want you ”   
She tried to still the fluttering panic in her mind. 

Tom looked hard and introspective. “I am not certain I could tolerate it either..” he mused.   
“But I do see the logic before me. If I do not consider this.. my servants will become difficult.   
I know this because you have informed me that it was my reasoning in the future also, with Abraxas’ progeny.” 

Abruptly he raised his wand and cancelled the spells upon the two boys still holding her. 

“Abraxas – kiss Maia” he commanded with an expression of a scientist conducting an experiment. 

Abraxas hesitated and blinked at him as if unsure whether he had heard correctly.   
Hermione’s eyebrows made a valiant bid to reach her hairline. She tried to speak but Tom flicked a quick silencio at her.

“Kiss the girl. Do it.” Tom demanded again. 

Thus absolved of responsibility the blonde wizard turned immediately toward her and allowed his eyes to wander freely over her face and body.   
She watched him with horrified fascination as he gently slid a perfectly manicured hand along her jaw, turning her face toward him and rubbing his thumb lightly across her bottom lip.   
“Thank you, my Lord” he murmured before leaning in and gently kissing her.   
He deepened the kiss slowly, probing at her lightly until she responded and then languidly tangling his tongue with her own, twirling it around the tip, exploring her.   
She felt his hand slide down to her neck and then delve into her curls. 

He ..kissed quite well.. actually. It was.. very.. soft and intense. Like a slow rising tide rather than a storming of the bastille.   
She could feel that his breathing had sped up and was actually having a difficult time keeping her own steady.   
He tilted her head back just a fraction with the hand in her hair and leaned in closer, his height and the new angle suddenly dominating. She felt his other hand stroke down her side slowly and then start back upward. 

“Enough.” Tom said quietly. 

Abraxus retreated slowly, clearly wishing to linger. He gave her small kisses as he removed his hands from her and reluctantly pulled away.   
Two pink spots of excitement had appeared high on his pale cheeks and his eyes were fogged slightly with lust.   
He looked back at Tom obediently, who raised an eyebrow. 

“You..appeared to enjoy that..Maia” Tom said softly, faint resentment in his voice. 

She wasn’t sure how to respond to the accusation. She..had..enjoyed it. Abraxas was not unattractive and he was a great kisser and he had told her to kiss him – it wasn’t as if she would ever have kissed the boy otherwise!   
She remained silent. 

“Come here” he demanded with the faintest of petulant notes in his voice, gesturing at his lap.   
She hesitated. She wasn’t sure she could stand. It hurt to move too much.   
But if she didn’t then he would probably interpret it as reluctance. 

Biting her lip against the pain she slowly struggled to climb to her feet. She half stumbled when she took a step and Tom was on his feet, catching her before she had time to register he’d moved.   
He turned her carefully, noting her difficulty and helped her down to sit across his lap in the chair.   
His expression was unreadable and he brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheek. 

Slowly, pulling her closer he kissed her again.   
The kiss was tentative, as if he was unsure what to expect. She was the one who ventured in to touch his tongue with her own, who tried to incite him to heat once more with her own passion.   
And after a while he responded and then took over the kiss, consuming her as hungrily as he had before, his hands sliding over her body, positioning her as he desired, gripping and fondling her.   
She felt him hardening against her leg, felt her own breath speeding.” 

He broke away, panting slightly, his eyes glittering.   
“And still you are mine.” He observed. 

She thought the observation might not have been meant for his audience. 

He turned his head, looking speculatively at the two boys kneeling before him. Hermione turned too, to follow his gaze.   
Abraxas wore a hopeful expression. Septimus expression was guardedly neutral.

“Do you want her, Septimus?” Tom asked quietly. “I will not order you to any action with her that you would not willingly perform” 

The austere and arrogant sable haired boy flicked his eyes to her face unreadably and then back to Tom.   
“I would willingly obey such an order, my Lord” he responded evasively.   
Tom snorted.   
“You’ll go far in the ministry, Septimus.” 

Septimus in turn bowed his head, a very Professor Snape smirk twitching the edges of his lips   
“Thank you, my Lord” he responded, knowing it had not been intended as a compliment.

Tom glanced back at Hermione, an eyebrow quirking slightly.

“Maia..” he said softly, as if not to frighten her.   
That frightened her.   
“I want you to perform fellatio upon Septimus. Will you do so?” 

She looked at him with wide eyes and crinkled brows. What did he possibly expect her to respond to that!?   
“But-..” she started and he silenced her with a finger.

“I want you to serve him as if he were me – I want you to please him in service to me. Can you do that? Will you obey?” 

She frowned but nodded. It seemed Tom in the future had learned to whore her out as he pleased from Tom in the past who found it an acceptable idea because apparently he had done so in the future.   
This was becoming more and more worrying with the future creating itself through foreknowledge in the past. 

Tom was smiling a small, only very slightly unsure smile at her and then he lifted her under her knees and behind her back and placed her down on the floor once more, to kneel.   
“Show me” he instructed. 

Septimus, now smiling a dark pleased little smirk rose to his feet and started to unfasten his trousers to free his cock.   
He was very tall.   
Hermione was not. The logistics already looked problematic.   
Septimus, having retrieved his unmistakeably rock hard cock from his trousers was stroking the long shaft gently with his fingertips, looking down at the slight girl on her knees with his head tilted. He could see the same problem, clearly. 

A moment later he was lowering himself to half lie before her, resting up on his elbows to watch. 

Hermione was aware of the rather envious expression of Abraxas behind her and the thoughtful patient one of Tom’s in the chair.   
Septimus expression reminded her almost viscerally of Severus.   
Although His hair was longer, sleeker, straighter – everything about him was more polished.   
He was like a cross between Severus and Lucius Malfoy – nevertheless, that faint twist at the corners of his mouth – he looked very much like the younger Severus.   
Realising this she wondered whether he and Tom..ever-..

“Maia..” Tom said quietly, 

‘yes yes’ her mind added sarcastically ‘it’s not going to suck itself. I know’ 

She leaned down and stroked her fingernails up the thighs of the proto-Severus, feeling pleased at the slight shiver.   
When she began bathing his shaft with her tongue, in preparation to begin in earnest, she felt not only Septimus pleasure in the twitch below her lips, but the avid absorbed attention of the other two boys. 

On some level this felt..familiar.   
It was..like being with Severus and Draco and Tom.. in a way.. wasn’t it? 

And.. Septimus and Abraxas were very easy on the eyes..

she could never..ever.. do this with Avery or Carrow or Dolohov though. it would be impossible. She’d be sick if she tried to touch any of them.

She began her blowjob in earnest and was met with the pleased little groan of Septimus and a light thrust up against her mouth. Stroking his balls gently with the nails of one hand and holding his shaft up at the root with her other hand, she started to suck him hard and swallow him deep.   
Septimus emitted a low loud moan of delight at feeling his cock plunge deep into her throat and his hand flew to her head, gripping her hair and guiding her. 

She adapted to the pace he desired and soon he was bucking his hips helplessly, his hand fisting and unfisting in her hair, head thrown back and mouth wide – an expression of almost painful enjoyment on his face. 

“Merlin!..” he choked out as she increased the pressure of her sucking still further, feeling her jaw ache, and added a swirl of her tongue on the upstroke “Oh!” he gasped, pushing her head down hard upon him, her lips at the base of his long cock, as he bucked up once more hard and long, exploding into her throat.   
He spasmed twice when she sucked even as he was spurting   
“Oh... fuck!” he cursed, his eyes screwed shut at the overpowering sensation. 

When he calmed enough to release her she pulled back quickly to gasp for air through her nose and sunk low again, sucking hard and cleaning his shaft off all the way to the tip.   
He jerked and hissed in sensitivity, falling back off his elbows onto his back and throwing an arm over his eyes as he panted. 

Finished, she pulled herself back up to kneel and darted a nervous fearful glance at Tom.   
He was looking at her with fascinated..and aroused eyes.

“You are truly..most skilled..in that domain, Maia” he said quietly. 

Septimus snorted from beneath his arm. “Skilled doesn’t begin to describe that, my Lord. Amalthea is skilled. Why do you imagine I tolerate her clinging?! This girl is a virtuoso of the skin flute.   
I thank you for granting me that experience. It was by far the most exquisite blowjob I have yet experienced.” 

Hermione felt a tiny spark of pride. It was ridiculous.. but it pleased her to be good at this. 

She looked at Tom. He was wearing a strange expression.   
“Come here” he ordered her again quietly. 

She crawled to him with difficulty. He parted his legs so that she could kneel between them.   
Taking her face in his hand gently he tilted it up till he could see into her eyes and probed at her mind. 

She thought at him as clearly as she could ‘I..dont..mind..them. They are both quite attractive and they remind me of their descendents.   
But.. its you I love, Tom. It’s only ever been you.   
I have killed for you. I would kill for you again. Anything for you.’ 

He pulled back with a somewhat contented look on his face and then scourgified her mouth   
She smirked, amused.   
His eyebrow raised a questioning inch. She shook her head. Then he kissed her again, exploratively. She felt the heat, that had been ignited while she pleased Septimus, spark and flare into bright need.   
Tom! It was always Tom. She wanted him so painfully.   
She tried to persuade him to give her what she needed with her kiss. He simply teased her further, toying with her tongue, nibbling at her lips while his fingers stroked her neck lightly.  
He released her again after a while, with a small satisfied smile on his face. 

Blinking, he gazed at her for a minute and the smile slowly faded to a pensive expression. 

Frowning, his eyes drifted up to Abraxas. 

She glanced over at the blonde boy who was failing abysmally to look blank faced and unaffected.   
The envy and need practically poured off him. 

Tom snorted wryly. “This is supposed to reduce desire, avarice and jealous possessiveness?” 

Hermione looked up at him, swallowing her concern at Abraxas reaction.   
“I did mention obsession..I believe” she murmured almost inaudibly. 

Tom looked down at her and stroked her hair.

“Abraxas. Disrobe and lie down” he commanded, not looking at the boy. 

Hermione’s hand tightened on his knee. “Tom?” she whispered uncertainly.   
He gazed back at her evenly.   
“I have decided that I am perhaps willing to..share..you with my two most trusted servants..on occasion.” 

She glanced behind her.   
Abraxas had apparently moved swiftly to comply with the welcome order and now lay naked half on his side, looking back at them both, propped on one elbow.   
Blonde hair fell around his shoulders and his white gold skin shone.   
His quite admirable (if perhaps marginally less generous than Septimus’ or Tom’s) cock stood sharply at attention. 

His body was clearly well trained. A little of the same proportions as Ron – but then, she remembered he played the same position in quidditch. Perhaps they trained similarly. 

She could see both Draco and Lucius in him. Lucius more in his appearance and draco more in his manner, strangely.   
He looked like she imagined Lucius might have appeared when he was Draco’s age.   
Definitely desirable. 

A movement from Septimus drew all their attention. He had sat up abruptly. He now wore an expresson of frustrated envy, looking at Abraxas – who in turn now looked carefree and full of overjoyed anticipation. 

Hermione turned back to Tom, hearing the small snort of amusement from him at Septimus response.   
“Maia.. Go to Abraxas.” He instructed softly. 

She reached for Tom’s hand, catching it and pulling it to her. “Will you also come?” she pleaded in a tiny voice.   
“please?”

Tom looked surprised. More than surprised he looked almost shocked. 

“Are you certain that you want that?” he questioned as if it were somehow more scandalous to invite him to join her than to fuck a boy while two others looked on.   
She nodded and he shot a glance at the other two. 

“So be it then.” He said quietly. 

Hermione turned to look at Abraxas who now looked a little shocked too.   
Tom clarified for her. “This kind of practice is generally only something for our..celebrations.” 

Hermione understood. Girls were fucked and shared and tortured at the revels.   
Good witches – respected witches – didn’t do such things.   
She nodded.   
“I understand.” 

She ignored Septimus snort and struggled to move back to allow Tom to stand. This goddamn pain was getting tedious.   
If she was supposed to go and have sex with them both now in this state it would be very difficult to enjoy. 

The amount of raw magic she sapped to heal herself was really very, very, little.   
It hardly counted as breaking her firm decision not to use it.   
Oh.. and she’d used it earlier too to get rid of the spots.. So it wasn’t as if she was breaking her word right now.   
She told herself she would stop using it from now.   
Irrespective her guilty concern about having used it, she did feel instant relief and was able to crawl over to the reclining aesthetically muscled and toned wizard and kneel beside him. 

“Tom!” Septimus soft, urgent plea echoed behind her. “Please!” he added. “The witch is already accepting you both. Allow me to join you. Please My Lord..”

Tom looked at Hermione strangely and then nodded slowly. “Come then. Join us”   
He pointed his wand down, transfiguring the cold stone floor into an altogether warmer and more spongey material.   
Abraxas smiled in approval, stretching himself, his hard cock bobbing with the movement. 

Hermione moved closer, stroking her fingertips up his abdomen slowly, admiring his form.   
He stopped stretching and turned all his focus onto her, catching her hand and bringing her fingertips to his lips to kiss.   
She could hear Tom and Septimus disrobing behind her and pushed Abraxas shoulder gently, urging him onto his back.   
He complied unhesitatingly and she moved to straddle him, sitting up on her knees and unfastening her robe.   
Hands suddenly reached around her body and peeled it back and off her shoulders. 

She glanced over her shoulder to see Septimus tossing her robe aside while Tom looked on.   
She frowned at him, unsure. It was supposed to be him. She wanted him behind her.   
She tried to tell him this with her eyes but this only seemed to make him smile.

“Later, Maia..” he said low and commanding.

She was forced to turn back as Abraxas sat up and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down onto his chest.   
She tried to brace herself but it was ineffectual, he was holding her too closely and then he caught her lips again. 

This kiss was very different to the last, it was one of raw hunger unchecked.   
She had the feeling that, having consented to this, they were all now quite prepared to treat her as one of the girls they used at the revels.   
As if to confirm this she felt Septimus hands roughly exploring her body, gripping and squeezing here and there.   
He knelt directly behind her now exposed rear since Abraxas had pulled her down, and she felt his cock resting in the dip of her ass.   
When he leaned forward and began to lick and kiss up her spine, she couldn’t help gasping into Abraxas mouth. 

In response he ceased to hold her down and instead delved both hands into her hair, kissing her as if he meant to eat her alive.   
Then before she knew it she had their mouths on either side of her neck, one from the front and one from the back.   
It was mindlessly arousing as they each found her sweet points and exploited them.   
She moaned softly, feeling both of them grind against her with their cocks at her response. 

Septimus snaked a hand beneath her and fondled one of her breasts and she heard him groan soft and low.   
A moment later his arm was wrapped around her neck and he pulled her up to kneel upright again, her back against his chest.   
She had choked momentarily at the arm, cutting off her air but it was taken away almost immediately and then both of his large smooth hands were groping her breasts.   
Abraxas, adapting to the change in orientation sat up and then began to apply his mouth to the same targets.   
She whimpered at the excessive attention to the sensitive area.   
Septimus nipped at her throat and she felt him nudge his hips against her again slightly. 

Someone’s hand was moving down her abdomen toward her pussy. Abraxas she figured since there were still two hands on her breasts.. but no, as Abraxas dragged her face back around by her hair and started to kiss her again she realised that one of the hands on her breasts was his and it was Septimus whose long slender fingers were now dipping into her warm heat to drag her slippery juices out..  
She was already very wet.   
He told her so, his mouth moving at her ear, breathing the words, making her shudder. 

“Sep.. down.. I want in” Abraxas broke the kiss and groaned urgently. 

The boy behind her bent her over once more, his fingers still circling around her clit, not touching it. 

Just as she felt Abraxas reaching between them for his cock to position himself at her entrance, Septimus dipped his finger into her small channel, exploring her. She heard him gasp at her ear. “So tight..fuck.. I want you”   
He pulled his finger away and a moment later she heard him sucking on it and moaning. “Sweet Salazar you taste like honey! Fuck..” 

Abraxas protested loudly as she was suddenly ripped off him just as he had been intending to thrust into her.   
Septimus lifted her and tossed her down on the spongy floor beside the blonde wizard. 

She’d barely touched ground before he had his face buried between her legs and was licking and sucking in loud exultant delight.   
She looked over at Tom, knowing her pupils were dilated by the sense of surreal unreality and the lust roaring through her body. She begged him with her eyes to come to her.   
“Tom..” she moaned as Septimus drove her irresistibly toward a climax, closing her eyes. 

Then lips covered hers and she tasted them.. Tom – not Abraxas. Her arms went around him and she was pulling him down closer. Mewling into his mouth in her pleasure.   
She felt his hand and one of Abraxas each toying with her breasts and then Abraxas was sucking and nibbling on her nipple again.   
The sensation of everything was too much.. The wizard she loved kissing her and the other two talented mouths stimulating her beyond tolerance. 

As Aeptimus eased two fingers cautiously into her tight channel she could stand it no longer and cried out her climax into Tom’s mouth, gripping him, probably painfully as she bucked and thrashed under Septimus relentless tongue.

Tom broke the kiss and looked down into her face curiously as if to see whether her release looked different when it was someone else evoking it.   
She wanted to scream that she was only his.. ‘Yours tom. Always. This body will never change – will never become loose or sag - I will never grow old and I will never die. Always, always, yours’   
She saw the confusion in his face and realised he’d heard it.

Avoiding questions she turned her head.   
Abraxas was waiting there and caught her mouth, kissing it roughly. In her peripheral vision she saw him place a foot on Septimus shoulder as he was climbing back onto his knees, tossing the wizard backward forcefully. 

Septimus emitted a startled grunt, landing on his back some way away. 

In the newly unoccupied space, Abraxas climbed over her, lowering his body above hers, never releasing her mouth for a second.   
She felt another hand brush lightly over her head.   
‘Tom..’ her mind called desperately. Abraxas was already nudging her legs wider with his knees and she barely felt the tip of his cock nudge her once before he thrust into her brutally, hard and deep as he could get.   
The shock of it made her yelp, which seemed to please him as he reached down for her leg, finding the curve of her knee and hooking his arm under it, pulling it up at an angle, spreading her even wider and then beginning to fuck her in a punishing rhythm. 

She heard Septimus grouse from behind him. “Turn over Abraxas!”

She turned to tom. ‘no.. I’d rather have Septimus and you at the same time than Abraxas and Aeptimus.’ 

Septimus did not speak again so she presumed Tom had stilled him. 

Abraxas, also realising this apparently slowed his rhythm and released her leg, wrapping it around his waist.   
“There.. that’s better.. isn’t it” he murmured low against her ear as he ground into her languidly, pressing against her sensitive clit.   
It was. It really was..  
She nodded, wrapping her arms around him and stroking his back.   
“Merlin.. I want you so badly” he groaned against her neck. 

She snorted.   
“Abraxas.. you’re having me right now.”   
He sighed in contentment “I know..you’re even better than I hoped. So hot and wet and tighter than a duck’s arse.. I want you to suck me after this.. I want to know what all that fuss was about earlier.” 

She snickered.   
“Only a Malfoy could want his cock sucked at the same time he’s fucking someone.   
It’s a pity you only have one, isn’t it?!” 

The idea seemed to incense him and he started to thrust into her harder. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I had two?   
I could take you in both slots at once or use them one after the other for hours!”   
She sniggered again and he smiled and kissed her. 

After a while he brought her to a quite satisfying orgasm and came, gasping her name and clenching her to him..   
He held her tightly enfolded in his arms and rolled onto his side, intending to cuddle with her but he was disappointed as she was swiftly levitated out of his grip and pulled over to a massive mattress on the floor that either Tom or Septimus must have transfigured. 

“Hey!” Abraxas called out angrily, jumping to his feet with the despicably fast recovery time his son would later also exhibit. 

“Hey nothing Brax. Time’s up. Clearly you don’t grasp the meaning of the word ‘share’.. 

Hermione, floating naked in the air over the mattress now had to laugh at this – No.. it was a family trait.   
Maybe one day Draco would be a problem too for the same reason. She wouldn’t be entirely shocked if so.   
Draco was very clever – he’d been one of the top students at Hogwarts after her. And he was ruthless – he could make himself do whatever was necessary to get a job done – as abundantly clear by the way the Dark Lord used him. 

She was lowered down onto the mattress in between a reclining Tom and a kneeling Septimus.   
Abraxas reached them and stood at the edge of the mattress bristling. Tom ignored him completely and cast a full scourgify over her, her mouth included, pulling her to him then and kissing her ardently.   
He whispered into her ear “Was he satisfying” and she pulled back to look him in the eyes and responded in her mind

‘He was ok. His son was better. His grandson too.. but then..Abraxas is really young and Draco was essentially a ‘professional.’   
None of them are as good as you anyway. No one tastes as good either. Your body.. your magic.. perfect.   
Abraxas is going to be difficult you know. Malfoys aren’t raised with sharing values.   
But he would have been whether you did this or not’ 

Tom pulled her down and kissed her some more, wrapping her tightly in his arms. She hooked a leg under his, pulling herself as close as she could get.   
She could feel his erection against her abdomen but he didn’t seem insistent about it, rather content to snog the life out of her. 

She stiffened when she felt Septimus stroke a hand over her back but Tom brought one of his own hands to her cheek and stilled her.   
She could almost hear him ordering her to let go..   
His mouth moved down to her jaw and then her neck..while Septimus traced a similar pattern of kissing, licking, sucking and nipping over the skin of her shoulders and back.   
It was really.. good.. and familiar.. like Severus..like Severus and Tom and home.   
Even down to the Malfoy feeling disgruntled and left out on the sideline. 

As tom slid slowly down her body, Septimus reached for her leg, draped over tom and lifted it, bending it and pulling it back toward him, spreading her wide to give their lord access to taste her. He eagerly took advantage of it.   
He was not as good as himself at this.. and perhaps he was not yet as good as adult Rodolphus.. but he was still brain meltingly skilled and brought her to two thrilling little orgasms quite quickly with the use of his fingers, tongue and lips.   
She panted and begged them to fuck her. 

Tom seemed to want to move up and slide into her, leaving Septimus her ass but she wouldn’t have it.   
Turning away from him she pushed Septimus back and climbed onto him to ride him as she had been intending to do with Abraxas.   
He moaned appreciatively and growled “Put me inside you”

She waited for Tom to climb behind her and felt him slide his hands down her lower back and over her ass, delving between her splayed cheeks as she straddled the uncle of the man who would one day be his partner.   
His fingers teased at her tiny puckered star and a moment later a colonic and a lubrication spell raced over her.

Septimus, realising what was happening became patient once more.   
She liked that about him. It must be a family trait. He was so austere and regal and collected and at the same time lascivious and debauched and utterly passionate. She leaned down and captured his lips in a kiss.   
He seemed shocked, but after a moment or two responded eagerly, she felt his breathing increase in response to the play of their lips and tongues. 

When Tom forced a finger into her and then two, she hissed quietly.   
Septimus snorted and pulled her down to whisper into her ear “Be thankful he is using lubrication and preparing you. If this were one of our celebrations, he would not bother. Blood is an excellent lubricant.”   
She whispered back into his ear. “I know.” 

He pushed her back slightly and looked into her face searchingly, trying to decipher whether she meant she knew she should be grateful or whether she knew blood was an excellent lubricant.   
She smirked and kissed him again, wincing only slightly as Tom forced a third finger into her and twisted them all.   
She yelped as he bit the cheek of her arse and jerked out of the kiss. 

A glance over her shoulder told her that he was ready..   
more than ready.. she saw the hungry feral look in his eye.   
They had not done this before. And to do it.. in this way.. was apparently intensely pleasing to him. 

Turning back she moved over Septimus cock below her, grinding her pussy into it as she had been doing off and on the entire time.   
It was nicely coated in her copiously flowing juices now.   
She moved forward over it, angling herself so as to slide it through her folds and down to her entrance.   
Abraxas was considerably smaller than Septimus she realised at the broad pressure of the blunt instrument at her gate. 

The austere boy smirked nastily at the sudden realisation that must have been painted on her face. 

She steeled herself and eased down, forcing him inside her, his broad head stretching her tightly.   
“fuck..” he breathed, closing his eyes.   
He looked in a state of ecstatic pain as she lowered herself slowly and carefully, in little back and forth movements, till she was fully seated.   
The massive fullness of him was overwhelming.   
He breathed out in a rush when he hit bottom and she forced him deeper, pressing against her womb. He gritted his teeth and ground out “so..fucking..tight.. oh Salazar.. you hot little bitch” . 

The next moment she could feel Tom pressed against her rosette. One hand went to her hip to hold her in place while the other was obviously guiding him.   
“Dont. Move.” He commanded. 

She wouldn’t have dreamed of it. 

From the moment he forced the head of his cock past her tight little ring of muscle, she was already reeling under the effect of the binding. From the way he stiffened, she could tell that he felt it too.   
Well that answered that – it was obviously some kind of soul related thing rather than a temporally limited phenomenon. 

A second later she cried out in somehow satisfying pain as he thrust the whole rest of the way in one stroke. 

Her cry was echoed by Septimus as her tightness had now obviously increased by a factor of three. 

She panted needily, hearing it reflected from behind her. Her entire body vibrated.   
“Feel strange” Septimus said slowly, sounding drugged. “As do I..” Tom observed from behind her. “Maia..” 

She half turned and captured his lips. “Binding” she murmured.. “Fuck me, Tom.”   
She could barely see straight with the overwhelming abundance of sensation assaulting her nerves. 

And then Septimus shifted beneath her and thrust lightly up against her, panting, his hands on her hips, moving her slightly in counterpoint.   
The feeling was so strong that she actually saw stars. When Tom pulled back and then forced himself forward again she cried out.   
It was overwhelming. A burning stretching pain that nevertheless was so good.   
He groaned, one of his hands on her waist and the other going to grip her shoulder tightly.   
She felt thoroughly restrained and liked it.

“No one will take you here.” he ground out through gritted teeth.   
“Your mouth and your pussy.. but this is only for me. Understand?” 

She was beyond coherent responses and had started to move experimentally. Moving up and forward slid her along the length of both shafts. There was a faint whimpering sound. She thought it might be her but it was not important.   
Important was the feeling when she pushed backward and forced herself back over those two massive shafts of pleasure.   
Her entire body felt like it was vibrating..tingling..floating.. Someone’s hands on her breasts..and Tom was biting her neck. 

The boy below her, the one behind her thrusting.. sometimes together, sometimes alternating..they seemed well atuned to this dance, moving fluidly together.. septimus groaning and sighing below her and tom occasionally grunting behind her as he began to fuck her harder.   
She was screaming out her enjoyment, telling them how much she liked them inside her..how fucking good they were..   
Tom leaned in to her ear and whispered in a directing manner ‘Come, maia!’ and she shrieked as a sudden climax rushed over her.   
Both boys gasped and stilled groaning and Septimus was growling low ‘fuck.fuck..fuck.. merlin.. no. not yet! Fuck.”   
There was a hiss behind her and Tom growled, breathless “You will not come, Septimus.”   
The command seemed to affect the long haired boy below her in a visceral way and pull him back from the edge.   
He unclenched his eyes. Breathing out in relief he looked up at Hermione wonderingly. She was gasping and weak, the aftershocks of her release still rippling through her.

Septimus snorted and then growled low “Grindelwald can fuck off. He’s not taking her.”   
She heard tom laugh suggestively behind her and then she was mewling in enjoyment again as he started to lick and suck on her neck, her head pulled to the side by her hair.   
He said in between nips and sucks “No. No one will take her. She is mine.. and..you are mine also..both of you.”   
He looked up and turned to Abraxas, who had dropped to his knees and was glaring in undisguised raw want, watching the three.   
“Come.. take her mouth Abraxas. We will all finish together. I will see to it.” 

The speed with which the blond moved showed his keeper reflexes. He was on his feet and pressing his cock to her lips, his hand fisted in her hair, before she had even blinked.   
She moaned as she felt Septimus slowly begin to move in her again and writhed, winding her hips.

“Look at me” Abraxas commanded imperiously from above her and she slid her eyes up his attractive body.   
“Now suck it, little witch.” He tightened his fist in her hair threateningly.   
She heard a faint snigger from behind her. Septimus only panted and moved within her, his little grunts of pleasure making evident his preoccupation. 

Abraxas threatening tone was unnecessary. Right now, with Tom beginning to slowly move himself in her tight passage again, all she desired was to be completely filled. She wanted nothing more than to suck on Abraxas well formed manhood.   
Parting her lips she eagerly swallowed him down.   
The curses and sounds that resulted demonstrated that Abraxas clearly shared Septimus’ opinon of her fellating abilities. 

“Fuck.. my prick is tingling..” he gasped out after a while. “is that fucking normal?!.. did yours do that when she sucked you before, Sep?”   
The groan from below was incoherent. Abraxas kicked the boy in the rib gently.   
It caught his attention and he responded irritated “Merlin!.. Brax you prat.. no.. it didn’t. but it is now. Now shut your trap and let me enjoy the witch.” 

All three moved in their own rhythms of bliss. The sensations were too much. Hermione couldn’t really keep her mind operating..   
The cock pumping in her mouth and throat was satisfying on top of the sensations her body was reporting.   
It kind of.. closed the loop in her somehow.   
She moaned around the thick shaft as Tom set up a punishing percussion, slapping into her hard. The moan somehow seemed to set Abraxas off..and he held her head in place and started to thrust into her throat hard and fast, groaning.

Everything seemed to come to a head very quickly then. When Abraxas was near he gasped and then Tom abruptly commanded “Come, Maia! Come hard” and then she lost track of reality for a bit as debilitating ecstasy swamped her mind. She felt her muscles clamp upon Septimus and Tom and she was screaming around the cock stuffed into her throat. Swallowing convulsively as Abraxas filled her throat with his seed and Tom and Septimus were yelling in exultant pleasure before she blacked out.

 

 

She woke in a tangle of different limbs on the mattress. 

Curled around tom’s pale slender chest, her head rested over his heart.   
She knew because he smelled and felt like tom.   
Nothing could ever confuse her about the sensation of being near him. 

Someone was spooned against her back and someone else was apparently lying between Tom’s legs since they had their face pressed into her hip, breathing warmly and their arm wrapped around her. 

There were many arms and legs everywhere. 

“Tom..”she whispered groggily.   
She was met with a soft kiss above her eyebrow. “Yes, my precious?” he asked softly.

“Is everything ok?” she mumbled, unsure what she had actually been wanting to say..   
perhaps that she loved him..   
it didn’t feel right saying that around the other two. She had a feeling he wouldn’t be pleased if she did that. 

He snorted faintly and then responded “It will be. Sleep. I’ll wake you in time to return to your dorm before the others are aware you’ve been gone.” 

She nodded muzzily and pulled her hand up, drawing a heart shape on the skin of his abdomen with her fingertip.   
It was as much as she dared right now.   
He breathed in sharply and then lifted her chin to press a gentle kiss to her lips. 

She responded blindly like a flower seeking sunlight.

After he released her he stroked her hair tenderly and whispered. “Sleep.”


	61. Chapter 61

It was cold and someone was shaking her shoulder. 

“Wake up Maia” 

She cracked her eyes irritably. Septimus was leaning over her. She startled and then relaxed again as the events of the night replayed themselves in her mind. 

It was cold because she was lying on the mattress alone. The other three were standing and were in various states of undress.   
Septimus was fully clothed, Tom was buttoning his shirt and Abraxas was lounging in his trousers, shirtless. 

She felt suddenly extremely naked and exposed. 

It must have shown on her face because Septimus dropped to his knees beside her and enfolded her in his arms.   
He murmured in her ear low in that cross between Lucius and Severus voice of his “Never..never feel inadequate in my presence Maia. You are a goddess. To look upon you is a privilege. Come now. It is time to return to your room. Four thirty. Soon the first students will be rising.”   
He pulled back, his black silk hair perfectly smooth and brushed – he looked extremely unruffled. 

Helping her to her feet he summoned her robe for her and helped her into it. Abraxas sneered at him.

“Fuss and fawn while you may Sep- Amalthea will castrate you if she sees you look twice at my girlfriend.”   
The tone in his voice was extremely self-satisfied and entitled. It reminded her of Draco in school. 

Hermione’s eyes shot to those of the blonde boy. “What?!.. um.. “   
She frowned in confusion and looked to Tom. He was wearing a studied blank expression.

“I’ve decided you are to be seen to date Abraxas, Maia. He will be pursuing you publicly now.   
Now you are ..together.. you may return to sit with us.” 

Her frown deepened. “But-..” she began - he gave her a warning glare. She stilled and lowered her eyes.   
A moment later she startled when a bare-chested Abraxas strutted over and wrapped his arms around her.

“Isn’t it wonderful Maia?!” he gushed in a low tone into her ear “I will be the only one permitted to touch you in public..  
I wanted you on my arm when I first saw you. Now you will be. It’s perfect!”   
He released her and swanned away to finish dressing.

She tried to think about the development rationally.   
Ok.. Tom wanted to neutralize Abraxas – this was in a sense the kind of pandering that Lucius would have loved although Lucius would never have consented.. or at least would probably never have consented to anything more respectful than slavery...   
..nevertheless to have the public illusion that she belonged to him was likely even more important to a Malfoy than having the private exclusiveness.   
And..she would get to return to them all instead of sitting off by herself. That was good.   
She wasn’t disinclined to be with Abraxas, she supposed. He was much nicer than his son, even if he was a bit..um.. competitive.. when it came to Septimus.   
She assumed it was probably because they were both competing for Tom’s respect in a way. Their descendents would be the same. If she ever got back she’d have to see whether Tom had fostered that intentionally and try to learn a lot more about what had happened back then. “Back then” was a ways in the future from her current perspective.. but the way he’d spoken of Abraxas to Lucius.. The way Lucius had spoken of his father... it was all very dissonant with the impression of this boy. 

“Come.. I’ll walk you back to the dorm” Abraxas said softly, returning to her, now dressed.   
“That way, any suspicion will fall upon only we two.”   
He offered her his arm and she placed her own upon it cautiously, her fingertips brushing his wrist. His eyes glittered in delight at the gesture. 

Hermione turned and looked at Tom, standing off to the side with Septimus. Both faces were dispassionate and blank but Septimus was standing just a shade too stiffly and she could feel Tom’s possessive displeasure radiating off him. 

“Do not forget, Abraxas” he commanded quietly. “You are playing a role and you are serving me in her protection. That is all. Maia is mine and that will never change.. I warn you never to forget yourself.” 

Hermione shivered, thinking of Lucius.   
Abraxas nodded stiffly and walked her to the wall, exiting before her to be certain it was safe. 

The walk back to the dorm was quiet. Abraxas seemed pensive. She slid her hand over and into his and pulled his arm down so that they were walking along holding hands.   
It felt better.   
He looked at her in surprise and she swallowed and smiled softly. Abruptly he turned and swirled her against the wall of the corridor, leaning down and kissing her.   
It was a gentle teasing kiss like the first he’d given her and she responded willingly, wrapping her arms around his neck.

When he released her he looked more relaxed and seemed reassured. He took her hand in his again and led her silently to the shield and then to the stairs down to the girls dorms.   
He stroked a fingertip down her cheek and whispered “I will see you in the great hall..” 

Nodding, bemused, she turned away and returned to her room. She felt exhausted. Literally – wiped out. As if she’d run a marathon.   
Slipping between her closed curtains and tossing herself on the bed, it seemed it had only been a few minutes since she had closed her eyes before she was woken by the sounds of the other girls rising. 

“Maia!” Marta’s bright voice rang out. “You better get up if you want to get to breakfast before class!”   
Hermione mumbled something groggily back. She felt..really.. really.. tired.

It was some time after the noise had died away that she dragged herself out of bed and down the hall into the bathroom.   
By the time she got upstairs the Great Hall was empty and so were all the corridors. 

She hurried as quickly as she could to languages but when she opened the door tentatively the room was empty. 

Oh hell. 

Casting a tempus and cursing herself for not doing so earlier she learned that it was already third period. Potions must have begun about a quarter of an hour ago. She raced back down from the fourth floor to the dungeons.   
Damn it.. she’d started down here. if she’d known at the time she would have been here only a few minutes late.

Knocking quietly a cold voice from within commanded “Enter!”   
She obeyed, feeling about two feet tall. At the front of the class Slughorn fixed her with a beady disapproving sneer.

“Miss Schiller, I was led to expect great things from you – this is a rather poor beginning” he frowned at her.

She nodded “I’m sorry sir. I-..” he cut her off   
“No excuses. Five points from Slytherin and detention with me this evening at five pm. Find a place and catch up.” 

She nodded and looked around hurriedly. 

Tom was working with Septimus and Abraxas with Benjamin. The class was Slythendor and joy of joys – Alexander bloody Potter was looking at her quizzically.   
He shot her a little wave and turned back, nudging his partner, a ginger girl, to move and go and work with the only boy working by himself – a boy with thin glasses and dirty blonde hair.   
The girl didn’t look impressed and turned to inspect Hermione, shooting her a hmmph kind of look, but complied. 

Hermione stood and thought oh bloody buggering hell!.. I can’t work with him. I can’t get near him – he’s already touched me. Tom will be furious if I end up his potions partner for the whole year. Turning to the Slytherins she indeed saw Tom looking mildly consternated at his cauldron – but it was Abraxas who seemed to be fuming.   
There were an even number of Slytherins and everyone was matched up.   
He turned to Benjamin Nott beside him who seemed to be studiously avoiding his eye. Words were exchanged between them quietly and then Abraxas hand went into his robe for his wand.   
Benjamin looked at him like he was insane, and shot a glance at Hermione – who was still hovering beside the door.

“Miss Schiller!” Slughorn snapped making her jump, “is there some reason why you have not yet taken your place?!”   
She shook her head and started to move toward the Gryffindor side, but before she could take a step, Benjamin stomped over to the place beside Alex Potter, levitating his complete work set behind him and cursing silently under his breath.   
He levelled a septic glare at her as he passed down the rows.

Alex potter looked equally nonplussed at this development.

Immediately darting to Abraxas side, Hermione unpacked her potions equipment in record time. 

“If we are all finished playing musical chairs – you should be up to stage three by now. Ensure your billywig stings are coated completely.”   
Slughorn sounded unamused. He was certain a lot nicer in her own time, even if he was still creepy. 

Hermione glanced at Abraxas’ textbook. They were making a healing potion for muscle cramps.   
Well that would be convenient for the knights, Hermione mused, rushing to the front to collect the ingredients she needed. 

The potion wasn’t new to her – she’d brewed it two years ago and the preparation she’d had recently in Severus lab had been good. The potions they’d made were more advanced than this one.   
She cut, sliced, peeled and painted her ingredients as quickly as possible and was able to quickly get to the brewing – although she was still at stage two when the others were obviously already on four. 

Abraxas watched her as he worked with a faint smile of approval. “You’re good in potions, you know! I think I may have traded up in partners”   
She smirked and concentrated on what she was doing.

Slughorn appeared at her side, inspecting her progress and looked pleased.   
“Ah. You are quite capable, after all. Dumbledore was right to place you here. I shall look forward to seeing your finished potion. Do not lose focus”   
she beamed and responded with a polite “thank you sir” adding with an expression of regret “I apologise sincerely for my lateness. I will try to prevent it happening again”   
He seemed to brighten further. “Very well. See that it does not. Carry on.” 

She did and by the end of the class her potion was nearly finished. It took another ten minutes to complete it, which she remained for – in order to submit her finished brew to the professor and avoid a zero.   
He inspected it approvingly.

“Very good, Miss Schiller. Now run along. I will see you tonight at five for your detention.” 

She smiled and thanked him, packing her equipment at light speed and dashing off quickly. 

Outside the door she just about collided with Abraxas who had been waiting for her impatiently. He gripped and righted her, looking at her with a tight expression before turning quickly and leading her toward the Great Hall.   
As they walked, he suddenly demanded with a peevish resentful tone “Where were you?! You didn’t come to breakfast or languages!”   
She looked at him, bewildered herself.   
“I don’t know what happened! I never oversleep – but I just couldn’t wake up this morning.   
Marta might have tried to wake me I think.. I don’t really remember. I don’t..feel the greatest..” 

His manner shifted immediately from accusing to concerned.   
“Do you want to go to the infirmary? Are you warm?” he put his hand on her forehead.   
“You feel pasty.. perhaps you caught a chill.” 

She wanted to snort – a chill. Yes.. I have a case of the vapours too. Shall we fetch some leeches?!   
“I’m fine, I think” she responded with confidence she didn’t really feel. “I don’t want to go to the infirmary.”   
He looked unsure and seemed to be debating hauling her there bodily.   
“I just overslept Abraxas. It’s nothing. It was obviously just a lot to process yesterday and..and last night. I’m fine now.”   
He nodded, taking her explanation, it seemed.

They entered the great hall and Hermione became distinctly aware of how a large number of conversations had paused to watch them.   
They resumed almost as quickly and there was a louder susurration as the students speculated upon seeing them together.   
When Abraxas led them back to Tom’s end of the table and seated her on his other side, between himself and Sorrenson, Hermione saw a number of faces.. a large number of faces turned in their direction, both male and female.   
Nobody looked particularly happy.   
She glanced at Abraxas. Wealthy, pure-blooded, intelligent, a keeper for the Alytherin team, not to mention, attractive, well spoken, elegant, chivalrous. She supposed he was probably almost as much of a catch as Tom was in the eyes of the student body..perhaps even more, for some..   
She wondered how many girls right now wanted to beat her around the head with a brick. 

Abraxas poured her some pumpkin juice. She thanked him politely and he flashed her a dazzling smile.   
Turning her eyes back to the group she was sitting with she scanned the array.   
She was faced with a wall of cold expressions. Palmer then Benjamin followed by Antonia and Amalthea.   
None of them seemed to be hungry.   
Septimus was turned completely away from Amalthea having a conversation with Cygnus who stood at the end of the table between him and Tom. The piratish boy was laughing as usual about something and Septimus too wore a little smile of true amusement.   
Antonia was watching them both out of the corner of her eye while Benjamin was watching her.   
Nothing changed there, Hermione noted. 

Tom sat at the end of the table looking quite perturbed and pensive, not interacting with anyone. He did not catch her eye. 

“Are you ok, Maia?” Sorrenson asked her quietly. “You look kind of pale” 

She turned to him, smiling “I’m fine” She didn’t, honestly, feel fine. She felt..thin..not in the sense of being slim.. more like in the sense of being translucent. She felt like she might blow away in a strong wind.   
Talking to Sorry was nice though. He almost reminded her of Rodolphus. She needed to see Rodolphus.   
Seeing sorry was pleasant and unpleasant for that very reason. It calmed her even as it aggravated her.   
He was soothing in a way but it just made her more aware of the underlying growing agitation. 

“Tell me something about yourself” she asked him, hopefully.   
He gave her a strange look and thought for a few moments. “Er.. ok.. I was born in Scotland only a few miles from Hogwarts.   
I like to sail when I go home for the breaks...   
...I have a blackbird for a familiar but I wasn’t allowed to bring him – his name is Isador.   
My younger brother Brynly is..there..” He pointed across at the Gryffindor table to a brown haired scruffy looking boy with a big grin.   
The boy looked over in that moment and saw his brother point at him and shot him a confused look, then looked at Hermione and blushed..   
She smiled at him and turned back to Sorry as he continued “My father works at the ministry of magic.”   
Hermione brightened and interrupted “Oh? What department is he in?” 

Sorry looked away   
“um.. the auror division” he said neutrally. 

“That must be exciting” Hermione prodded. 

He shrugged. “I hardly ever see him” he said quietly. 

She hesitated but then figured what could it hurt –   
“My father was a dentist. It’s like a muggle healer for teeth. At least that’s what my mother said.   
He was killed in the war.”   
There. She congratulated herself – every single statement there was absolutely true. 

Sorry was looking at her strangely   
“You shouldn’t say things like that in public Maia..” he said very quietly. “You never know who’s listening.”

She frowned slightly. As far as she was aware, the entire hall knew she was a..half-blood... Did Sorrenson have a problem with her blood status?!”   
She mumbled something in response and turned back to Abraxas bemused. He was grinning at whatever Cygnus and Septimus were chatting about. 

She took an apple from the table and ate it thoughtfully, her gaze wandering.   
At the head table she noticed Dumbledore watching them all balefully. Looking away from him purposefully she glanced along the length of the table. Dippet and the horrid herbology woman were talking happily at the centre.   
Slughorn was looking over at them all like Dumbledore.   
She looked on past him quickly. The place where Professor Snape would have sat was taken by Professor Merrythought.   
She reminded her of sports and brooms. The woman would probably make a good muggle gym teacher or flying instructor. 

“Maia.. it’s time to go” Abraxas murmured, leaning in toward her just a touch too familiarly.   
She caught not only the wide eyed appraising looks of a number of faces in the student body turned their way but also the speculative expressions on Amalthea and Palmer’s faces and the comprehending expression on Benjamin’s.   
Antonia was entirely preoccupied elsewhere.

“Looking to get a leg over, Brax?” Palmer growled nastily, his eyes narrowed.   
“You’d risk the infirmary for a half-blood slag?”

Hermione swallowed and resisted the urge to lean closer to Abraxas in her shock. 

Abraxas looked at him with an expression of disgust.   
“Keep your vile comments to yourself, Avery! Or you’ll face the sharp end of my wand”   
He rose and extended a hand to her to help her up   
“Come Maia, let’s go to arithmancy.” 

Amalthea looked both incredulous and relieved at the display but Hermione noted that Septimus had broken off his conversation with Cygnus and turned to look at them both and his expression was very faintly irritated.   
Tom wasn’t even looking in their direction, he was scanning around the table looking at the reactions of everyone else.

Abraxas released her hand when she had stepped over the bench and picked up her books, carrying them for her.   
The rise in conversation in the room was noticeable. 

She blushed and thanked him, following him somewhat uncomfortably from the hall. 

 

Outside of the Great Hall he allowed himself a broad arrogant grin. “Did you see the look on their faces..” 

She nodded, sighing but not responding.

He frowned slightly and walked a little closer till he could brush his arm against her shoulder.   
“What’s wrong, Maia?” he asked “Are you..unhappy..to have the school see me court you?” 

She turned to him, surprised. “No.. that’s not it. It’s just.. something else. Someone I used to know from where I was before. I was just reminded of them when I was talking to Sorrenson, thats all.” 

Abraxas questioned her further but she made noncommittal replies. There was no way to explain the situation to him without explaining the whole situation and she couldn’t do that. 

They were ten minutes early to arithmancy and it appeared that Madam Le Gaut regarded undue earliness as almost as rude as tardiness. She made them wait outside the classroom.   
Abraxas led her into a window alcove and they both stood and leaned up against the glass.

“What do you think you’ll do after NEWTs” she asked him, after a minute or so. He seemed surprised.   
“I suppose I’ll go and work in my father’s business. It is expected of me.”   
She nodded thoughtfully, knowing he wouldn’t.   
“What does he do?” 

Abraxas hedged.. “He is..a financeer. He..invests resources.. and interest.. in various industries and areas.”   
She wondered whether that was another name for trafficker, smuggler, pirate and general scoundrel.   
She didn’t think so. 

“Are you two a couple now? Does Tom approve?”   
Sorrenson had materialised at their side.

“Don’t you have divination or something now?” Abraxas responded peevishly.   
Sorry raised an eyebrow. “It’s down the hall. Answer the question.”

Hermione looked at the sullen expression on the familiar looking face.   
“Tom said that it was ok” she responded softly.   
Abraxas, in response, moved closer to her, taking her hand and bringing her fingertips to his lips. 

Sorrenson growled in irritation. “He said you were off limits. He said we weren’t even to think about it. No misunderstandings. This isn’t fair.” 

Hermione swallowed, looking at the temper on the boy’s face. She ignored the disdainful schadenfreude on Abraxas face and said very quietly to Sorrenson “It’s... nothing’s changed, Sorry. But now I can sit with everyone again.”   
Abraxas bristled.   
“Oh that’s not exactly true..” he said “Some things have changed. I wouldn’t have been allowed to do this before”   
He leaned in close to her, trapping her against the alcove wall and kissed her, his other hand stroking down her cheek.   
She blushed and pulled away, turning her head, but Sorrenson had gone.

Instead, on the opposite side of the corridor she saw two unknown girls standing, gaping. 

She pushed the smirking Abraxas away forcefully and the two girls burst into giggles and hurried off with wide eyes, whispering. 

“Great.. Now the entire school will think I’m a slut too.” 

Abraxas snorted suggestively. “Thank goodness they didn’t see you last night then.. Is there a word strong enough to describe that?” 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Thanks a lot you complete ass.”   
He seemed to moue discontentedly at her anger and sidled closer to her again

“Oh don’t be like that..” he murmured in mollifying tones. “I happen to like it that you’re a slut.   
Now.. if only you were an exhibitionist also..” He leaned in and she pushed him away again. “Damn it. Stop!” 

He snickered and acquiesced, moving to lean on the other side of the alcove.

“What would your father say if he knew you were..dating me?” she shot venomously at him.

He sniggered. “Nothing.. It’s hardly as if I’ve asked to marry you.. you aren’t producing any bastards.   
He couldn’t care less who I ..spend my time with.”   
She looked daggers at him.   
“You don’t need to worry about that, I wouldn’t suffer offspring of yours to live!” she hissed back truthfully, stalked up to him, snatched her books and marched off down the corridor.

He rushed after her, a startled look on his face. “Hey.. Maia.. stop.. we were just having a bit of fun, weren’t we?!   
Where are you going? We have class in a few minutes!”   
She turned and glared at him.   
“Leave me alone, Abraxas.” 

He stopped in the middle of the corridor looking upset.   
She kept going. 

She wasn’t sure where she was headed.. just away from him.

He called after her. “I’ll save you a seat...”   
She flicked him a rude gesture over her shoulder and turned the corner into another corridor running straight into Professor Dumbledore.   
Bouncing back off him, she looked up, stunned.

“Oh.. I’m sorry professor, I wasn’t looking where I was going. Pardon me.”

He looked down at her with a solemn expression.   
“Thats quite alright Miss Schiller. I do believe you are walking in the wrong direction, however – your arithmancy class is in the other direction.” 

She cursed inwardly.

“I know..professor.. sorry.. I just had an argument with someone I sit next to in my class and I needed to leave and calm down for a bit.” 

He looked at her with concern.. “Are you quite alright, my dear? You look very pale. Is there something bothering you?”   
She shook her head.   
“I’m not feeling very well today. I think I might have a bit of a cold. It’s nothing. You’re right... I’ll go to class now.” 

The familiar face gave away not a jot of Dumbledore’s internal thoughts.   
“If you are feeling ill, perhaps we might go to the infirmary? You left astronomy yesterday, I’m told and Professor Paracelsior reported your absence in languages this morning..” 

Hermione flinched. “Yes.. I slept in.. I’m sorry. I don’t need to go to the infirmary though. I was just tired and didn’t hear my roommate wake me. It’s a cold. I’ll be fine. Thank you professor Dumbledore. I’ll go to class now!”   
She turned on her heel quickly and rushed away before Dumbledore could grab her by the collar and drag her somewhere someone might perform some kind of test that could reveal her nature, or the blood bond or simply expose her dark mark.

No.. the infirmary was not the place to be. 

There was nothing there that could help her anyway. She needed to go to the room of requirement and work on doing something about this blood bond, before it got worse.   
But.. she had astronomy and then that stupid detention with Slugworth. Grrr. After then.   
After that instead of going to the library she’d go to the RoR and see about the blood bond.

There had to be something she could do. She didnt want to kill Rodolphus.

 

 

In arithmancy, Madame Le Gaut had a massive fit at her when she walked in late. She took it with aplomb.   
It was almost to be expected that the woman who had sniped at her about her imperfect handwriting was also incapable of tolerating lateness.   
When the rant was finally done she moved to the seat that Abraxas had saved next to his own. He and septimus were smirking at her.   
Steeling herself she ignored them for the entire lesson. 

She realised, working next to him, that Abraxas was really very good at arithmancy. Better than Draco had been and Draco was second in the year after her.   
She would have to work harder. Septimus was already better than her in herbology. She needed to pay more attention to her studies if she wanted to be the best..   
but then.. she couldn’t be the best, could she?! Tom was already taking more classes than her – even if she managed to do better than him (which she personally doubted she’d manage since he always did everything bloody perfectly on the first try) it would mean nothing because he was doing more overall. 

And what did it really matter anyway?!

Why bother learning how to transfigure something when she could achieve the same or a superior effect with raw magic.

Why produce a potion when she could evoke the same effect without one?!

Class passed relatively uneventfully. She tried to write more prettily on her sheet to hand to Madame Le Gaut and was rewarded with no snitty little comment.   
That was more than she had expected.   
Rushing out of class without waiting for the others she took a very circuituitous route to astronomy, wandering around the entire ring of towers before finally going up.   
She was perfectly on time – the entire class was gathered and the little orange haired woman was at the side of the room making adjustments to some device. 

Almost the entire group took astronomy it seemed. She couldn’t see Mulciber or Carrow anywhere.. or Antonia either. Abraxas and Septimus visibly relaxed when she walked in and Tom frowned at her reprimandingly.   
She sidled into the crowd unobtrusively but did not move to join them. 

A ravenclaw girl with chocolate brown hair curled to her mid back inspected her with interest and then glanced at the group of boys shooting her ‘come here’ looks.

“You’re Maia, Schiller, aren’t you?” she said, making abundantly obvious that she knew that she was.

Hermione nodded warily.

“I’m Candice Collybobbin” she informed her. “Beatrice told Jemima and me about your transfiguration class.   
She said you weren’t very popular with the Slytherins. Looks like something changed, huh?!” 

Hermione grimaced. “I guess.”   
The serious looking girl mustered her.

“Well.. if you don’t want to work with them, you can work with Andrew and me.” she offered generously. 

Hermione brightened. “Thank you! I’d-“   
She was interrupted when Abraxas appeared at her elbow.   
“Maia.. I thought you’d gotten lost again. Come on.. everyone was waiting for you” He urged her toward the others and she gave up, defeated.

“-I’d have loved to work with you Candice. Maybe another time? Thank you for asking me.” 

She followed Abraxas back to the others, where Septimus was looking at her with concern and Amalthea was looking at him with concern.   
Tom was patently unamused with her behaviour and situated himself near but not too near to her.   
“You will work with Abraxas and myself” he informed her curtly. “Do not be difficult.”   
She nodded glumly. 

The orange haired teacher, who Abraxas informed her was Professor Wyrdle, seemed to be finished fiddling with the contraption and triumphantly pressed a button on top.   
It began to whirr and ping faintly and she raised her wand, shielding and darkening the tower.   
At the press of another button, Hermione gasped, astounded, as the room seemed to fall away and they were looking up at a vast starscape.

“This was the sky on the night of 15 May 1881” 

Hermione gasped again and Abraxas nudged her   
“What?!” he whispered.   
She shook her head. It was the date of birth of Grindelwald.   
Professor Wyrdle informed them as much a minute later and proceeded to list and point out the constellations present in the sky and their relative position to one another 

Hermione inspected the skies wondering what the centaurs would have said about it.   
She understood astronomical affects on potions and plants and a little of their relevance in arithmancy, but divination had always offended her logic. 

But.. Tom took divination.

She glanced at him.   
It was difficult to make out his expression in the dark but he seemed very interested. 

As a hand brushed her own she flinched. Abraxas was on her left side – the wrong side. 

She turned slowly to peer out of the corner of her eye, just making out in the dark the silhouette of Septimus on her right.   
His hand brushed hers again and this time it lingered, trailing a finger over her knuckles and down her finger.   
She felt..warm.. a little coil of arousal in her twitched..   
Septimus hand moved away and she followed it as surreptitiously as she could manage, sliding her own into it.   
It was gripped gently and his thumb stroked over her wrist suggestively. 

When Abraxas turned to her again and leaned close, Septimus released her hand and turned away to Amalthea on his other side.   
“Maia..” Abraxas whispered, sounding troubled. “I’m..sorry.. about earlier.. I didn’t mean to..upset you.. you’re right.. I can be..a cad sometimes. Please..forgive me.” 

She considered it. Abraxas was..no worse, she supposed, than Lucius or Draco. In fact both of them had been much nastier to her in the past. He was just.. afflicted with that terrible malfoy jerk-ness.

“Ok.” she said softly. “I forgive you.” 

He brightened and she could see his smile even in the dark.   
He claimed her hand and pulled it to him, lifting it and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.   
“I’ll try to be better in future” he promised.   
Hermione didn’t hold much hope of it but she smiled anyway.

“Now.. make a sketch of this configuration, students and we’ll move on to the next one” the professor instructed. 

Hermione paid attention and started to sketch.

 

 

Two hours later she was walking down the stairs next to Abraxas and Cygnus when she suddenly felt dizzy.   
It happened entirely without warning - the world tilted aberrantly and her knees actually fell out from under her.   
She would have crashed to the floor and probably fallen down the stairs if Abraxas hadn’t had amazing reflexes and caught her halfway down. 

He gripped her and pulled her to him with a horrified expression. “Maia.. what’s wrong?!” 

She lifted her head up to answer him but found she couldn’t - stars swamped her vision and her head lolled back again.   
Panic shot through her. Blind unadulterated spikes of fear – he would take her to the infirmary and then.. somehow.. everything would come out.   
She couldn’t go there. And they couldn’t help her anyway.   
She dimly registered that she was being carried and tried ineffectually to struggle. 

“Shh shhh, calm down” she heard Abraxas saying. “You’ll be fine. Everything will be fine”

Finally she managed to get out weakly “No..infirmary” She felt forward motion interrupted.

“What?” he asked incredulous but unsure.

She struggled and managed “-Tom.” 

He hissed to someone at his side that she couldn’t see – probably Cygnus she assumed – “Get him. We’ll be.. we’ll be in the room of requirement, alright? Knock once and I’ll let you in.” 

She relaxed and let herself slip away, relieved.

 

 

When she woke she immediately panicked. She was in the infirmary!! Crap!!....   
Her eyes darted about looking for the mediwitch but finding instead a worried Tom, Abraxas, Severus and Cygnus standing by the wall talking quietly.   
The latter looked a bit bemused at everything. 

And the door was wrong. 

It wasn’t the infirmary.. it was the room of requirement, she realised, relieved. 

Tom, noticing her awake, darted forward and sat on the edge of her bed, taking her hand.   
“What is wrong with you? What has happened?! You were fine yesterday!”   
She swallowed uneasily and looked back at him. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a cold.”

His eyes flared angrily and he turned, commanding the others to leave immediately. 

Abraxas and Septimus did so with extreme reluctance.  
Septimus informed him as he went “I will wait outside. If perhaps..whatever is wrong can be remedied with a potion...my Lord..” Tom waved him off impatiently. 

As soon as the door was closed he railed on her   
“What is wrong?! You don’t have a cold! I did the diagnostic test myself – you’re severely weakened, both physically and magically. Have you eaten or drunk anything since yesterday that might have been poisoned?   
When did it start? Have you perhaps been cursed?” 

“You missed breakfast and Abraxas tells me your first class also – so I assume, whatever happened had to have happened between four thirty and eight am this morning.”

Perhaps Amalthea – but she didn’t seem smug enough in astronomy ..Antonia is not concerned about you anymore..   
The fuzzy blond chubby one? She seemed to be panting for me, perhaps she might have thought to get you out of the way – although I don’t really think she is the type to be that daring, or she’d have at least attempted to approach me in the past, besides – you are useful to her.   
Someone might have entered.. perhaps your bed was-“ 

She groaned   
“Stop!” she interrupted him. “Look.. I know what it is, alright. I just didn’t want to tell you about it. I think I can fix it myself, ok?!”   
As she feared, this didn’t have the desired effect and he only advanced on her more threateningly to get her to reveal the problem. 

After a half hour of pleading and failed detraction and mixed threats and cajoling from him, she finally snapped.   
“Look.. it’s a blood bond, ok!? The one of your servants I “chose” to give myself to – he was a vampire. I was a wee bit affected by his ‘charm’ and not thinking straight because of other..things that had happened.. and I agreed without thinking about it..   
Or maybe I did think about it. He would have done it even if I hadn’t given permission. He was angry.. he would have hurt me..I asked him to..make it nice.. and he did.. and so I’m bound to him.   
And.. one of the effects of such a binding is that I now need to have regular contact with him to continue living.   
Which wasn’t such a problem in my time.. but now he’s kind of far away.” 

Tom was gaping at her, appalled. As it turned out he was not appalled by what she thought he was.

“You have known the entire time since you arrived here that you would die without contact to this vampire and you said nothing?!.. WHY?! Why would you do that?! Do you want to die?!   
Why Maia?! I could have been searching for a method to prolong your life for the past two weeks!   
How long do you have?! How fast will you weaken?!” 

She pursed her lips. “Look.. I can handle it ok. It’ll be fine.” 

He leapt at her, his eyes wild and only just stopped himself, fisting his shaking hands in fury.   
“You are..not..rational..right now. I must go to the library. Remain here. Do not tell the others. I..I need to.. I will be back.. Stay where you are.”

He darted away and then darted back angrily and suddenly ripped a few strands of hair out with a snatched hand.   
“Someone will have to stand in at your detention.. and possibly.. your classes tomorrow. I will not allow you to make things worse.” 

She wanted to tell him to stop – to calm down. But she realised she should have just made something up. There was no way he’d ever accept that she’d just healed of this naturally or..’figured something out’.   
She really wasn’t thinking rationally evidently. 

He stormed out of the room in a flash and a few minutes later both Septimus and Abraxas crept back in and hurried to her bedside.   
They looked considerably more worried than they had when they had left the room. 

Abraxas turned huge grey eyes on her “Maia.. what’s wrong with you?! The way he was running.. its..you’re.. we need to summon real healers! This is serious, isn’t it?!”   
Septimus studied her face silently but he looked paler than usual..almost ashen. He sat carefully on the edge of her bed.   
“Tell me what is wrong and I will find a way to cure you” he promised quietly. 

She sighed. “I can’t tell you. He ordered me.” She let her eyes drift down to her left arm. “He ordered me directly.” 

Septimus tilted his head. “Is it contagious?”   
she shook her head and he picked up her hand and brought her fingers to his lips.   
“Is it fatal?” he whispered. 

She didn’t answer and Abraxas, looking floored fell, weakly to sit on the other side of the bed.   
“You’re..going to die?! You can’t. I forbid it. You will not die. I will have the finest healers summoned.   
But you have to tell us what is wrong.. Please, Maia!” 

Septimus groaned. “She can’t you dolt. She is prevented from doing so.”

“Look.. it’s nothing.. I’ll fix it, ok?!   
The room shifted abruptly and suddenly they were all inside Rodolphus chamber. Hermione lay in the mountain of pillows and Septimus sat at her side.   
Abraxas, on his feet, looked around, confused.   
The round doorless room was exposed to the bright starry sky overhead. 

“Where are we? What is this place? Why are we here?” he demanded panicked.

Septimus looked at her thoughtfully. “You have brought us here. The dolt over there clearly didn’t and I don’t recognise this place.   
Why are we here? What relevance has this place to your condition. There is nothing here..” 

Hermione sighed. “No.. there’s nothing here. it’s just a room. I didn’t mean to bring us here.” 

He looked around speculatively. “Is it a kind of cell? There are no doors.” 

She shrugged. “It’s a room one can only apparate into and out of.” 

Abraxas dropped to his knees in the pillows beside her. When he spoke he sounded a lot younger than his sixteen years   
“I don’t want you to die, Maia. I..I’m so sorry about what I said earlier. I’d.. I..”   
He crawled down to her, curling himself up against her and wrapping his arm around her. 

After a moment or two, Septimus did the same thing on her other side. She felt herself relaxing.   
To be between them both was not unpleasant. It felt..protected. 

She realised she actually liked the feeling of having those she chose..um.. addicted.. to her. It felt like a warmth.. like being valued – even if it wasn’t real. It felt nice to be so wanted. 

She stroked Abraxas hair absently and only noticed the faint shiver of presence in her mind when images of Rodolphus suddenly surfaced out of the blue.   
At first she thought it was just the blood bind steering her mind to him again, particularly in this place, but she heard the faint intake of breath from Septimus. 

Bloody Snapes! Princes! Whatever. Devious little snakes. He was digging around in her memories. 

She had a flash of Rodolphus leaning over her in this room, the bottom half of his face dark with her blood.   
“Promise?” he asked her.   
She remembered being in lots of pain.. her head had hurt..and Rodolphus fucked her gently and sweetly and when she whimpered at the pain he left and brought back..

Septimus jerked away from her as if bitten by a cobra.   
“what in Merlin’s name!” he said weakly. 

Abraxas, who had been preoccupied with his own self pity stirred and sat up, alarmed by Septimus alarm.   
“What!? What is it?!” he demanded urgently, from zero to one hundred in panic once more.   
Septimus stunned him without even blinking and then turned back to her, with wide eyes.

“Who was that?! He looked like my father. And.. and the vampire.. looked like..” 

She shook her head unsure whether she was saying no – no – it didn’t look like anyone, or whether she was saying no – don’t look! It didn’t matter because a bare second later he had petrified her and cast legilimens once again and different memories of Severus were flashing to the surface one after another. The fact that they were strangely intermingled with a boy who looked very much like himself only a few years older seemed to confuse Septimus.

Severus leaning over her in Rodolphus room, calming her and tipping some liquid from a vial between her lips..

Severus hovering over her in the potions lab as she brewed veritaserum, smirking approvingly as she employed his alterations to the formula. [she felt Septimus focus on this with extreme fascination] Draco in the background stirred his own cauldron with a crystal rod. [Septimus hovered over the memory image of the boy indecisively but returned back to the potions master]

A young Severus on his knees before Lucius in an open cabana on a beach. They kissed sadly and then before she could react, Severus had pressed his wand against Lucius head and a green flash dazzled her. She fell to her knees screaming [Septimus reacted with alarm. She could feel him straining in her mind, pulling memory after memory, trying to make sense of things that made no sense to him.]

Severus dying and her curling around him and then Tom..pale with red serpent eyes curling behind her

Riding a young Severus, panting as Tom curled behind her back, playing at her clit. She begged him not to stop.. Severus pulling her down to his chest and Tom’s finger’s gliding over her virgin ass “It will hurt, my dear, there must be blood”

Sitting upon Severus lap in a dark red flamed dungeon cell, afraid as he smiled in a sinister way, suddenly flicking back to the memory of Lucius torturing her [she started to panic. Not this memory! She couldn’t face this memory.. she pushed away forcefully, feeling Septimus resistence.]

Sitting on a blue and white striped mattress on a beach with a surly young Severus and a squinting red eyed tom, gazing out at the waves.. She ran to take a swim.

Severus lap.. flames.. two figures dance. Everything is good and bright and what are these buttons made of. Love you SZeverus. The Dark lord standing there. His eyes are so shiny and red. I want to lick them.

The abject panic in Septimus at seeing the serpentlike form of the Dark Lord before she’d healed him was like a thrashing in her mind and she was able to push him out finally.   
She strained within herself and pulled at the raw magic, dispelling her petrificus and flicking her wrist to summon her wand. 

Septimus was still so stunned by what he’d seen in her mind that he hadn’t really moved.   
As if he didn’t know what to do with the images he’d seen.   
She almost felt sorry for him.

His eyes suddenly flashed up to hers and he noted her wand was pointed at him.

“You’re going to obliviate me, aren’t you.” 

It wasn’t really a question, the way he’d spoken it.   
She scowled. “I have to. You’ll upset the timeline.”

He swallowed. “I could take..an unbreakable vow..”

She considered it.. it would be good to be able to discuss things with someone.. but it wasn’t so much that he’d tell anyone about things.. but that his knowing would affect things.   
He seemed to know it too.   
“I see. Yes.. Well.. before you do it – tell me about what I saw. Who are you? Who was that – was it my son?!”

She shook her head. “it was your nephew.” 

He nodded, processing this. “And.. his age?.. He was a potioneer – did he discover some kind of youthening potion?!”   
She smirked and shook her head again.   
“No.. it was something else.”

He frowned at her evasion. He obviously hadn’t pieced together what she was.

“You are blood bound with a vampire, are you not?” 

She confirmed it. “You saw yourself that I am. He is..the son of either Sorrenson or his little brother I guess. I’m not sure – I never really looked into the Lestrange genealogy” 

Septimus pursed his lips.. “How many days since you were last with him?” 

She did a quick calculation in her head   
“Maybe..19?” 

He swallowed.

“That means you have little more than ten days at the most left. Possibly much less. How do you feel?” 

She shook her head. “No.. Look.. I just need to-” 

At that moment a door faded into being on the wall. She turned to look at it and only just managed to let off the stupefy as Septimus was raising his wand to her.

As he collapsed she snorted. She had asked for that. He knew she was going to obliviate him and kept her busy looking for a chance to do just that. 

Heh. Clever Septimus. Your descendents will be just as wily, although with possibly better reflexes. 

The door opened and Tom stormed in and stopped, disorientated. 

She looked up at him and then before he could react, cast an obliviate upon Septimus prone form. 

Her wand sailed out of her hand and then sprang back into it almost immediately.   
Tom did a double take at the bizarre failure of his spell and then a moment later she felt extremely strong bindings settle around her.

“I leave you alone for one hour, Maia and look at this!.   
Why are they both stupefied and what the hell did you just obliviate from Septimus?!” 

He sounded frazzled and she tried to respond as calmly as she could.   
“Septimus stupefied Abraxas and then legilimised me. He saw too much – I couldn’t leave him with the memories.   
He saw his own relations. He saw you.” 

The curious hungry look in tom’s eyes was unmistakeable. He advanced on her slowly and she recognised the extreme temptation in him.   
She cast a finite on the ropes which merely tightened.   
“They cannot be dispelled by any but the caster” he informed her distractedly.   
She frowned and resisted the urge to vanish them with raw magic. 

“What did you find out about the blood binding” she asked, trying to lead him away from the idea of plumbing her memory.

He looked conflicted.   
“There’s a potion..perhaps.. which might help..it would slow it anyway. And then I could look for some other solution.” 

She forced herself to brighten. “Well that’s good then, isn’t it?”   
He didn’t answer and advanced on her till he was standing over her bound form.

“This is it’s room, isn’t it?! The vampire.” 

She hesitated and then nodded. He lowered himself carefully to his knees.   
“The potion..it..” he broke off. 

She furrowed her brows at him. “It what? We don’t have the ingredients we need?” 

He looked conflicted again. “Well.. we do..technically..but..”   
She felt a small tightening in the pit of her stomach. “This doesn’t sound like I’m going to want to let you brew it” she said in a low anxious voice.

He stroked down her cheek with his fingertips. “I won’t allow you to die, Maia..you’ll stay with me here.”   
He released the ropes around her with a wordless flick of his fingers and she stretched her limbs slightly.

“What’s in the potion, Tom?” she asked tiredly. His lips thinned. 

“It’s a dark potion. It requires the reduction of three litres of fresh human..virgin.. blood..along with..a number of other things.”   
She blinked at him. 

“Alright let’s explore this logically. Can the blood be replenished blood or does it have to be unincreased magically?” 

He snorted. “It has to be fresh, unaffected by magic, of course – in other words drawn by a knife or some other implement – from one donor. The fact that it must be virgin would tend to imply a child.   
A Human body of 150 pounds will contain about 4-5 litres of blood. A person of, say.. fourteen or fifteen.. perhaps around three.” 

Hermione swallowed and stated the logic clearly.   
“It requires the life of some student at the school to make this potion that will not in fact cure me but will only hold me off a bit longer before I die.” 

Tom looked back at her steadily. “That is..about the measure of it.. yes. It requires in essence a human sacrifice, although I would not recommend using a student...There is a truly unbelievable degree of fuss when anything happens to one of the precious students here..trust me...   
It doesn’t stipulate that the blood must be from a witch or wizard therefore it would be easier to simply go and abduct a muggle for the purpose. There are spells I could use to determine whether the child is virginal.   
We would not even need to leave the school grounds – we could open a door from here and bring the child back here for the brewing.”   
Hermione felt her jaw drop. “You’re serious?! You’re concretely planning on kidnapping and killing a child in order to buy me... how long?” 

He frowned. “Two weeks... We would need to repeat the potion then. It cannot be stored.”

She snorted. “I see... So...you’re not planning on killing one child.. more sort of... a series of children for as long as it takes for you to figure out a way to defeat the binding.” 

He took a deep breath. “There is.. another way” he ventured. S

She raised a curious eyebrow   
“Do tell. I cannot wait to hear about the method that is so awful that the boy who was seriously contemplating the best way to go about a child-killing spree might mention it only as a last resort.” 

His eyes slid away from her. “There are..unicorns..in the forbid-”   
she interrupted him with her appalled cry. “There is NO way I’m prolonging my existence with unicorn blood.   
I am really.. thoroughly..aware of what happens to people who do that. Besides. Its not necessary. I’ll find a way!” 

He looked furious and bore down upon her, pressing her against the pillows with his hands on her shoulders.   
“How exactly do you intend to do that?! I assure you – I know the restricted section of the library.. and my own library held no answers.   
I will certainly make Abraxas take me to his family library and check there –It’s the most comprehensive dark arts collection in the country – but I cannot get off school grounds right now and the next Hogsmeade weekend isn’t for two weeks – at which point you will be dead.   
Therefore – the potion to buy time seems like a good idea!” 

She mused.. as far as she could tell there were essentially two options.. do what he suggested then use her raw magic to resurrect the child (not such a nice idea considering how draining it had been to do so with Lucius) and hope he found something in Abraxas library. Or-...   
She decided quickly that not killing and resurrecting children needlessly was the preferable option.

She froze as the faint beginning of the cruciatus danced at her nerve endings as she merely thought about stunning him and obliviating him. 

Crap.. well that was a problem.. 

She tried to reach for her raw magic to stupefy him and the same thing happened. ‘  
Fuckfuckfuck.. no wonder he wanted this bloody mark on me... .. what am I supposed to do now?!’ she thought. 

She could send him off somewhere and then heal herself and pretend not to know what happened. But then he’d just legilimise her and he’d know everything. He had already been suspicious that she’d healed so fast after she’d arrived.   
And if he found out... he could order her not to use it without his permission.   
Or he could order her to do terrible things with it.   
He couldn’t find out about it.. 

“Ok.” she said, defeated.   
She’d just have to resurrect the child. Even if it was painful.   
Perhaps Tom would find a cure.. or perhaps she.. wait.. YES!! She could do that..

“We can do that IF there isn’t anything in the Malfoy library, ok?”   
Tom looked at her like she was daft. “Hogsmeade isn’t-“ she nodded. “Yes.. but you were thinking of using this room to abduct someone – we’ll just use it to sneak off grounds and go to Malfoy manor instead. Someone will have to stay here and hold the door open.” 

Tom looked like he was considering the idea   
“Yes.. that would work. You will remain here – I don’t want you overexerting yourself after this afternoon..   
Besides.. Abraxas father has..views. For all the idiot apparently said to you today - If his father found you there, he’d be interrogating you within minutes about your blood status and connection to his precious son.   
He doesn’t even like me..and I am hardly going to pollute his bloodline with muddy little children.” 

He pointed his wand at the sprawled Malfoy and silently cast an enervate. Abraxas woke with a start.

“What.. Septimus!..Tom?..” 

Hermione smirked and leaned down, gifting the confused defensive blonde boy with a soft kiss.   
He responded eagerly and pulled her down in his arms to snog her properly.

“We don’t have time for that” Tom muttered irritably.   
Abraxas pulled away.   
“Mmm.. I had a terrible dream. You were dying and Septimus hexed me” 

She smiled at him indulgently. He was really terribly cute right now. 

“I’m sorry Abraxas.. I’m potentially dying and Septimus did hex you. But look”   
She pointed at the prone form on her other side, still regal even in unconsciousness   
“I hexed him back for you.” 

Abraxas didn’t look, his eyes had gotten stuck on her and widened when she said she might be dying. He turned to Tom urgently. “My Lord.. we must summon healers. She can’t die!!” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “Do you imagine I intend to allow her to die, Abraxas?”   
He pointed his wand at Septimus and awakened the other boy too. He woke even more groggy than Abraxas had been.

“What happened?!” he muttered. “I ..” 

Hermione fixed him with a hard stare   
“You rudely invaded my mind and stole my memories. I obliviated you of them. Don’t do it again. Have I taken any liberties with your mind or your person?! Show me the same courtesy.   
As it is – Tom would have told you what the problem was – he is going to tell you now. So there was no need for that kind of behaviour” 

Septimus, to Hermione’s surprise and satisfaction looked thoroughly ashamed of himself.   
She knew without a shadow of hesitation that Severus would never have reacted that way. He’d have gone on the offensive in order to defend his actions. 

“I..apologise..” Septimus said gravely. “I was worried about you.. and you had said you were under order not to tell us..  
It seemed a means to find out without the need for words.”

Tom interrupted “Enough of this. Abraxas – you will take Septimus and myself to your family library now.   
We need to find a spell or potion to counteract vampiric blood bindings.” 

Both boys heads spun to look at her in shock and then in concern.   
“How many days has it been?” Septimus asked hollowly, in an echo of his earlier question.   
She answered unflinchingly “Nineteen” and he seemed to slump, his eyes looking haunted.   
“There is no time..” he moaned. 

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll find something to get rid of it. Abraxas family has the largest dark arts collection in the country, tom tells me.”   
Septimus looked across at Tom. “My family library has more dark potions texts than the Malfoy library. We might try there also if we find nothing.”   
In response Tom glanced at Hermione and then back at Septimus.   
“I have found a potion that will prolong her life.. extend the term by two weeks at each application.   
It requires..the sacrifice of a child..however and Maia is reluctant.   
...If we do not find anything tonight, we will proceed with the potion I have found tomorrow and then continue our search.   
That way she will be stronger. We cannot replace her in classes indefinitely. Any more than a day or so and the professors will recognise it is not her.” 

Both boys looked uneasy.   
“If we find nothing.. we will.. be killing a child tomorrow night?” Septimus seemed only to seek clarification.   
Abraxas glanced from face to face in mild panic.   
The dark haired boy however, narrowed his eyes and seemed to resolve himself.   
“How is it to be done? What ingredient is needed?” 

The nod of quiet approval on Tom’s face as he looked back at Septimus seemed to jar Abraxas.   
Septimus had just won another point over him.

“Blood. Three litres of it.” Tom answered him and the response was a thoughtful nod.

Abraxas cut into the morbid topic with a tentative if practical question “How are we to get to my family’s library tonight?”


	62. Chapter 62

After they had all left through the door, Hermione sat down in the doorway.   
It amused her to know that half of her body was apparently in a field opposite the gates to Malfoy Manor while the other half was securely warded into Hogwarts. 

She stilled herself and focused inwardly reaching for her magic.   
What I need is a book on breaking vampire blood bindings she thought to herself. 

The slight change in the internal pressure of the room behind her caused her to turn. 

The former circular chamber had changed and now held a table with five books on it. 

Unwilling to move from the door she summoned them to her. Reading the titles she actually cursed out loud.   
Why hadn’t they just done this in the first place. STUPID. If the room of requirement had duplicated her library from the future, of course it could replicate what she needed. 

She flicked through the first book. It was very old. There was a lot of waffly rubbish and superstition in it. It seemed like more an anthology of folklore. The best way to break a binding seemed to be various methods of killing the vampire.   
The next one was a bit better. There were two spells in there that would lengthen and prolong life, while not breaking the binding, but which did not require any children to die. She laid that one aside, noting how the room shifted even as she did so to duplicate Severus’ potion lab at the burg-castle.   
She summoned the equipment she would need to the bench without moving and, thinking on Tom’s summoning of alcohol at the beach, pointed her wand out the doorway into the meadow and, strengthening her command with just a little trickle of raw magic, summoned, one after another, the ingredients that she needed for the potion from the outside. 

She had no idea where they came from – perhaps they escaped from an apothecary or even from Malfoy Manor but one by one as she called for them, with delays of varying lengths the ingredients flew through the door onto the bench. 

While she waited for the last one. “poppy seeds” she flicked through the next book. There was nothing much of use in there.. although there was a potion for vampires without their blood mate to stave off the corresponding weakening.   
She decided that she’d have to give that to Tom when he came back and demand that he learn it for the eventual day when Rodolphus would be in need of it.   
The fourth book held several more variants on the two potions she already had and something quite interesting.   
It reported that as the negative effects of the blood bond stemmed from physical interdependency factors rather than etheric ones, and that for this reason, polyjuice was capable of replicating the effect of the vampire if their hair was available. 

She seized upon that idea. That would be ideal really.. It would last for almost four weeks and it would be so..so ..much more pleasurable than a potion.   
She placed it to the side thoughtfully and turned to the final book. 

In the very back of it, when she had almost given up she found exactly what she didn’t want.   
There was a potion to cure the blood binding. 

If imbibed it would pass along the connection, destroying it and simultaneously killing the vampire that had cast it. 

She had no intention of killing Rodolphus. He had been an arse at the end..and he was..certainly a bloodthirsty cruel psychopath in many ways.. but she liked him. She didn’t want him dead.   
She hadn’t even wanted Lucius dead – and she’d hated him a lot more than Rodolphus.   
She banished the book back to wherever it had come from, firmly and hoped there wouldn’t be another copy of it in the Malfoy library. 

Returning to the fourth book she thought again about the polyjuice idea. Clearly they had a supply of it ready made if they had simply polyjuiced someone for her detention and were planning to keep them polyjuiced all day tomorrow.   
That implied a lot of polyjuice.   
It would surely be possible to create or summon some of Rodolphus hair.. She had summoned her wand from nothing, after all. Why not the hair?.   
She beat down the thought of summoning the man himself. Firstly, moving herself through time had nearly flattened her for days.. secondly – what was she supposed to do with an adult Death Eater vampire in Hogwarts?!   
He’d need blood and she suspected he consumed more than just hers.   
And he might get it into his head to try to get rid of Tom in the past when he was weaker.. or Tom might simply kill him to free her of the binding. Both were more than likely. 

But.. a small sample of his hair.. should fix the problem. 

She leaned back against the doorway, flicking her wand at the cauldron on the bench on the other side of the room to light the fire beneath it.   
Turning to the second potions text she summoned the wasps and the paring knife and set to carefully separating their wings.

How could she justify having his hair here?! She mused on the problem. 

By the time she had finished with the wasps and started peeling the first inner layer of the birch bark away she had decided that she might be able to hide it the same way as she was currently ‘holstering’ her wand. Some kind of bracelet or locket or something perhaps with a reduced lock of hair? She could then say that she’d been keeping it for the event that she didn’t manage to find any cure.   
Hence why she wasn’t particularly worried about it. She hadn’t wanted to bring it up unless she had to because someone would have to play the polyjuiced part of her vampire and she wasn’t sure how to go about having that conversation.

In fact she was quite certain that any of the three would eagerly play it and Tom would end up doing it because he held the power.

The rest of the ingredients required only chopping, grinding and grating – and could be done remotely by charm. She set the knife to work on the yape roots and the diamond coated mortar and pestle grinding at the onyx chips. The soft lime clay had to be grated into fine slivers and she levitated it into place and then set a charm to move it in forward circles, linking its movement to the circling of the mortar in the pestle.   
The charms thus sorting the ingredients for themselves, she turned to the more difficult work of summoning the items she needed from a point more than fifty years in the future. .. or.. they didn’t need to come from there necessarily.. she reasoned. They could be created here from energy or something..   
Especially the locket.. or.. in fact.. it might be easier just to..

She sent a summoning charm out for a silver locket and turned her focus to imagining Rodolphus’ hair.   
Not just Rodolphus’ hair in fact but Rodolphus. It wasn’t sufficient for it to just be hair like his.. It had to be his hair. 

She concentrated as hard as she could upon him.. and specifically upon a particular hank of his hair and imagined severing it being careful not to hurt him.   
She wanted that particular hunk of hair to be here, without the rest of him. Just that hair..his hair. Hair of Rodolphus, from Rodolphus.. but not all of Rodolphus – just that little section.   
It was a lot more complicated to fixate the idea in her mind. There were ...contingent.. properties to it. But after a time she felt like she had it suitably conceptualised and reached inside for her power, holding her hand out and wanting the hunk of hair to lie in her palm.   
She pulled at the power, drawing upon more and more of it and trying to solidify the concept..

There was a faint tickle over her palm.   
She wanted to open her eyes and check but knew it would break her concentration. 

Pulling still more power, she struggled to imagine the hair almost in an inventory of single hairs – a hank as thick as two fingers. A large lock..cut from his hair neatly. 

Finally she felt the ghosting weight on her palm and tentatively opened one eye.   
A thick shiny swatch of brown wavy hair lay across her palm. 

She closed her fist around it gripping it, grinning triumphantly.   
‘And now – for my next trick! Air into parchment!’ she crowed inwardly.

The locket she had called for was floating patiently in the air a half a metre in front of her and she claimed it, frowning at the Malfoy insignia on it and transfiguring it into a plain silver locket.   
She bound the lock of hair at one end with a sticking charm and shrank it down, curling it into the locket. 

Hiding it would be more effort again she sighed inwardly. Perhaps she could put it in the same place as her wand? 

Tentatively she held the chain in her hand as if she were holding her wand, her hand upright in order to let it fall straight down. Flicking her wrist in the way she did to retract her wand, she was surprised when the locket was sucked back and down into nothing.   
A terrifying moment she worried that she’d gone and lost it and would have to go through all that again, as when she flicked her wrist only her wand appeared.   
But she removed her wand from her hand, holding it in her other hand and flicked her wrist and the locket shot out in a straight line into her palm. 

She actually leapt to her feet and did a little yay-for-me dance.

Then she flicked it back in, in the same way, and sat back down, turning all her attention to the potion instructions and the effort of brewing the whole thing by remote control from across the room on the floor.   
The things needed to be here.   
and then they were.. Happily she surveyed her work area spread around her on the floor and reached for the salt water to begin the first stage of the potion. 

A soft..almost polite squark whipped her head around out the door.   
She very nearly leapt inside and closed the door. 

The parrot.. the vosmaeri or whatever it was.. Mencius.. was sitting on the ground a few feet away looking at her. It tilted its head queerly and hopped a couple of steps closer.   
She raised her wand warily. 

“Stay there Mencius. I’m busy right now. I don’t want to have to defend myself but I won’t allow you to drag me off!” 

The parrot squarked again in an almost deferential manner and came no closer, but began to preen instead. 

“No messages today?” she asked suspiciously. It whistled back.   
She looked at it uneasily but turned one eye back to her cauldron. When she started this she couldn’t afford to turn her attention away from it. And she didn’t want to be completely distracted if that bird was sitting there.   
More importantly.. she didn’t want it to flash away and bring the wizard himself back. That would be very bad indeed. 

Reluctantly she levitated the complete potions apparatus and ingredients up and to the side, away from the doorway and turned back to focus her attention on the bird.   
She had the hair.. It would last longer anyway.   
The bird, seemingly delighted that it had her full attention, hopped back and forth playfully and fluttered it’s pretty red and blue wings at her.

“Yes yes.. you are a pretty thing.. but I’m still not coming with you” she informed it. It whistled a mournful tone. 

She summoned crackers from out the door and after three minutes a packet came sailing in.   
Apparently Malfoys ate water crackers.   
Tearing open the packet she broke a bit off and tossed it at the bird. “Polly want a cracker?” she quipped with a smirk. 

The bird managed to look at her like she was completely daft and hopped away from the cracker. 

Frowning she required a book on vosmaeri species from the room and learned that it only ate fruits and nuts.   
“Oh. My mistake.” She commented at it and summoned a mango, a banana and a pecan nut for it. 

The bird squawked delightedly and set upon the mango with vicious fervour. She watched it in the light the room threw over the meadow grass.   
After some thought she transfigured a wide shallow dish on the grass and used her wand to fill it with water.   
The bird hopped over and drank and then went to the pecan and struggled amusingly with that for a while till it cracked it and drew out the nut. 

She watched Mencius eat and hop and sing and even enjoy a short birdbath until the angry disbelieving cry broke the silence and a hex singed the grass only inches from the bird, which flew up with a shrill cry and refracted itself away.

“What in Salazar’s name were you doing with that bloody buzzard again?!” Tom demanded furiously. “I told you to stay away from it. Did you accept a message? Did you send one? Merlin, Maia – can I not leave you unattended for a few hours without reason to suspect you of foolishness or duplicity?!”

She prickled. “It didn’t bring anything and I didn’t send anything. I had to leave the door open, didn’t I or where would you be now? And I couldn’t do anything else while I sat in the doorway so I thought I’d keep it busy. There’s no use in ticking Grindelwald off more than he already is, you know.   
I wanted to brew a potion I found but I didn’t want to do it with Mencius – the bird, that is – hopping about the place. It was better to keep my eye on him. Jeez. Calm down. Did you find anything? 

Tom’s scowl lifted slightly “Actually we did..” he said, stepping over her in the doorway and back into the room. 

Septimus and Abraxas followed him in and she vanished the birdbath and closed the door.   
Septimus looked around the potions lab with a pleased expression.

“A nice setup.. What were you planning on brewing?” 

She showed him the text she had and he groaned in frustration. “She found exactly what we found and she didn’t need three people digging through shelves and shelves of books to do so!” 

Tom was by his side in half a second inspecting the book with annoyance. “Where-..” he looked around at the potions lab and the same thought of her bedroom library obviously occurred to him too.   
“Oh.” He looked at her angrily

She informed him that she hadn’t thought of it either and it just happened by accident and this seemed to mollify him somewhat. The idea that someone could have an idea that he hadn’t thought of had seemed to bother him greatly. 

“But there is.. something else...” she said quietly. 

Tom reacted in an almost pavlovian manner to her reticent tone.   
“Yes?!” he stepped nearer, deliberately using his physical presence as a lever in the erroneous belief that she was not eager to reveal her other plan. 

“It’s um.. in this book” she pointed to the fourth text and he summoned it to him and read it, his brows furrowing   
“how exactly does that help us?! It’s useful to know..but the vampire in question is still ..quite far away and out of reach.”

She licked her lip nervously. “Yes..he is..but..well..” She flicked out her wand and holding it in the other hand, flicked out the locket.   
All three boy’s jaws dropped.

“How in Hades did you keep that in a wand holster this entire time?! Septimus asked bemused. “Simply..in terms of the operation of the device.. It is impossible. Do that again! Put it back in and take it out again.”

She rolled her eyes as if they were being silly when she really did not want to demonstrate this particular point of the plan too much. “Could you focus?!” she sniped.   
Opening it she tipped out a tiny curl and enlarged it with her wand to a large swatch of hair.   
Tom blinked and widened his eyes. “You had that the entire time?! Why didn’t you say?!” 

She looked at him with consternation. “I told you it was nothing and that I’d take care of it. It was you that flew off the handle and started talking about sacrificing virgins and drinking unicorn blood.” 

Septimus and Abraxus looked at Tom with poorly disguised horror 

“I didn’t want to turn to this option until I was certain there was no other. There clearly is another. This potion – which you’ll note I have all the ingredients for and am already ready to begin brewing – will give me two weeks of perfect health. It requires no death at all in its construction and I stole every single ingredient from out the door of the room of requirement so no Hogwarts potions stores had to be raided.   
As I said – I can handle it. It just caught me by surprise. I was a bit distracted lately for reasons I’m sure you can understand. I didn’t expect to actually collapse on the stairs – I thought there’d be some warning at least.” 

Tom was looking at her as if she had once again astounded and pleased him.   
“Yes...you did say that, didn’t you...” He murmured and stepped closer, moving to sling his arms around her.   
“I should not have doubted you, perhaps. If you have the potion ready to prepare.. why then are you telling me about the hair after all?”   
She bit her lip and looked away.

“I thought you might like to know. And.. well.. the potion lasts for two weeks while the polyjuice method lasts for four.   
I didn’t think anyone would particularly wish to play the role of a vampire for me..   
...I didn’t really want anyone to know. It’s rather embarrassing that I fell for his ‘allure’ when I had been taught all about it and should have known better. I thought I’d just find a way to deal with it by myself and not tell anyone that I was so stupid.”

Tom smirked, delighted and kissed her softly on her cheekbone. “It is not something that is easily resisted, apparently” he reassured her. “like yourself.”   
His eye flicked to the blond and black haired boys looking longingly at Hermione. They were relieved too and wanted to hold her and comfort themselves that she was now officially no longer going to die soon.

“I will play your vampire” Tom whispered against her ear. 

She turned back to him smiling. “I do have.. quite a lot.. of hair you know.. certainly enough for several years if rationed.”   
She took a breath and said what she needed to say.   
“I don’t want you to use it first. The vampire in question would get..a bit crazy..rabid almost.. when he didn’t get to be with me for a long time.. ...not only that but.. he said my blood was like a drug, that it was different to other blood and it was hard for him to stop.   
He was an actual vampire and used to restraining himself from taking too much.. whoever polyjuices themselves won’t have any experience in dealing with the sensations of being in his body.   
I need you to be in control and make sure that whoever takes it doesn’t accidentally kill me.”

“The person in this form will be ..really..really strong. And still able to perform magic easily. I don’t want to face you if you have suddenly decided that you actually really need to drain me dry right now or you’ll lose your mind.” 

Tom looked disappointed and conflicted but eventually nodded..   
“You are right. I take it back, you are not irrational, I was merely not in possession of all the relevant information.   
Your idea is more sensible. If it seems that whoever takes on the form is able to control themselves, I will take on the role the next time.” 

Hermione brightened. She looked to Abraxas and Septimus who each were showing particular interest in the conversation. 

“I’ll duel you for it?” Sbraxas suggested.   
Septimus treated him to a withering expression. “Don’t be juvenile” he reprimanded. “Maia.. you will choose.” 

She snorted. “Tom, you choose. I’ll accept your decision.”   
She felt the hands around her stroke her approvingly. 

“Septimus – you generally display greater restraint. You will try first. Abraxas – if he manages it, I will perhaps allow you to play the role after I have done so myself.” 

The blond looked like he wanted to literally stamp his foot in temper. He snarled “fine” and folded his arms petulantly.

“When..are we to do this?” Septimus asked as neutrally as humanly possible, his face betraying not an inch of eagerness suddenly – as if Tom might say – oh.. sometime in mid December might be nice. Mark it on your calendar and we’ll talk closer to the date. 

“There is no time like the present” tom smiled with a slightly feral twist. “After all.. we are burning up polyjuice with every hour that Maia remains in here.. Perhaps you might go and fetch some..”   
Septimus exited the room immediately, with the slightest spring in his step betraying his eagerness.

 

 

When he returned, the potions setup was gone and the room resembled the round starlit space it had been before. 

He hesitated at the door, looking around the space.   
As if in response to his desire the room shifted and while still round and still stone, was now the room downstairs where the knights met.   
A sunken round area beneath the high oculum was filled with mounds of soft pillows. 

Hermione looked about, approving.   
It was better.. it was theirs.. rather than Rodolphus’ It would help her remember who she was with. 

She stood just behind the sunken pillow pool with Tom and a still pouting Abraxas.   
In Septimus absence she had tried to kiss him and coddle him somewhat but he continued to be sulky that he wasn’t going to get to be with her and Septimus was. She was actually a bit irritated with him. It was like they were siblings such that whatever one was given, the other had to have too. She wondered whether Lucius and Severus had ever been that way.   
Probably not, she assumed, due to their particular unnatural relationship with one another. 

Septimus skirted the round area and joined them. He held a book in his hand but cast finite and it revealed itself as a large glass jar full of thick sludgy polyjuice. A glass beaker suddenly appeared in the air next to him and hovered. He took it appreciatively and knelt on the floor to open the jar and pour it.   
He poured only a finger thick layer in the bottom and then capped and sent the jar to the wall.   
Hermione passed him the hair and he dropped it in, watching it sink slowly into the thick sludge, with a discriminating eye. 

It suddenly occurred to Hermione..too late, too late.. that when he transformed..Tom and Abraxas would recognise how similar he looked to Sorrenson.   
She cursed and tried frantically to come up with an excuse for Abraxas and Septimus. Tom would realise at once...  
Another thought dawned on her inappropriately. Rodolphus had been..changed.. into a vampire comparatively recently - the Dark Lord had said he was still getting used to his new lifestyle. 

What if, knowing what she had now told him.. seeing Septimus transform – he would later order Rodolphus to submit to the change purely because she had known him as a vampire?!   
It seemed highly possible, she realised.   
Damn.. she had probably done it again. She just kept on creating the future while she was here.   
Tom had said that everything that was going to happen would happen no matter what she did, but that wasn’t the impression she had gotten since being here – No.. it seemed like everything that had been, had happened because she had done something here.   
It was an upsetting thought. She really was beginning to think that she might end up being responsible for all the deaths that Tom would go on to cause.

Her attention was pulled back from her horrified thoughts by Septimus resolutely tossing back the glass beaker of sludge.   
He swallowed it as if he had done so many, many, times before and was used to the disgusting taste and texture of the potion. 

Tom and Abraxas watched in rapt anticipation. 

The first cramp hit and Septimus bent double, dropping to one knee.   
Suddenly realising the spatial difference in the two men, Hermione quickly drew her wand and charmed his clothing off.   
He was in such discomfort with the changing, his joints cracking and popping and entire body shape altering, that he did not seem to even notice his sudden nakedness. 

After a minute or so it was over, apparently and an entirely different figure knelt on one knee before them. 

She had forgotten how beautifully muscled the man was. The starlight showed his broad smooth back shimmering off posterior deltoids, rhomboids, trapezius...her mind mentally ticked off each muscle group in turn. 

Rodolphus raised his head, his dark blue eyes blinking as if adjusting to a slightly different spectrum.   
And indeed this was the case.   
“You are all.. glowing..in a faint..pink..aura” he said in Septimus voice. 

Tom and Abraxas just stared at his face in, respectively, comprehension for one and horror for the other..

“What is it?!” he asked concerned.. “Am I hideous?!”

“No” Abraxas bit out. “You look like an adult Sorrenson with brown hair!” 

Rodolphus furrowed brows that Hermione had rarely seen furrowed. Rodolphus tended to wear various expressions of casual powerful lust, humour or placid violent anger. Furrowed brow consternation was not at home on his face.   
Septimus required a mirror into existence and examined himself.   
All of himself, including the back. 

“So I do” he agreed. And after a moment added..“I can hear each of your heartbeats.. and.... and smell you also..” as if this information was currently more pertinent to him than Sorrenson’s unknown vampire relation. 

Tom looked fascinated. “What else?” he inquired.

Rodolphus-Septimus turned and narrowed his eyes. “I feel..quite..strange..it’s like lust..well.. it is lust.. Right now I want to throw Maia down and fuck her senseless, she smells so good..”   
Three pairs of eyes automatically dropped to look at the hardening organ hanging heavy and long between the taut thighs.   
Septimus-Rodolphus was introspective and didn’t seem to notice.   
He went on thoughtfully. “But it isn’t only lust.. The other part is..like lust however. Hungry lust. Or thirsty. It’s more like thirsty. Parched. Needing a drink of water in a desert. A drink of water that can be fucked as well as drunk.” 

He stepped closer..or..Rodolphus body stepped closer. Hermione felt her nipples harden at once in helpless reaction and she shivered. 

“I feel..” Septimus observed.. “I feel her..like..a pull..or an awareness.. of her.. I can..increase it..”   
He did so and she felt her own eyes glaze slightly in lust. Rodolphus was standing there naked and calling to her and she needed to touch him or she would just die of want. She took a helpless step toward him.

Tom snorted in amusement and walked to her, restraining her with his arms. “Calm, Maia.. shh..”   
She felt his magic tangle with hers and it was relaxing.. subduing. “Tom..” she whispered happily. “Yours..”   
He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Yes precious one. Mine. Always.. always mine.” He kissed her passionately and then pulled away, releasing her..

Septimus.. in Rodolphus body was shaking slightly, snarling... he gritted out through his teeth. “hard..to..see you...with her..in this form..Hurts..want her.. please my Lord.. need..”   
Hermione observed through her own haze of lust that whatever strange quirk of being a vampire made Rodolphus communication quite primitive at times was affecting Septimus the same way. 

Tom, wary, drew his wand and held it at his side. “Very well, Septimus. You may proceed.. but you will control yourself or I will punish you and you will not be allowed near her again.”   
Rodolphus septimus groaned in complaint but nodded grimly.

“It is.. difficult..my Lord.. the scent.. her scent.. makes me want to..” he broke off. “can’t say. things.. tear.. rip.. hard to think..like this..”

Hermione stepped closer to the trembling Septolphus.. At once he flashed forward faster than she could see and she found herself lying in the sunken mound of pillows. Her legs were pulled up and parted and violently the familiar cock buried itself in her. Septimus let out an animalistic groan of both relief and need and began to fuck her brutally.   
Rodolphus was the most endowed of all the men she had slept with and the way Septimus was using his body felt like he was actually in danger of causing internal bleeding.   
She yelped and whined in pain and called out “Septimus..gentle.. you’re too strong in this form..you’re hurting me” 

With shuddering difficulty Septimus, panting, slowed and softened his movements. It still hurt a little but it was ok.   
She reached up for Rodolphus face and dragged him down to her to kiss. Septimus responded ravenously and when his fang scraped her tongue he sucked upon it desperately, abandoning her mouth soon after to nuzzle at her neck.

In between his panting thrusts he bit out. “Here.. here it sounds best..smells..so clear.. god.. like..amortensia..fresh.. bright.. sunlight. Clean.. springtime..life.. mine.. want..need..” he started to lick her throat slowly and she moaned in pleasure, bucking her hips against his , her arms wrapped around his back and his neck.   
“It tastes better when I’m coming” she informed him softly.   
Septimus choked out “It can get better?!.. fuck..”   
He adjusted his movements in her tactically to increase her pleasure.

“You can use the..pull thing.. to make it faster..” she murmured against his ear. 

A moment later she moaned helplessly at the mindless lust that flooded her. “God...so good” she groaned, grinding against him and bucking in counterpoint to his thrusts.. Within less than a minute she was nearing her peak and as if he felt it too Septimus was licking at her throat and scraping his teeth lightly over her as if the restraint was difficult..   
A sudden hard thrust shattered her and in the same moment she felt him bite down on her hard.   
It heightened the pleasure exponentially and she screamed in bliss, even as she felt him sucking and swallowing and lapping frantically. He was making low rumbling growls of enjoyment and still fucking her through his consumption.   
Her own climax went on and on in response to the moving tongue.. the swallowing throat she felt against her and she panted and tossed her head, helpless to the sensation, her fingers clenching on his back and then loosening, her arms slackening as she became lighter and started to drift into unconsciousness.”

“Stop now” tom’s voice floated down to her. 

A moment later. “Stop, Septimus!!” 

She slid into a warm beautiful peaceful sleep. 

 

 

When she woke she had that horrid feeling of enervation disorientation.   
Tom was kneeling beside her and lifting her head. He held a phial of some kind.

“Drink it. It’s blood replenishing potion.” 

She drank it gladly, the coppery bitter taste was familiar and not unpleasant.   
“Thanks.. I forgot about that. Rodolphus usually kept some here..there..I mean..” 

Tom frowned, perturbed. “You didn’t mention how difficult it is to stun a vampire. I stunned him seven times before he finally collapsed.”   
She blinked.   
“Oh. Well.. I’ve only seen it done once. The other time he got..um..out of control..you just caged him in a silver cage.” Tom’s eyes widened and in one movement he stood and spun, stunning Abraxas who was gaping confused.   
An obliviate later he returned to her   
“I realise you are disorientated and light headed right now but do not force me to obliviate them too often...   
Now .. you knew that the vampire had gotten out of hand before and did not tell me about this?! Why?” 

She hesitated and then turned, concerned, to Septimus lying in the pillows next to her. He had already transformed back and looked peaceful, although there was blood all over his mouth, chin, neck and the top of his chest.   
She looked down and saw that she was covered in it too. 

Grimacing, she turned back to Tom. “It only happened once and there were extenuating circumstances..   
besides – I did warn you. If I’d let you take the potion, I’d probably be dead now. I doubt you’d have allowed either of them to stun you.”   
He looked annoyed. “We will find a way to...” he stopped.. obviously thinking the sentence through to the end. 

She smirked. “What.. we’ll think of a way to render you utterly vulnerable?!” she challenged him.   
“I’m so sure that’s going to happen” 

Glaring at her, he changed the subject.   
“Is there anything else you have forgotten to mention?” 

“About Rodolphus?” she sought clarification.   
He nodded after a moment, gritting his teeth.   
Her eyes sliding away from his told him that there was. 

“What? Out with it!” he commanded wearily. 

She told him hesitantly about the effect of her menses upon him. “um..when i have..uh.. my..monthly blood..” she started and he raised a perfectly shaped brow at her, a faint expression of mildly revolted curiosity on his face.   
“Uh.. it has kind of paradoxical effects. Usually he was really tender and gently and adoring and tender.. kittenlike almost but um.. another time – when he may have been under some considerable stress – or perhaps he was affected by the fact that I was very shocked and upset over something – but whatever the reason it sent him almost into a frenzy and he hurt me...   
About the only thing that will reliably restrain him is silver. It burns his flesh” 

Tom nodded introspectively. “And ..when..” he trailed off suggestively. She thought for a while.   
“Um.. about a week from now or so..” 

Relieved he responded “At least that then.. Come.. it is getting late. I’ll wake them and we will escort you to the dorm.” 

Without waiting for a response he enervated Septimus and turned casting the same spell upon Abraxas.   
Hermione turned to the Severus-like wizard lying blood coated and thoughtfully scourgified them both before he was fully awake. 

“...Salazar!..” he exclaimed weakly. “that was-...”   
She leaned over him and stroked a hand down his face. He turned to her and then after a blink of surprise and recognition he had grabbed her and twisted her underneath him, bearing down on her. She felt his sudden hardness at her thigh.   
“More than I could have ever expected!!.. I am tempted to go and look for a vampire to ask it to change me if that is the sensory world they inhabit. Merlin.. I want you again.”   
He kissed her hungrily, lingeringly, then nuzzled into her throat.. “Oh... why can I still smell it?! You smell.. so..enticing.. How did I never notice it before?!” he licked up the column of her throat and nipped her along her sensitive points, making her mewl in pleasure. 

“You say you still smell her as you did when you were under the effects of the polyjuice?!” Tom demanded from above. 

Septimus flinched and his arms tightened around her possessively. “yes my Lord. Not as strongly... it is slightly different.   
This scent just makes me want to bury myself to the balls in her and not move till compelled by threat of death.”   
Tom snorted above them and then informed him that he would quite definitely kill him if he didn’t get up now so that they could return to the dungeons.   
Septimus growled in irritation and kissed her again..and once more.. before reluctantly pulling away and climbing up, extending a hand to help her to her feet.

She looked up to see petulant jealously on Abraxas face, as he looked at Septimus.   
“My Lord - I want to play the vampire next time!” Abraxas demanded. Septimus looked at Tom, stricken. “No, please, my Lord – you already let him date her..”   
Tom snarled at them both to shut their whining off and helped her out of the sunken pit, drawing her to him and holding her tightly as if to reassure himself that she was his and nothing had changed.   
The other two looked at one another hatefully. 

When Tom finally released her, she asked the room of requirement for her uniform back and, once dressed, they all returned downstairs in silence. 

 

It was only when they walked through the shield hole that the trouble began...


	63. Chapter 63

Amalthea screamed and writhed on the flagstones under Hermione’s cruciatus. 

This was quite a shock to Hermione who happened to have just walked through the portal and observed herself on the other side of the common room cursing the horrid bitch with a murderous expression. 

The only other people present in the common room were Antonia, Cygnus, Roan and Palmer. The rest of the Slytherins must have cleared out when whatever sparked..this.. started. 

Amalthea was begging and Antonia was being held in place by Cygnus – and looked rather more preoccupied with his hands on her arms than with her best friend’s shrieks. 

“What is going on here?!” Tom demanded quietly in an icy voice that managed to cut through the girls screaming like a hot knife through butter.   
The curse was ended immediately. 

Amalthea turned her face and looked toward the door to Tom beseechingly, horror flooding her expression when her eyes met Hermione’s shocked ones.

“Uh.. Amalthea slapped Sorrenson and started accusing him of things” Roan supplied nervously. “And he..kind of lost it..on her..” 

Hermione’s eyes went to her own furious ones standing over Amalthea.   
“Sorry? Is that you? What? Why?!”   
She saw her own face snarl in rage, her furious eyes flicking to Septimus, Tom and Abraxas and then sorrenson in her own body turned and stalked away, down the boys staircase. 

“Why did Amalthea slap him.. or why did she slap Maia, I should say?” Tom demanded of Roan.   
Antonia looked disappointed at being released by Cygnus and moved to kneel beside her friend and comfort her.   
Amalthea was sobbing.   
Hermione nudged Septimus and he shot her a ‘oh must I?!” expression. Her frown informed him that he indeed must go and comfort his girlfriend. He sighed and walked over, dropping to his knees beside the sobbing redhead and taking her in his arms gently, shhhing and rocking her.

“Er.. “ Roan dithered, his eyes shifting between Tom and Hermione. “She walked up to Sorry and me sitting by the fire – he had at least another half hour before the polyjuice was due to wear off cause Slughorn..uh.. let him go early or something - and she just marched over and hauled back and slapped the shit out of him and then starts calling him.. um..”   
His eye jumped to Hermione and then back to Abraxas before returning to Tom.   
“er.. slut and whore and ..that kind of thing.. and going on about something and astronomy and Melinda someone or other and then she pulled out her wand and made to hex her and..er.. that’s when Sorry just lost it.. and then her screams brought Antonia and Cyg and Palmer upstairs to see what was going on. And then you came in. And that’s it.” 

Roan looked dodgy and his eyes settled momentarily on Palmer and then went to the floor. 

Tom looked extremely displeased with the state of affairs and raised his wand at Palmer. “And what did you do?” he enquired in a soft voice.   
The boy startled. “Me?! Nothing!!” 

Hermione frowned at the whole situation and stated in ‘dont argue with me’ tones “I’m going to see if Sorry’s ok.”   
Tom grabbed her by the upper arm.   
“No. You will remain here.” 

A moment later Palmer cried out weakly and dropped to his knees, his hands going to his head. Tom cursed soundly a few seconds later. He lowered his wand and snarled through gritted teeth. “You will all stay here while I go and speak with Lestrange.”   
Hermione looked at him worried. “What’s wrong. What did Palmer do?”   
Tom’s look informed her that it was something reprehensible – she could guess. Abraxas had said Palmer would try to get her alone.   
Oh god.. Sorrenson.. 

Without answering the question, Tom stalked off and down the stairs to the boys dorms. 

Hermione turned and looked at Abraxas, who seemed conflicted and angry. He had his wand out but his eyes kept wandering between Amalthea and palmer.   
She took his other hand gently and he flinched and looked at her with wide stricken eyes.   
“Come and sit by the fire with me” she said quietly. “Everything will be fine. Tom will sort it out.”

He looked at her with faint disbelief and his gaze flicked to Septimus briefly who was stroking Amalthea’s hair as she clung to him with her eyes closed. 

She tugged on Abraxas hand again, a bit more insistently and he followed, letting himself be led to the sofa and sat down at the end. Curling up next to him, she shrugged herself under his arm.   
As if this were flicking some switch internally he responded by grabbing her and hauling her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her possessively and holding her against him.

“I should have taken the polyjuice.” He whispered at her. “You’re my girlfriend.”   
She pulled back and looked at him worriedly. 

Roan and Cygnus walked gingerly around the sofa and sat down on the other side.   
“...So..” Cygnus said after a while. “What was all this about then? Why did she collapse?”   
Abraxas snarled back at him to mind his own business. He pulled her close again and kissed her on the cheek, his hand urging her head to rest on his shoulder.   
She complied but wondered when Tom would be coming back. 

Cygnus seemed to be watching them both carefully, sizing them up. She wondered if he saw her preoccupation.   
“...Are you two really together then?” he asked quietly.   
Abraxas snapped back an affirmative and told him to shut up now before he lost it like Sorry.   
Cygnus eyebrows raised and he snorted derisively but turned away and started up a conversation with Roan about the coming game on Saturday and whether he thought Ravenclaw stood a chance against Gryffindor.

Palmer hovered by himself nervously exactly where he had been standing when Tom went downstairs.   
Hermione wondered whether he was trying to make it easier on himself by following Tom to the letter now. 

This line of thought was abandoned when Septimus walked into view with Amalthea in his arms clinging to him and whimpering – probably at the remaining pain after the cruciatus – He sat down with her in the love seat opposite the couch on the other side of the fire and continued to comfort her.   
Hermione caught abraxas narrowing his eyes at him venomously.   
Septimus showed no sign of noticing this, although he kept Amalthea’s face turned in toward his neck. 

She realised that she felt a low angry burn in the pit of her stomach at seeing Septimus with Amalthea in that manner. Never before had it been so clearly demonstrated to her that this couple kissed and touched and slept together when she was absent.   
She recognised that she was being ridiculous and possessive and hypocritical on top of it, but she suddenly understood a little about how Abraxas felt when he saw her with Septimus.   
Only a little though because she imagined it would be a lot worse if Septimus were kissing.. or oh.. god.. if she actually saw them sleeping together.. saw the witch moaning in pleasure under him – she might actually want to cruciate her herself then. 

It was strange.. She hadn’t had this feeling about Draco.. or Severus.. or god forbid Harry or even Rodolphus.   
Although... she had wanted to hurt that woman rather than let him fuck her.. maybe..   
But it seemed she wasn’t jealous of men together.. only of other women. How strange. Logic dictated that there shouldn’t be any difference. But there was.   
She felt very..intolerant.. of other female affections on any of the men she had..somehow decided belonged to her. 

That was kind of stupid too since clearly she belonged to them. They all said it! Mine. Mineminemine. You’ll be mine. My pet. My precious. Mein Schaetzchen.

At that moment Tom stalked to the top of the stairs with Sorry in tow and a dark expression on his face.   
“Cygnus and Roan – go to bed. You are not needed further tonight.”   
Cygnus started to protest but abandoned it at Tom’s expression and simply stood, crossed the room and went down the stairs without further comment. Roan was right behind him looking incredibly relieved.   
Palmer on the other hand looked like he might be sick at any moment. 

“All of you..come. Septimus.. you will bring Amalthea in. Palmer, take care of Antonia at the wall.” 

Antonia suddenly looked very frightened. “What? What does that mean? What wall? Where are we going?” 

Tom looked at her with a cruel wry smirk. “You have both been ..wondering.. where it is we go.   
Congratulations. You will now find out. Stop snivelling Amalthea, you’re getting on everyone’s nerves.” 

The pretty red head flinched and whined “It hurts.. I want to go to the infirmary!”   
Septimus’ top lip twitched for a second in disgust and he stroked her gingerly on the head.   
“Afterward, doll. You don’t want to miss out on seeing it, do you?” 

Amalthea snivelled and pressed her face into his neck. He stared at Hermione with a tight expression.   
“Can’t I see whatever it is later?” the well formed lapful whimpered against him. 

“No.” Tom said coldly. “Only the strong are invited. If you sniffle off to the infirmary, you are hardly strong, are you.   
I offered it as a reward for how well you held up under a terrible curse. I will not invite you again if you refuse it.” 

She seemed to cling to Septimus more tightly. “Will you carry me?” she whined.   
Septimus rolled his eyes. “Of course I will” he said and almost managed to sound enthused and caring.   
He wrapped his arms under her knees and around her back and stood, lifting her with little difficulty and raising an eyebrow at Tom, who gestured with a head nod for him to go ahead. 

Antonia.. apparently smarter than her pretty friend still seemed reluctant.   
Tom turned to Sorrenson and whispered in his ear and the boy marched off downstairs again. He turned back to the fearful pansy Parkinson lookalike   
“Now there Antonia.. What’s wrong? You’ve been talking about what we might get up to when we go off together for almost a year now. Weren’t you upset when Maia was invited to come along with us on the first night of term? Well now I have decided to let you come too.   
Don’t you want that? It’s a rather big compliment, you know! I wouldn’t invite just anyone.” 

Antonia managed to ask with a laudable degree of scepticism. “Why did you let her come – you hardly know her.” 

Tom smiled. “I let her come because Abraxas wanted to court her – and.. as you see – they are now courting.   
I am inviting Amalthea because Septimus would like her with him and I am inviting you so that you can be with Cygnus.” 

Hermione watched the pathetic hope flood the pointy face. “Cygnus wants me to come along?! Why did you send him to bed?” 

Cygnus emerged from the stairs and walked over to her.   
“So that Roan wouldn’t feel bad, Toni.. He likes you too.” 

Antonia looked like all her birthdays had come at once as Cygnus walked over to her and stroked a hand down her cheek.   
Her eyes shone as she looked up at him smiling beatifically.

“Are we all leaving then?” Tom asked with only mild impatience.   
Antonia nodded, still smiling at Cygnus. 

Hermione inspected the boy. He was wearing Sorrenson’s shoes and the tip of his wand sticking out of his pocket was the dark brown of Sorrensons oak rather than the white of Cygnus ash. 

Antonia took his proffered hand and he led her to the shield hole and out, followed by Tom, Hermione, Abraxas and Palmer – who was still looking extremely uncomfortable.   
Antonia hadn’t even questioned why Sorrenson hadn’t returned, Hermione reflected.   
Was she stupid or did being in unrequited love for a long time make one willing to suspend rational disbelief?

They walked through the dim quiet corridor. What time was it, anyway? She cast a tempus and saw that it was almost midnight.   
No wonder the common room had been empty when it happened. Midnight on a Wednesday – not the best time for late night activites. But she supposed – needs must.

 

They came to the wall and she followed Tom in. If Palmer was surprised at her gaining entrance by herself he said nothing. 

Inside..she halted briefly such that Abraxas ran into her when he exited the wall. He pushed her gently forward and brushed a kiss to her cheek. “This should be fun” he said with a smirk.   
Palmer didnt seem to think so as he followed them in like a man to the gallows. 

The two sofas were in the room and Antonia and Amalthea were sitting on Septimus and Cygnus laps respectively, looking around with interest.   
She saw Amalthea point up at the occulum and Antonia looked and smiled.   
“This place is amazing” she gushed when Tom and the others drew closer. “What do you do here?” 

Tom smiled thinly. “Oh you know.. this and that. It’s a private common room..of sorts..for only those we consider worthy of entrance.” 

Hermione let Abraxas lead her by the hand to the sofa on which Cygnus-sorrenson and Antonia sat.   
Septimus shot him a venomous stare.

Palmer did not even move to sit down but hovered miserably a few metres away.

“First things first, however” Tom said in a dark voice.   
“Palmer.. I warned you that Maia was to be left alone.. And YET I saw in your memory that you apparently set upon Sorrenson in her polyjuiced form on his way back from Slugworth’s detention, stunned him and took your pleasure, thinking him her.” 

Cygnus, beneath Antonia jerked and nearly tossed the girl to the floor.

“WHAT?!” he yelled.

Tom nodded regretfully. “He used an obliviate.” 

Palmer behind atom dropped to his knees. “You said she was off limits my Lord.. and then Sorrenson said in divination that he saw Abraxas kissing her in the corridors and he said he was allowed.   
I didn’t know it was him. I’m sorry Sorry - I’d never have-..”

“SILENCE” Tom yelled.

“If you had issue with my order you should have approached me and sought counsel. You thought I would not discover your act and indeed – had you not bragged to Roan about how you’d had her – your treachery would likely have gone unnoticed.” 

Hermione sat relatively unmoved by the news. To tell the truth it hadn’t surprised her. Avery and Mulciber’s decendents would end up doing the same thing, unbeknownst to them. It was probably some kind of faulty genes or something making them both slimy ruthless bastards. 

Tom addressed her suddenly -“Maia.. Do you have any requests as to the punishment you might like to see visited upon Palmer?” 

She looked at the shaking miserable boy on his knees, despair in his eyes.   
“No.. not really. Whatever you think appropriate will please me, my Lord.” 

He smiled, nodding appreciatively and turned to Cygnus-Sorrenson who didn’t even wait for the question   
“Hades YES, my Lord – I want his fucking balls fed to him!” 

Palmer wailed softly and slumped down, begging immediately. “Please.. no.. please my Lord – it was a mistake.. I’ll never do it again.. I didn’t know.. please don’t.. I’ll... anything my Lord – anything you want but don’t.. don’t...oh Merlin.. please PLEASE MY LORD!! PLEASE DON’T!!” 

Hermione knew quite well, since both Avery and Mulciber obviously had children at some point...that he would not be fed his balls today – that is, unless the Avery and Mulciber in the future were perhaps nephews? Cousins?   
She shifted her amused gaze to Amalthea who was looking with horror at Palmer on his knees and the dark vicious expression on Tom’s face. 

“Sep..?” she mumbled uncertainly. “This is a joke..right? It’s all just to trick us, since we’re here for the first time and we’ve laughed at some silly ideas about what you all get up to together.” 

Septimus sighed and rolled his eyes. “My Lord.. since we are in here now and she cannot escape, can I put down this daft piece of fluff?” 

Tom sniggered. “By all means. Liberate yourself, if you will.” 

Hermione smirked with only a tiny particle of guilt, as Septimus spilled the buxom redhead off his lap onto the floor.   
She cried out in pain and shock and sprawled in an undignified manner.   
“Sep?!!” she yelped up at him and he frowned back at her.

“You foolish tart” he tossed at her. “You have ideas far above your station. You are an amusement – nothing more.   
Do not imagine you have any place dictating my actions, whether with yourself or with others.”   
At that he rose and moved to the other sofa, sitting down next to Abraxas and Hermione and taking the hand not being held by the blonde. He brought it to his lips and kissed her fingertips.

Amalthea seemed to hyperventilate.   
“It’s..It’s true.. you were touching her in astronomy.. you..”

At that Antonia, who had been gaping and frozen was tossed to the floor beside her as Cygnus-Sorrenson stood.  
“MotherFUCK!!.. Both of them?!!”   
He turned to Tom with a contorted face “My Lord!!” he beseeched. “It isn’t FAIR!!” 

Palmer on his knees, for the moment forgotten and doing his best to become invisible seemed to think it unfair also.   
His face was dark and resentful.

“Cygnus!!” Antonia cried from the ground.. “What are you talking about? You said you like me.. you said you wanted me to..”   
Sorrenson aimed a swift kick to the girl’s ribs and Hermione winced slightly at her shriek and frantic scrabble to get away.   
She clung to amalthea over by the other sofa.

“Stupid fucking bitch” Cygnus Sorrenson hissed at her. “Cygnus doesn’t even like girls. He’s been fucking Byron Brown from Ravenclaw for half the year – don’t you have eyes?!” 

Antonia, already shocked, gaped pitifully and burst into tears. Tom silenced her immediately and turned back to Sorrenson.

“You have a dispute, Sorry?” 

Cygnus-sorry actually shook with anger and the effort to steel himself to control.   
His face a picture of fury and reluctant submission he dropped to his knees. “Yes..my Lord” he ground out.   
“You asked me to protect her. You told us she was yours..untouchable. and then you allowed Abraxas to court her.. to kiss her... and it seems Septimus too.   
Have I failed you in some way? I have always obeyed your orders.. I have done everything to please you.   
Why am I denied her?..   
..If she is no longer untouchable. If she is no longer yours” He looked down angrily. 

Tom did not answer immediately. He looked at the boy thoughtfully. After a while he responded quietly.   
“She is still mine. She will always be mine.” 

The piratelike face of Cygnus looked up, upset and uncomprehending “But-..”   
Tom raised a hand and stilled him. “We will discuss this further after I am finished with these three.”

Hermione’s gaze flicked back to Antonia and Amalthea who were clutching each other and looking around in horror.   
Their eyes kept wandering back to her and her hands being held and stroked by Abraxas and Septimus.   
Amalthea looked like she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to be sick or to claw her eyes out. 

Tom turned around, his face lightening somewhat. “Don’t worry, Palmer.. I didn’t forget you.” 

“My Lord.. If everyone else is allowed her.. ..You didnt care about the others I had on the sly. You praised me for that little willowstead slag! I..don’t understand. She’d never have known.. I didn’t hurt her.. It wasn’t even her, my Lord!” 

Hermione leapt to her feet. “Is he talking about Beatrice willowstead?!” She demanded with gritted teeth.   
That girl was one of the only people who had been nice to her since school had started.

“No.” Tom said disinterestedly. “Her younger sister Catriona. She’s a loud mouthed little thing who has been vocally derogatory of me and mine since I rebuffed her tragic little crush at the beginning of the year.”   
Hermione was reminded faintly of Ginny.

“Palmer.. do not attempt to cloud the issue at hand here. We are not debating the relative merits of rape, underage or otherwise. We are discussing your direct disobedience to my orders and your attempt to conceal it from me!” 

Hermione frowned slightly.. she was of two minds suddenly. The part of her that had always been ‘Hermione’ was indignantly protesting that rape was very, very, bad and it wasn’t the fact that he’d disobeyed but that he’d actually raped her or..someone like her..that was..or should be.. the issue here.   
Another part was quite objective and distanced from the situation at hand.. the part that had changed, she supposed..   
the part that ordered Rodolphus to kill Mulciber..   
and that part was saying that it was the disobedience that was of key concern. If Avery couldn’t be controlled then he was dangerous, irrespective his deviancies. 

Reluctantly Hermione sat back down.

Abraxas immediately leaned in and nosed her cheek affectionately. Septimus kissed her fingertips again and both of their expressions seemed to be pleased at her wise decision to let it go. 

Tom took a deep thoughtful breath. “I am inclined to believe that you do not listen well, Avery.” He said quietly.   
“Therefore you must feel.   
I will accept part of Sorrenson’s request for your punishment. You will dine upon one of your..family jewels tonight.   
If you repeat your error, you may lose the other and your line may well end with you.   
If you harm Maia.. you will die. Again.. your line, such that it is, will end with your sorry failure to thrive.   
This is your second warning, Avery. There are plenty of other little girls for you to trap and play with. This one.. is now forever off your menu.” 

The boy seemed frozen in horror.   
He had gotten stuck that way when Tom had said he was going to be forced to eat one of his balls. His eyes blinked unseeing into the distance. He didn’t even move when Tom divestoed his clothing and silenced him. 

Then Tom turned to Sorrenson on his knees.   
Hermione looked down to see that it was actually Sorrenson kneeling there now. At some point in the last few minutes he must have transformed back. 

“I would offer you the chance to perform the diffindo, my servant, but I suspect you might cut somewhat overzealously”   
Sorry’s dark snarl confirmed tom’s suspicion. 

He turned back to Palmer and Hermione found herself staring at the naked boy in morbid fascination.   
He looked staunch but his cheeks were wet and he was shaking. 

His body was tanned and slender. Less muscular than Abraxas or even Septimus. He had a slim broad-shouldered build with a small amount of wiry brown hair on his chest and legs – it wasn’t very appealing, she decided.   
His penis hung soft and uncut. It seemed a decent length. Not unusually large by any means but not small. 

This decent ‘tackle’ now rose up into the air of its own accord, without hardening.   
Tom was levitating it.   
Palmer wrapped his arms around himself and seemed to clench inward as if bracing himself. 

When the diffindo was cast, blood slashed out in a spray from his wounded sack. Avery’s head flew back, his mouth thrown wide and eyes clenched in a scream unheard.   
Blood raced down his thigh and then a small round egg shaped object passed out of the slice in his skin, levitating in the air before him.   
She watched as the slice was pressed together although it didn’t seem to heal. She assumed it was a sticking charm. At least no further blood flowed out. 

Avery was still screaming and now he seemed to be sobbing too. 

She actually felt a bit sorry for him. What had just been done to him was terrible. 

She wondered if it was as terrible as raping what sounded like a whole LOT of students – many of them, if Catriona was any guide, probably underage.   
Palmer was a fucking paedophile and a rapist. He was getting less than many would say he deserved. 

“You will chew and then you will show me before I allow you to swallow. Do you understand Palmer?” Tom said in a frighteningly unaffected voice.   
The tortured, red, sobbing face nodded in agony, his eyes still clenched shut.

“Good” Tom said approvingly and she watched the small oval that had been floating in the air at waist level rise up and drop into Avery’s mouth.   
His expression was like a snapshot of hell as he worked his jaws on his own flesh, coughing and retching in disgust and horror. Finally he stopped and opened his mouth for Tom to inspect. 

Tom didn’t bother.   
“Very good. You may swallow now” he informed him quietly. 

The boy struggled but finally managed to do so. He looked like he might vomit it back up twice but then controlled himself. 

Tom stepped closer and, pointing his wand at the damaged line of red bloody flesh, quietly sang a soft healing charm. Hermione watched, fascinated as the line sealed itself and vanished. Finally he concentrated and cast something and the empty looking bag of skin grew a second visible lump.

“There..”he remarked. “No one, with the exception of those present.. well.. Those present who are able to recall after tonight” he added wryly “-will ever know of your shame. If you do not offend again with her, you will be able to produce children one day. IF you are unable to heed this warning you will be a eunuch.”   
He stepped back and cancelled the silencio. 

After a few seconds in which he tried to pull himself together Palmer choked out “..Th..thank you, my Lord. I’ll..I’ll never touch her again.”   
Tom smiled, pleased at his response. “I am glad, Palmer. And in order to demonstrate to you that you are not sexually impaired, I am giving you Antonia to play with for the night.”

Hermione started and looked at the Pansy lookalike in surprise. She seemed to be screaming and shaking her head.   
She jumped up then and ran around the couch to the wall, banging her fists upon it. 

Nobody else made a move. Even Amalthea seemed stunned into frozen incapacity. 

Tom glanced over at her dispassionately. “It seems she is not as enthused, Palmer.”   
He turned back to Sorrenson who was looking on with little concern. “Do you have any more of Cygnus hair?” he asked him and the boy nodded. “Very well. You know what to do, Palmer. I would have you please the girl – at least until the polyjuice wears off. It is unfortunate for her that she has fallen for one so entirely oblivious to her existence.” 

Avery looked considerably less miserable, Hermione observed. He seemed almost unconcerned at the loss of his testicle now it was over and you couldn’t see it was missing.   
He stood and accepted the hair from Sorrenson who offered him a gingerly hand after he took it.   
Palmer shook hands with him, holding on and looking him in the eyes as he apologised again.

When Sorrenson released him, he looked accepting and stopped glaring at the other boy. 

Palmer looked at her hesitantly and then back at Tom who had his arms folded and his wand in his hand.   
Swallowing, Palmer dropped to one knee before her and mumbled out an apology, with his eyes on the floor. 

She glared at him for his poor attempt. “You are a slimy little git, Avery.” She informed him. “Look me in the face when you lie to me, at the very least!”   
Avery swallowed, scowling and slowly raised his eyes to look at her. She saw him tracing her body on the way. |  
When he finally met her gaze he looked truly regretful.   
“I’m..sorry..that I did it..” he said low. “I wish I hadn’t. I’m not lying. I...”   
His eyes flicked to Abraxas and Septimus either side of her.   
“If I’d thought..” He trailed off and simply said “I’m sorry, alright.” 

She reluctantly nodded. 

He offered her a hopeful hand and she looked to Tom who shook his head slightly.   
“No.” she responded to Avery. “But I accept your apology. The issue is..finished.. as far as I’m concerned”   
It cost her something to say it but it seemed necessary. 

Avery withdrew his hand remorsefully and rose, backing away slightly.   
“Where would you have me take her, my Lord? “ he asked quietly. 

Tom thought for a moment and then responded “Take her to the room of requirement. You require the room with the polyjuice. I’m sure you’ll find it easily enough.”   
He withdrew a wand from his robe and handed it to Palmer “Give it back to her after you obliviate her and do not allow yourself to be caught by Twaxler. I believe he should be on the fourth floor by now.” 

Palmer nodded as if this was a given.   
“Thank you, my Lord” he said again, looking down. 

Tom smiled thinly. “It is done, Palmer. Go. Enjoy the girl. Leave no traces.” 

Palmer nodded curtly and turned, striding toward Antonia who had been making her way around the large circumference of the chamber banging on the stones and yelling soundlessly.   
Hermione blinked and frowned, confused at her utter lack of concern for what was happening to the girl who she hadn’t much liked but who she wouldn’t necessarily have fed to paedophile rapists either.

She heard Palmer intone in a low voice “imperio” and then Antonia turned and smiled, taking his hand.   
He disillusioned them both and led her from the chamber quickly. 

Tom sighed. “Two down.. one to go.”   
He smirked, looking at the terrified, shellshocked, Amalthea, still on her ass on the floor in front of the sofa with her legs splayed before her. Her green eyes were red and puffy and she was breathing fast.   
Hermione noticed that there was a small pile of vomit on the floor beside her. She must have lost her dinner when she watched Avery chowing down on his own testicle.   
Tom saw it too and snorted before he scourgified it away. 

Striding past her and seating himself in his chair he rested his chin on his hand, elbow propped on the armrest.

“It would be.. in many..if not most.. ways.. easier.. if you were to continue to court the wench, Septimus. You know that.” 

Hermione felt the hand holding hers tighten slightly.   
“Yes, My Lord.” He said noncommittally. Tom smirked at his neutral response.

“If I allow you to leave her, you will only harass Abraxas and this-..”   
he gestured at Amalthea who was looking at him with abject terror, her eyes flicking only rarely to Septimus with something like betrayal and disbelief   
“-will continue to make life difficult. 

Septimus responded quietly “I will do as you ask of me, whatever you decide, my Lord.”

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered. “You were right, Maia.. Things have become complicated very quickly.   
I might perhaps have better listened to you. I should have hidden you.. kept you here in secret.   
Unfortunately it is too late for that now.” 

She sighed. “I could leave” 

The speed and venom with which Tom’s head shot up and Abraxas and Septimus each clamped down on her indicated the utter impossibility of this option.   
“No. No...you can not! There is nowhere you could go bar one place and you will not be going there.” 

Hermione glanced at Sorrenson who was looking bewildered. 

Frustrated, Tom tossed himself back in his chair.   
“Septimus.. you have obviously been lax. The witch seems to have heard from someone else that you were..  
what were you doing with Maia in astronomy actually?! I was rather distracted by the subject matter.” 

Abraxas sat forward and shot Septimus an acid glare.   
Hermione spoke up. “He just touched my hand. It wasn’t as if he threw me to the floor and leapt upon me. It was maybe.. a bit suggestive.. if one was paying attention – but it was dark!!.” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “I see. Well obviously someone was paying attention.” He sighed in irritation. “– I will leave things as they were for the moment, I believe, in light of the fact that the issue centres around gossip regarding an event that took place in a crowed dark room. Take her back, Septimus. Obliviate her to before the curse and return here afterward.” 

Septimus nodded and was gone in mere seconds, dragging the compliant imperiused witch behind him in a hurry.

“Maia.. come here.. “ 

Hermione got up, Abraxas reluctantly releasing her. She knelt before Tom and he looked down into her eyes, stroking her cheek with his fingertips.   
“You will accept Sorrenson’s affections as you do Abraxas and Septimus” he instructed her softly. “It would have been better if I had hidden you.. but there is no way back now, you understand.” 

She nodded and murmured “Yes, my Lord”

There was a gasp behind her from Sorrenson.   
She turned and the boy seemed to be actually blushing in shock and dismay. Abraxas on the other hand looked furious. 

Hermione stood and went to the blonde, after a moment’s hesitation moving to straddle him.   
His expression shifted between confusion, anger and hopeful lustful anticipation.

“Abraxas..” she said softly, brushing his hair from his face with her hand.   
He turned his brows inward and murmured a petulant yes.   
She bit her lip seeking a way to say it that would not set him off – there wasn’t really one.

“You know that I belong to the Dark Lord, don’t you?” 

His face seemed to pinch in pain and pleading. “Yes.. but-..”   
She placed her fingers over his lips. He kissed them unhappily. She felt him hardening beneath her and continued quickly, her words as much for him as for Sorrenson behind her.

“Your jealousy is misplaced. I have sworn myself to him.. I will always be his. Please.. I’m begging you to accept it, Abraxas! I cannot ever truly belong to you. But...you like the feeling when I kiss you, don’t you?” 

As if to demonstrate she removed her fingers and pressed her lips to his. He kissed her back needily, his arms going around her to pull her closer. When she broke from him he flustered at her “I don’t want you to be with Sorry too. I can’t even stand it with Septimus. Please..”   
She kissed him lightly. “You’re being silly, Abraxas. Would you rather share me with your brothers..or not have any part of my affections?”   
Abraxas looked upset and gripped her more tightly.   
She stroked his face gently. “Shh.. shh.. calm. I’m not threatening you. It was an honest question.”

“You need to understand that the mark on your arm is more than a symbol of a pleasant pastime or a tattoo of a school club.. You are connected with me.. through our Lord.. for the rest of your life.   
These are your brothers..forever..   
I’ve come into this circle and now..you’re all upset because you want me - but I want to bring you closer not drive you apart.” 

Abraxas stroked her back slowly, not replying, his troubled eyes gazing into hers unsure. 

Hermione gently, but firmly pushed herself away from him, even as he clung for a moment, unwilling to release her.   
She stepped back and looked down at Sorrenson, kneeling and looking up at her in somewhat intimidated confusion.

“I..thought-..” he said in a small voice..

She lowered herself to kneel before him.   
“No.” she said simply. “I am not..courting.. any of you. Not truly. I belong to Tom.” 

Sorrenson..who had earlier cruciated Amalthea for calling her a whore, was trying to resolve his internal conflicts.   
It was very apparent that he was having difficulty. 

“But...you’re..not like that..” he fumbled. 

She sighed.   
“Sorry.. you heard what I said to Abraxas. You need to know yourself what you want.”   
She made as if to rise and he stopped her with a hand on her arm.   
He did look very much like a young rodolphus, she thought to herself.

“Stop!!.. I.. may I kiss you?” 

Hermione looked to tom. He seemed tense and discontented but nodded once. She leaned closer.   
Sorrenson was even slimmer of build than Palmer..he seemed almost waiflike with his large blue eyes and wavy black shoulder length hair.   
She could almost feel his nervous desire tangibly around her.   
Her eyes slid down to his thin pale pink lips. He was taking rapid shallow breaths and she was taken completely by surprise when he suddenly plunged both hands into her hair and dragged her forward, tilting his head and kissing her furiously, his tongue teasing and then delving as soon as she opened to it.   
She allowed herself to give in to him, let him lead her.

She was breathing faster when she felt his hand slide down from her hair to her neck, stroking and then further till she felt a hand brush over her breast and move away again.   
After a moment, perhaps at her lack of appalled slapping or attempts to break the kiss, it returned and cupped her, a thumb brushing teasingly over her nipple through her school robes.   
She breathed faster through her nose, feeling the tingle of pleasure jolt straight to her centre. 

By the time Sorrenson broke the kiss, panting, her eyes were glazed and he had his hand in her robes stroking her over her bra.   
He looked half drunk and had a bright daring gleam in his eye, grinning.   
He informed her “I want you.. I don’t care about Abraxas and Aeptimus. Fuck.. they can watch if they want.” 

She became aware that Septimus had returned and was hovering on the edge of the couch next to Abraxas looking impatient.   
Turning to Tom she saw him smirk faintly in a wry manner.   
“Sorry.. we won’t be watching..” he said softly...

Sorrenson looked startled and glanced to Abraxas who was also smirking at him.   
Hermione looked at him speculatively. There was ..something.. in the way he looked at Abraxas particularly.. it reminded her of Harry.. or even of Draco..   
she wondered-..

“Sorry.. If you want to join us.. you have to be prepared to accept..everyone..” She pulled his gaze back to her with a hand on his angular jaw.   
This served two purposes.. it allowed her to lick her lips and tease him a little.. and it prevented him from seeing the shock that was no doubt crossing the faces of the others.

Sorrenson looked a little panicked.   
She moued slightly and leaned in, flicking at his top lip with her tongue and kissing him deeply when he responded, but breaking off almost immediately.   
“Can you do that?” she asked tentatively. 

She glanced around the others and found that Septimus was looking the most comfortable with the idea.   
Tom’s expression was entirely unreadable. He might have been mortified..it was hard to tell.   
She figured his experiences at the orphanage probably wouldn’t have predisposed him to have good expectations of homosexuality.. but.. well.. she only had three bloody holes. There were now FOUR she would at some point end up having to please.. it would be better if they could pair off together at least some of the time or she’d be practicing a lot of healing charms soon. 

Sorrenson glanced uneasily at Tom, watching him with a slow even expression.   
“My Lord?” he asked uneasily, not even articulating his unspoken ‘Is it true?! Do I have to?!’ 

Tom looked at Hermione for a long moment and she wished she could read his thoughts.   
She tried to think clearly that this was necessary or else they’d all end up competing and fighting over her. 

He seemed to reach a decision. 

Gracefully he flowed out of his chair to his feet and stalked slowly the few paces to where they knelt.   
Leaning down he cupped Sorrenson under his chin, tilting his head back and leaning over him.   
“Yes.” He said finally. “You will accept all or you will not have her” he informed him. 

Sorry’s eyes widened as he stared up at him. 

“You have a choice. You may leave and return to the dorm... We will speak no more of it and things will go on as before.. Or.. “   
He smiled a slow powerful smile and brushed a thumb over the boy’s lip lightly.   
“Or you will stay...you will give yourself to whoever here desires your body...and you will take of Maia in whichever way you please..” 

Hermione leaned in close and trailed the point of her tongue up Sorrenson’s exposed throat.   
He shivered. 

Tom released him and straightened, looking down at him with dark amusement.   
“Maia..” he said. “Undress..” 

Hermione gave Sorrenson’s neck one last nip, making the boy shudder, and stood.   
She thought for a moment about how much better it would be if she were wearing the flash little lingerie numbers from her future home. The underwear she had on now was so.. uninspiring.   
Perhaps it wouldn’t matter if she used a little boost to transfigure them...   
The sensation over her body changed somewhat. She frowned slightly. That had taken almost no effort.. it was as if she only had to desire it and she’d already reached for the magic and done it.

Remembering suddenly that a frown wasn’t among the most sexy expressions she shifted her face into a smile of anticipation, stepping back to the centre of the circular free space and unfastening her outer robe. 

The striptease she performed in her school uniform seemed to have even more of an effect on the four boys here in this time than it had had on Draco, Harry and Tom in the future – she supposed because in this time it wasn’t really something one saw often. And especially not for boys in boarding school during a muggle and magical war. 

When she spread her blouse and exposed the tiny frilly black and white striped bra, Sorrenson’s jaw dropped.   
Although to be fair.. even Tom’s eyes widened.   
A brief flash of confusion passed through his eyes and was then abandoned in favour of watching her shrug off and toss the blouse and start to tease her plaid skirt up her thigh. 

She wished suddenly that she had high heels on – even if she couldn’t walk in them. They would have made her legs longer. 

When she turned and bent slightly and slowly slid her skirt down over the black and white frilly thong she heard Abraxas groan and someone softly breathed ‘fuck..’   
Apparently this underwear was more than risqué in this time – it was downright lewd. 

Her skirt fell to the floor, exposing the thigh high stockings. She straightened and stretched, flicking her hands under her hair and letting it fall again in glossy curls.   
When she turned she saw four faces utterly transfixed. She smirked at them and brushed her hands down over her body, ending them in a cup over her mound. 

“I’ll stay” Sorrenson said weakly, not turning his wide eyes from the spectacle before him for a second.   
“Do what you want to me. If I dont have her, I’m going to die.”   
Tom stroked his head gently, not turning his own either. “Good choice.” He gestured impatiently for her to continue. 

She played for a while, teasing her nipples into sharp visible points through the lace and satin before she reached down to the tiny bow in the centre between the cups and tugged on it lightly.. it unravelled easily and the cups separated, freeing her breasts.   
She let the flimsy garment fall down her arms to the floor and slid her hands back up her body, cupping and fondling her own breasts. Septimus licked his lips slightly, his eyes narrowing and she wondered whether he was thinking about sucking her nipples or biting her throat.   
In response to the idea she pushed her breasts together, lifting them and flicking her tongue across her own nipples. 

The sensation was strange but the effect was massive. Sorrenson actually sank down, falling back onto his hips and rubbing at his trousers that looked uncomfortably tight.   
Dropping her breasts and letting them jiggle she flicked out her wand and divestoed all the boy’s clothes.   
If she was going to be naked, why not everyone.   
In fact that actually made her the most dressed since she still had the tiny little thong on. 

“Would anyone like to pull the ribbons on the sides for me” she asked solicitously. 

Abraxas leapt to get up off the couch but Tom held up a hand, stepping to her side, elegant even fully naked.   
He slid slowly down her body, trailing his fingernails down her abdomen as he lowered himself to his knees. Then, gripping one little bow in his teeth and the one on the other hip with his fingertips he pulled them.   
The little slip of ridiculously expensive fabric fell away, revealing her. 

It was automatic to turn toward Tom and part her legs slightly..   
His fingertips trailed up the inside of her thigh, making her gasp and tremble a little, and then he was delving fingers through her hot wet slit.   
She found herself panting and when he parted her slightly and flickered his tongue over her clit, her knees shook visibly. 

He drew back and commanded “Abraxas. Hold her.”

Perhaps her perception of time was skewed but the speed with which arms were suddenly reaching around her, groping her and leaning her back against a hard hot chest rivalled apparition. 

Thus propped, Tom nudged her thighs wider and buried his mouth in her pussy. She yowled at the sensation.. it was so fucking good.   
Abruptly two fingers penetrated her roughly, twisting and curling in her.. her legs shook reflexively and she tipped her head back onto Abraxas shoulder, tilting her neck for his mouth.   
By the time she’d come to a screaming uncontrollably shaking climax, it seemed that Septimus had decided to act in the spirit of the endeavour and as she was lowered gently to her hands and knees she saw through her own post orgasmic haze Sorrenson’s head moving up and down in Septimus’ lap, guided by a hand in his hair.   
Septimus was leaning back on the leather sofa with an expression of deep pleasure and by the way he urged Sorry’s head deeper and faster, he was heading toward his peak. 

His eyes met hers. 

She felt a cock being pressed up against her pussy, and had no idea whose.

Septimus eyes glinted, hooded with lust and he bucked up into the boy’s head in his lap and threw his head back, groaning as he came.   
Sorrenson tried to pull away but he was held in place. “Swallow” Septimus growled low and Sorrenson must have done so because he released him a moment or so later.   
The boy panted and recovered even as Septimus let himself slide down sideways on the sofa and stretch..

“Fuck.. that was not bad..” he complimented the boy understatedly. “I could do with a cigar right about now..  
Incidentally..If you don’t hurry, Sorry, Abraxas is going to take Maia’s mouth and you’ll have to wait..” 

Sorrenson’s head flew around wide eyed.

Well that answered her question as to whose cock was teasing her slit, soaking itself in her juices and indeed Abraxas walked around into her field of vision and dropped to his knees.   
Sorrenson immediately appeared beside him, a look of challenge on his face. Abraxas narrowed his eyes and seemed to threaten the smaller boy.   
Hermione heard a snort from behind her and glanced back to see Tom watching them amused. His hands were stroking her back and gripping her hips only to trail back up and stroke her some more.   
Noticing her eye he commented. “So much for bringing them together.” 

Hermione bristled and turned back. She arched up onto her knees and looked the blonde boy in the face with a devious little smirk.   
“Abraxas.. after earlier.. I bet you would really enjoy making Septimus gag a little, don’t you think?.. Wouldn’t it be satisfying?” 

Abraxas seemed to experience a lightning bolt of inspiration and his head whirled to look at the now startled looking boy reclining on the couch.   
“Hey.. wait..” Septimus started.

“Do it, Septimus” Tom commanded lazily, deciding matters and, pushing her back down onto her hands, he thrust into her, burying himself three quarters of the way into her in one stroke..   
not expecting it, she gasped and jolted. He had her by the hips though and forced himself the rest of the way in even as she bucked at the sensation of being filled.. 

She was so preoccupied she barely even noticed Septimus jerk upright and press against the back of the sofa in mild panic as Abraxas approached him, stroking his hand up his shaft and smiling nastily. “yeah.. I think I would like to see you choking on my cock for a bit Sep.. open wide and say Ahhh.”   
Septimus looked afraid but she saw no more as he was eclipsed by a view of Abraxas from the back. After a few seconds though, the movement of the blonds arm suggested that he was guiding a head at his groin slowly. 

Tom was sliding languorously in and out of her and she stretched like a cat, pressing herself back against him as he moved.   
One of his hands wrapped in her hair and pulled her back up.   
“Sorry is waiting, Maia. Show him how much you love to suck cock..” 

She looked up at the boy now kneeling in front of her stroking himself with an expression of great anticipation.   
He offered his cock to her, pressing its circumcised tip to her lips suggestively.   
She smiled.   
Bare minutes later he had both his hands on her head and was groaning and cursing as she played him up and down his pleasure, bringing him to the edge and backing off. 

It became difficult to concentrate when Tom started fucking her hard and reached below her to tease at her clit. She found herself moaning and letting Sorrenson simply fuck her mouth as he liked.   
This seemed to please him too and she had them thrusting into her hard from both sides.   
Sorrenson came first and she pulled herself together to suck him as he was nearing it, making him yell his release and stiffen as if petrified.   
He fell away from her almost bonelessly, panting and swearing softly, collapsing onto his back and laying splayed, staring up at the stars through the occulum. 

Tom pulled out of her abruptly as she was finally able to dedicate herself to the sensations he was giving her and then he turned her over, thrusting back in and leaning down over her, enfolding her and kissing her as he moved within her.   
She wrapped her legs around him and responded eagerly. It was so much better this way, with him all around her.   
It felt like they were all alone.   
She buried her face in his neck after she’d come for the second time and whispered “love you Tom..” and it seemed like that was what pushed him over the edge. He came, gasping and made a sound almost like pain as he pumped into her once.. twice more.. his entire body taut around her and stilled.. softening and rolling them smoothly so that she could lie on his chest as he recovered. 

She turned her face to the other three boys, lying about in various positions now. 

Abraxas wore an expression of deep satisfaction while Septimus looked..thoughtful..not upset so much.. but definitely preoccupied internally.   
Sorrenson lay on his back on the floor and had obviously been watching her with Tom. He seemed peaceful. 

Abraxas spoke suddenly and his words were..unexpected.. to say the least.   
“You were right. I don’t feel as jealous now.”

Sorrenson turned his head to look up at his two friends on the sofa. Hermione smiled.

“Are we all staying here tonight?” she asked hopefully. Tom sighed beneath her.   
“No. we stayed last night. It will become a habit.” She sighed back. “But I hate my dormroom.. and here we can all sleep in one bed.” 

This idea seemed to startle the other boys somewhat.   
“..er..” Septimus said uneasily. 

She felt her head rocked as Tom laughed below her. “Maia.. just because they might be willing to suck each other off with varying degrees of encouragement doesn’t mean they necessarily want to ...snuggle.. with one another afterward.” 

She frowned. “oh. oh.. ..sorry. I just.. thought I would like that. But I guess I see your point.   
So..we’re going back to the dorm then?” 

Sorrenson sat up. “I’d stay..” he said softly. “if.. you want to..”   
There were huffs from Abraxas and Septimus.   
Sorrenson crawled over to Tom and Hermione and hesitantly, to Tom’s evident surprise, stretched himself out alongside them, putting his arm over Hermione’s back.   
After a few seconds, Tom extracted his arm from between them and put it behind the boy, gingerly placing his palm on the smooth back.

Hermione saw Abraxas and Severus exchange a glance. 

Then Tom sighed and nudged her shoulder. “Get up. We must return. The others will notice if these three do not return to the dorm. It will be suspicious two nights in a row.” 

Hermione groaned. “I hate dorms.”   
Tom flicked her on the side of the head with a finger. “Yes.. I know. How dare Hogwarts dictate your movements. Get up.” 

She did so and Sorrenson held a hand out for her to help him up. 

She took the opportunity to cast an eye over his body. He noticed and withdrew the hand, stretching and presenting himself to her more fully, seemingly no longer even aware that he was lying in Tom’s arms quite familiarly.   
Tom however was and he snorted in amusement retrieving the appendage and rolling himself fluidly to his feet.

Sorrenson looked up at Hermione with a small smile, enjoying her attention. She saw his cock twitch and start to harden and raised an eyebrow. “We could stay..” he said softly.. “just for a bit longer.”

“No. It’s two am. Get up, Lestrange. There will be other opportunities.” Tom said absently, already summoning his clothing and dressing.   
She saw Septimus and Abraxas were doing the same thing and reluctantly summoned her own clothes. 

Sorry got to his feet, looking disappointed and followed the behaviour of everyone else. 

They were just getting ready to leave when he stopped them.   
“Wait..” Eyebrows were cocked and Tom looked impatient.   
“It’s just.. What happens tomorrow?.. Am I allowed.. I mean...can I touch..or kiss..Mai-..um.. any of you.. I mean..? If there’s no one around to see.” 

Tom smirked and responded “No. - Maia is ostensibly being courted by Abraxas. Septimus is..still..with Amalthea and you may not grope me in any manner whatsoever in public, Sorrenson. Go to bed and shake hands with yourself if you are still wanting.” 

The scruffy Rodolphus-lookalike subsided somewhat, looking downcast.   
“oh. ok. Sorry.”   
Hermione felt a string in her heart twang at his disappointment. 

She pulled away from Abraxas arm and stepped close to Sorrenson, lifting his chin with a finger and kissing him as toe-curlingly as she could manage.   
She felt him breathing faster and his arms snuck around her waist, holding her to him. He kissed well.. and his surging exuberance in that area was a tantalizing contrast to his quiet gentle softness in appearance and manner.   
He was full of contradictions. 

When she ended the kiss she could feel little spots of warmth high up on her cheekbones.   
“Another night..we’ll have more time” she whispered, rubbing her cheek against his.   
She felt how badly he wanted her to stay but Tom had said no. He nodded and swallowed. 

When she turned back to Tom he was looking at her with an unreadable expression again. He told the others to go on back, he wanted to speak with her for a moment.   
Sorrenson startled and gave him a look of utmost discomfort and aversion. “Please! Don’t..” he said in a small voice.   
Tom waved him off dismissively.   
With a last look back at her he complied. He seemed mortified suddenly. 

She frowned and turned back to Tom, whose face had darkened. 

Concerned now, she waited for him to tell her whatever it was he wanted to tell her.   
He led her back to the sofa, pensively and sat down, gesturing for her to sit beside him. 

This wasn’t good. He never sat here and he wanted her to sit down. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to like it. 

He quirked and chuckled weakly. “I do have to say that there is never a dull day with you here. I don’t think I had as many problems in my entire fifth year as I have had this week.” He took a breath. “and..we have a new one.” 

She bit her lip, panicking already. Had Grindelwald done something? Or one of the others? What else could it be? Dumbledore? 

“It was a good idea.. with Sorrenson..and the others..” he said slowly.   
“I am not.. certain.. whether I will..entertain the prospect of any of them touching me.. but it did seem to ease tension between Abraxas and Septimus considerably. ..and.. I think..perhaps it might have been good for Sorrenson.. at least he seemed a lot better afterward.   
He..   
I was concerned when you first suggested.. He.. It was not Palmer. He did not know about Palmer. I almost did not tell him in fact. He reacted so violently to the information because of Slughorn.” 

Hermione blinked, her mind understanding instinctively and yet at the same time not comprehending at all.   
“But-..” she began..

“It seems you have an effect upon truly revolting teachers in addition to every other halfway heterosexual male in the world. He must have been planning it since potions – I saw the memory of him herding Sorry in your body up against the wall and groping him. Sorrenson was terrified and disgusted and he couldn’t so much as speak to tell him to get off because Slughorn would have recognised that his voice wasn’t right and realised that he was polyjuiced.   
So he..put up with it.. and tried not to look at him. The disgusting old lech licked his cheek..and said some derogatory things about your blood status.   
It..might actually have been a great deal worse, but Professor Canker came in looking for advice on a plant and when it looked like it would take a while, Slughorn dismissed Sorry.” 

Hermione felt herself shaking.   
It hadn’t even happened to her – but she felt like, in a sense it had. For Slughorn it had...   
...She had potions in the morning. He would look at her as if he’d done that.. He would..   
He would try to get her to screw up and get another detention, she realised! 

“Oh god..’ she whimpered. “I... cant..” 

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Shhh. I won’t allow him to touch you” he said with absolute conviction.   
She suddenly felt incredibly stupid and selfish. “Oh.. my god.. Sorrenson!! I..shouldn’t have.. I didn’t know.. He seemed-..”

Tom pulled her closer. “No Maia.. It’s ok. He was more upset about you finding out than about what happened, when he left. He didn’t seem perturbed about Septimus using him like that at all.. and I..think he might actually be attracted to Abraxas.   
Either way.. he was alone and defiled this afternoon and now he is no longer alone and is looking forward to being with you.   
..and possibly to being with Abraxas.” 

She turned her head in toward his chest.   
“I miss being able to sleep next to you” she said in a small voice.   
“That’s the worst thing here.   
After..those two weeks....no.. more than that.. I always slept next to you before I ended up here..   
I can’t help continually wondering what is happening there – whether I’m just gone and time is going on without me or whether I someday end up going back and it’s like no time has passed.   
When I go to sleep, I think about you sleeping in bed..alone.   
You couldn’t sleep very well when I wasn’t in bed. You got very stroppy when I was sick and Severus put me in the other room to sleep.   
What if you’re alone?!.. I don’t want you to be alone.” 

Tom frowned. “If you were not here.. I would be alone here.   
Perhaps in your time I’ve collected the older version of you from wherever I was hiding you. 

Hermione considered this.   
“Perhaps, I suppose. But I don’t think so.”   
She nuzzled into him and asked, knowing what the answer would be “Can I come to bed with you?” 

Tom hesitated.   
After a long time he shocked her and told her that they would both remain here then. He wouldn’t risk smuggling her through the corridors up to the second floor and through the head common room. 

He transfigured the other sofa into a bed, divestoed their clothing and pulled her over gently, by the hand, getting in and wrapping his arms around her when she cuddled up to him.   
With the torches out and the starlight falling on them he said, his voice barely more than a whisper “Things are so different since you have been here, Maia.. ...I will not let anyone harm you. Least of all that revolting pederast. Or.. Palmer either.” 

Hermione smiled. “I can’t believe you made him eat his own testicle. That was..well it was disgusting actually.” 

Tom dug his fingers into her ribs slightly. “You little liar. I saw the avid look on your face. You were completely fascinated by it.”   
She snickered..   
“It reminded me of something on TV.”

Tom looked at her strangely. “Teevee?”   
She thought for a moment. “You have heard of television?” He hesitated and then nodded. “It’s a muggle device that shows pictures in a box isn’t it? I’ve never seen one but one of the boys at the orphanage was talking about it once.   
He was saying that when his parents came and found him they would watch the television every night.   
It seemed a bit pointless to me.. perhaps I was missing something.” 

Hermione smiled, thoroughly tickled.   
“Television is like.. wizarding photographs that keep moving indefinitely instead of being in a loop.   
People make programmes – they’re like.. theatre..sort of.. but its better because you can see everything close up and create drama with lighting and camera angles. Oh.. it’s too hard to explain. If you promise not to look around at anything else – I’ll show you some memories of what I mean.”   
Tom turned toward her immediately. “I will not look at anything you do not wish to show me.” he said solemnly, looking eager. 

She smiled, excited. Showing Tom memories of the future about muggle inventions seemed harmless enough.   
She focused, trying to think of a memory that he might find interesting.   
Peripherally she felt the little sensations at the edge of her consciousness that were him insinuating himself into her thoughts.   
Oh! That was a good one. She remembered watching Alien 3 on tv, with the lights out. It had come out on TV the summer before the year her parents were killed. She had stayed up to watch it by herself with popcorn.   
She focused as much as she could on the movie. She couldn’t remember all of it, but she could remember a good section of the middle.

She felt Tom’s shock at seeing pictures of the creatures chasing people in a space station.   
She remembered terminator two that had come out the year before. Tom’s astonishment at that one was even greater. She remembered vividly the section where the terminator was riding the motorbike and the futuristic quicksilver terminator was in the big rig chasing in the aqueduct. and then the end when Arnold was mostly metal and ruined and the other terminator was melting.   
She was enjoying this now. What other movies might he find bizarre and fascinating. 

She flashed onto nightmare before Christmas – the claymation film was well made! She could still remember some of the songs.   
Oh! And Top gun. Jet planes in dog fights.   
OH!! Jurassic park!!! She’d seen that at the movies but it didn’t matter. She remembered the scene where the guy was in the SUV and the cup of water suddenly jolted with concentric circles as a heavy crash sounded distantly.   
She could remember almost the entire sequence perfectly – it had been so gripping. The part where the tyrannosaurus rex was nosing the upturned car in circles.. and the horrible man went to hide in the outhouse.. and then he was eaten.. and then the fat traitor who was trying to smuggle the dinosaur sperm off the island, falling down and that lizard with the cute little tweeting call and then when it flared out its fan and spat at him.

“How did they make it?” Tom asked astounded “Where did they get the dinosaurs from? I’m assuming there are not dinosaurs in whatever year that is?” 

She snickered. “No.. It’s just special effects – trickery. She thought about a whole sequence of different special effects movies. Ghostbusters, star wars, back to the future, lethal weapon

“Thats..perhaps..somewhat more engaging than I imagined from what I heard” he admitted. 

She sighed. “Unfortunately it won’t be like that for a while.”   
She showed him a memory of watching ‘the birds’, invasion of the body snatchers and singing in the rain.   
“That’s more like what the muggle world will see in the next few years” she explained.

“Show me other things from your time..” he said quietly. 

She hesitated.   
“I can’t show you anything from the wizarding world..”

“Doesn’t matter” he replied. “Anything. Show me your room. Your family.” 

She bit her cheek. Maybe showing him this was what eventually led him to find her parents. He told her he killed them to try to draw her out.   
But then.. if that was what it was – it was already done now. Telling him couldn’t make it worse.   
She inched closer, even though he was already skin to skin with her..

“ok..” 

She remembered her parents house. In her mind she walked through it.. from room to room, looking at different objects. Photo frames.. a painting her mother had made when she had broken her leg and couldn’t go to work for long weeks.   
There were a lot of photos of her and her parents together that had been around since she could remember.   
It was funny how it was all exactly in place in her mind even though it was destroyed. 

She felt a faint ache in her mind and knew it was Tom’s reaction. 

She moved on from the photos and went to the kitchen and looked at the microwave.   
Amused she remembered making cheese on toast in it. Putting it in for fifteen seconds and taking it out melted when it beeped.   
In the back yard there was a small overgrown garden and a wire clothesline.   
At the end of the garden a tree had a swing she had swung on when she was little. 

The ache in her mind grew slightly. 

She walked around the side of the house looking up at the two story white painted suburban house.   
In the driveway her father’s blue volkswagon was sitting. Tom seemed interested so she went over in her mind and looked inside.   
Then she curved back and went in the front door and took the stairs up to her room. 

It was decorated in white and blue. She’d never been a pink frilly kind of girl.   
Most of the room was taken up with bookshelves. Her bed was single and nothing special.   
On her wall was a poster of Einstein poking his tongue out. 

She wandered around the room in her mind, looking at various knickknacks and objects and eventually went to the bookshelves.. walking past the one with wizarding books in it quickly and looking through the muggle shelves remembering stories that she particularly liked.   
Watership down was there. Crime and punishment, Alice in wonderland, the time machine, pride and prejudice... 

She felt Tom’s arms tighten around her and he pressed a kiss to her cheekbone.

She thought about her parents..   
Her mum.. flying a kite with her at the park when she was younger. She liked that memory.   
They had only gone once – her parents were usually so busy and kite flying was a bit of a gamble on the best of days. But the weather had been perfect and her mum had run with it and then it had flown and she’d felt the tension in the reel she was holding and almost dropped it.   
Her mum came back, puffed and laughing, looking up at it and then she’d knelt down on one knee and cuddled her while she flew it. 

“Stop..” Tom said hollowly.

She opened her eyes. He looked..conflicted and unhappy. She felt a knot in her throat.   
“Sorry.” She said honestly meaning it.

“Don’t!” he commanded icily. “Spare me that. Your insipid family bores me.” 

She nodded absently, knowing it was a lie.

Wrapping her arms around him more tightly she whispered “I love you Tom. Goodnight..”

He didn’t respond but after a long time, when she was almost asleep, she felt his arms wrap around her and he brushed her jaw feather light with his lips in a fleeting kiss, before he settled himself for sleep finally


	64. Chapter 64

In the morning she woke first. The occulum overhead was just beginning to throw first dawn light. 

She was lying on her back and Tom was curled up, half over her with both of his arms tightly around her.   
She smiled happily. She could wake like this every day if this stupid reality wouldn’t get in the way.

Tom flinched and opened his eyes, unfolding himself from around her gingerly. She felt disappointed when he moved away. 

“Get up. We don’t want to be late. In potions today you will work exactingly. You will stay close to Abraxas and you will not answer anything Slug asks you in anything more than a ‘yes, no or I’m sorry – I don’t know’, fashion. Understand?”   
She jumped.   
She had potions today.   
She’d forgotten.   
Oh god. No! She didn’t want to go.

Tom seemed to read her mind. “If you do not turn up to class he’ll hunt you down out of class and give you a detention – and then you will have to see him in private or near private twice – so you’re going. You will be careful and polite and will not give him a reason to detain you.”   
She nodded, biting her lip. 

Soon after they left and Hermione crept into the dark dorm-room, disillusioned and silenced

 

Breakfast went swimmingly. The sun was shining brightly down overhead and everyone seemed to be in a wonderful mood and it was only marginally dampened for her by the awareness of eyes on her from the head table.   
She had deliberately chosen to sit facing away from it but the entire time she sat and smiled and buttered her croissant she could feel the pressure of gazes on her. 

As she left with Tom, Septimus and Sorry for herbology she glanced up and saw Slughorn and Dumbledore both looking at her. Dumbledore was not twinkling and wore a troubled dark expression. Slughorn was looking at her like she was some kind of bug in a microscope, his piggy little eyes evaluating her behaviour in detail.   
She turned away and moved just a little closer to Tom, who seemed to realise the problem and brushed a hand over her back briefly as if guiding her politely.

He drew his wand before they stepped outside and she was surprised to see Septimus do the same thing. She ignored it and strode out into the sun toward the greenhouses. 

No parrot appeared to suddenly whisk her away or bestow an ominous message. They reached herbology without incident and Professor Canker was almost tolerable even if she was a miserable crotchety old woman in comparison with Professor Sprout.   
Potions loomed all too soon and she found herself fiddling with her quill till she finally accidentally snapped it.   
“Stop it” Tom’s voice was low and commanding at her side. He didn’t look at her.   
She nodded, ignoring the expression of concern from Septimus. Sorry looked almost as upset as her and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

She somehow got from her place in herbology to the dungeon corridor without being aware of the intervening space.   
Tom stopped her as the door to the potions classroom was in sight and gave her a stern look, confusing Septimus even more.   
“Exacting and polite.” He reminded her.   
She nodded stupidly, her legs insisting that they didn’t want to move forward, so that Tom dragged her forward by the elbow in the end, pulling her with the other groups of two or three students moving toward the potions classroom. 

Inside, the weight of Slughorn’s eyes on her from his desk was stifling. She unpacked her equipment as quickly and as concentratedly as she could manage and sat on her stool looking down at her text. She shook her head when Abraxas asked her what was wrong – whether something had happened in herbology? 

“Lust Potions!” Slughorn boomed out jovially. “We shall be brewing amortentia today, students, so I hope you’ve brought your wits with you – failing to brew a passably active sample will earn you a zero and a detention!”   
Groans rang out. A zero was quite expected but a detention?! If one failed in potions it was generally because of ignorance or incompetence but hardly misbehaviour.   
“Yes. A detention. So you had all better see to it that you attend to your brewing carefully. You’ll find the instructions on page one hundred and fourteen. Get to it!” 

He noted the page on the board and opened the door to the potions store with his wand, already beginning to wander around the room.   
Hermione was ..understandably disinclined.. to leave her equipment alone knowing well from all her own years in potions with Harry, Ron and Draco how easily a powder or a liquid could be dropped into even an empty cauldron and contaminate subsequent brewing.   
She looked to Tom helplessly. He in turn told Abraxas to get ingredients for both of them. 

When the blonde finally returned, levitating what they both needed behind them and placing it on the bench between them she examined the ingredients with more care than she had ever done in the past.   
She separated the ingredients that could only be alright from those which could be somehow tampered with and scourgified everything on the table.   
Twice.   
First off she tested the magnetic properties of the buxite in the jar, calculating quickly that it was correct for the mass present, and laid it to the other approved ingredients. 

Abraxas was looking at her like she had a second head. “What are you doing?! You’re wasting time!” he hissed urgently.

She shook her head absently. The holly or the juniper then.   
The holly had to be picked at new moon midnight. She strained to think of how she could test it.   
Tom suddenly cast a charm upon it and it glowed pinkish. 

“Sir..” he spoke up politely.   
Slughorn trundled over looking sharply at him and narrowing his eyes at the pink glowing holly on Hermione’s table.   
“I’m afraid that at least some of the holly has been ruined. This was picked during a full moon. If we brew with it – the potion will fail.”   
He looked at Slughorn, the perfect image of polite helpfulness.

“Is that so? However did that happen?! Ten points to Slytherin for catching the problem Mr Riddle. There should be another batch under the pansy blooms on the bottom shelf – go and retrieve that for the class, would you.”   
Tom nodded and walked off smartly. 

Hermione laid the holly aside trying not to think about the fact that the rest of her year in potions would be full of actual traps and tricks to get her to fail and moved on to the juniper berries.   
She weighed them suspiciously. They seemed somewhat heavy. 

Slughorn was watching her with intense displeasure on his face. “Miss Schiller, you are wasting your and your partner’s time – get to work!” 

She frowned slightly “Yes sir. I will begin directly Sir.”   
Casting a finite on the juniper experimentally, they transfigured into much larger goja berries. She pursed her lips. She could see Septimus looking with discomposure from the bench in front of her at the second tricky sabotaged ingredient in a row. His eyes flicked to her face, unreadable, and then he turned back testing his own ingredients. From his tension she assumed that they were all quite alright.   
Abraxas was gaping at the redder larger berries in the jar.

“Another error?!” Slughorn observed with eyebrows raised. “Whatever has happened to my stores?! I will have to have someone organise it.   
It seems that you have a discriminating eye, Miss Schiller – perhaps you-“ 

Tom, now back, cut in “I would be overjoyed if you would allow me to organize your potions store professor Slughorn! I assure you that my eye is as discriminating as Maia’s”   
He beamed at the professor who gave him a slow even stare and then smiled nastily.

“Yes. That will do nicely, Tom. You may return this evening to begin.” 

Hermione looked at Tom in poorly disguised horror. He was still smiling politely although it faltered slightly when he saw the goja berries.   
“Oh.. another error. Maia.. perhaps I should go and look for some juniper. It seems Abraxas might have gotten a bit confused.”   
She thanked him gratefully and he rushed back to the potions store. 

Abraxas was looking fundamentally confused by this exchange going on around him. “I.. they were juniper! I checked! I know what juniper looks like!”   
Slughorn gave him a sympathetic little smile “Don’t worry Mr Malfoy – everyone makes the occasional mistake. Potions are a very subtle art. You were bound to confuse something eventually.”   
He said it looking at Hermione and she felt the chill of his words settle on her as he wandered off again to inspect the cauldrons of students who had already begun brewing.. 

He was absolutely right. She wouldn’t be able to test every ingredient that they had to deal with for the rest of the year. She’d eventually mess up.   
But.. but he couldn’t assign detention for every error or failure for the rest of the year, could he?! She was sure that it must say somewhere in school policy that teachers couldn’t punish that harshly.   
The jar of true juniper slid onto her bench and Tom gave her a wary look. “Brew..exactingly.. maia” he reminded her. 

She didn’t actually need reminding. 

Abraxas pulled her close and whispered into her ear “What is going on?!” She shook her head “I’ll tell you later.” 

Tom gestured absently at Septimus who was looking at him questioningly and he turned back to his cauldron, beginning the potion. 

An hour and a quarter later, her own and Abraxas’ caudrons were covered and bubbling softly. She lowered the heat in preparation for the final ingredient. Many students had already finished and were standing by their brews with varying expressions of relief or dissatisfaction.   
Hermione wondered whether they were poor at potions or whether Slughorn had randomly tampered with a selection of a number of ingredients. 

Her potion was looking healthy at this stage.   
In front of her, Tom lifted the lid of his cauldron and placed it at the side then raised the sifter of buxite and gently tapped the measure into the liquid. A spiralling swirl of steam rose up and he leaned in slightly to sniff it, a faint smile appearing on his face. He turned back to look at her with pleasure. Septimus reacted almost exactly the same way.   
Slughorn hovered horribly and as he saw her ready to add her buxite he ambled over, standing behind and to the side of her, leaning in as if to watch her.   
He was inappropriately near. She could feel his body against her and it made her want to move away.   
Only the slight shake of Tom’s head stopped her and forced her to steel herself to ignore it.

When she added the buxite, a white spiralling steam rose and professor wafted some of it toward him with his hand, sniffing delicately and sighing.   
“A perfect potion, Miss Schiller.   
...Twenty points to Slytherin” he added very quietly.” He turned toward her and seemed to lean in farther toward her as she stiffened in horror.

“Professor Slughorn!” Alex Potter called from the other side of the room “There’s something wrong with Gemimas potion. Please could you come, Sir?” 

As Slughorn moved away, she caught the expression on Abraxas face and he looked to Tom as if seeking an explanation.   
Tom turned back to his cauldron and prepared his sample to submit. 

Hermione finally took the opportunity to smell her finished potion. She smiled, recognising the scent she had smelled only hours ago.   
Tom’s skin. His hair.. - the way he smelled, warm and soft in the mornings when he was sleepy.   
But then it shifted. She stepped away in confusion. Such a jumble of different scents. Her nose itched. Copper and aniseed and mint and something spicy and something like sweat and...   
Frowning she bottled her sample and took it up with the others, remaining close to be certain that nothing at all would happen to it. Only when Slughorn had graded it and dismissed her, looking her up and down suggestively did she pack up her things and leave. 

As they walked to the great hall Septimus growled at Tom “It affects Slughorn too, doesn’t it. What has he done? She was scared stiff in there!”

Abraxas looked alarmed.   
“He was.. when he was checking her potion? Oh Merlin’s bloody balls! What do we do?!” 

Tom nodded curtly and responded. “It wasn’t her he did anything to. You know where she was yesterday. Don’t mention it to him!” 

Septimus balked slightly and looked suddenly guilty. He lowered his eyes, aware of Abraxas looking at him with unease.

Rolling his eyes, Tom sniped at him “Don’t do that either. Salazar! Just put it out of your mind for now.” He turned to her. “You were excellent, Thank Merlin you caught the junipers! Don’t worry Maia.. We will find a means of dealing with this problem too.” 

 

In the great hall, Sorry seemed unwilling to meet her eyes and unable to avoid them. He kept looking at her pleadingly and then at Tom.   
Finally he asked. “How were your classes?” He brightened a bit when Tom responded “Better than expected. How were yours?”   
He proceeded to tell them about his boring runes class and Mathilda Grimley’s idiotic answer.   
Hermione felt herself relax – she didn’t have potions again for another five days! Wonderful! Even the watchful eye of Amalthea on her as she ate her roast beef sandwich was of no consequence.   
Palmer, she noted, had sat way down at the end of the table next to Antonia. She was next to Cygnus but astonishingly she seemed to be speaking more to Palmer than she was listening to Cygnus and was quite happy.   
Benjamin was, as a result, even more on the outer, sitting across from her watching them talk with a wistful expression. Next to him Dolohov and Roan sat and were talking to Clemens across from them about some girls from Hufflepuff who apparently knew what to do with it.

Amalthea sat opposite Hermione and Septimus next to her. He seemed to be paying a lot of attention to her today, talking with her instead of Tom, who was speaking with Abraxas next to her.   
Even so, she seemed to have one eye on Hermione’s reactions all the same. 

Hermione, unperturbed, turned away to Sorrenson and gifted him with a bright smile. He seemed to actually absorb it and grow a little.   
“Uh.. Maia..” he said nervously. She wrinkled her forehead at him questioningly.   
“You’re.. quite good in transfiguration, right?”   
She agreed hesitantly and he asked her whether she would help him with his homework. Raising her eyebrow she asked almost inaudibly if he really needed help in transfiguration and he responded with a small smirk. “Well.. I could always do better..”   
They arranged to meet in the library that evening. As she was saying it, she realised she hadn’t solved the homework Dumbledore had given and wondered whether Tom had.. and whether he might possibly direct her to a book.. 

Soon enough lunch was over and the rest of the day passed quickly. Languages was brilliant – the teacher Professor Paracelcius was funny and nice and very old – something she was starting to appreciate a lot more now. Old men tended not to be particularly motivated by sex anymore.   
She was lucky so many of her teachers were female – Thank goodness she hadn’t taken divination.. Professor Proctor was quite young and clever looking. When Abraxas had pointed him out she’d actually wondered how it might have been to take the course with someone who wasn’t totally flakey. 

By the time charms was over she was feeling quite good again. The ancient wispy haired teacher had allowed her to answer two questions and awarded Slytherin ten points for her answers. And now she was sitting in the back of the library going through transfiguration texts looking for the kind of solution that Dumbledore seemed to be implying existed to the liquid-solid transfiguration problem. 

Sorrenson was quite distracting. He seemed to be content to just sit beside her and watch her.   
“Do your homework” she instructed him in her best ‘get on with it harry’ voice and he made a vague gesture at working but essentially continued just sitting and watching her moon eyed. 

“Sorry. You wanted to study with me. I’m studying. You should be working too.” She said without looking up from her text.   
He mumbled “well..I wasn’t really thinking we’d be..studying..exactly..”   
Snorting she reminded him of what Tom had said and he sighed and tried to apply himself to his textbook. 

The boy in question appeared in the flesh soon afterward, and Sorrenson seemed suddenly avidly employed with his homework.

Tom and she exchanged a look that said he was quite aware and didn’t mind much.   
“Working on Dumbledore’s homework I see” he said with a smug reticence that told her that he indeed had already found an answer.   
Not even bothering to beat around the bush she demanded – “Alright. Let’s see it then!”   
He must have only just found the answer himself because he actually proceeded to give her a demonstration, casting aquamenti and directing the water from his wand into a sharp cube then transfiguring it into ice and back again. 

She scowled. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me how you did that?” she asked without much hope.   
He smirked and gave her the once again frozen icecube. “I have every confidence you’ll work it out” he told her and sauntered off, calling back to Sorry to make sure he walked her back to the dorm when they were done. 

She searched uselessly for another two hours while the cube on the desk melted into water again and sorry got increasingly impatient.   
“Look” he said “Dumbledore probably doesn’t expect you to find the answer if it’s that hard. He usually sets something ridiculous to keep Tom busy. He won’t mind if you don’t know it.”   
She narrowed her eyes at him and hissed back “If Tom can do it then it’s obviously possible and I just need to figure out how it’s done.” 

Eventually, on the seventh text she thought she had something.. It wasn’t the answer but it was suggestive.. it made her think about.. chemistry. Physics. Muggle sciences. It was about the thoughtforms in transfiguration – it worked with intent. That was why when you transfigured something into an animal you didnt have to focus on every cell and internal organ to produce a somewhat realistic turtle. Because when you transfigured things you thought of the idea of the thing you wanted and focused upon the feeling. But the properties of water didn’t involve a shape..and didn’t hold a shape. Water was a diffuse idea in the mind. Nevertheless it was still – essentially, just a bunch of atoms sharing electrons. The turtle and the silver spoon were all made of the same thing. She was just shuffling it around.   
If she concentrated on..on the bonds..and not the idea.. Maybe? 

She pointed her wand at the corner of the desk and tried to carefully, gradually transfigure the atoms to vibrate faster and the electrons to be shared less between them. 

Sorrenson made a sound of surprise when the wooden corner melted and dripped onto the floor like chocolate.

Well! That was a unusual thing for wood to do, she thought. Wood didn’t melt, it burned – it shifted straight to gases. The brown puddle on the floor was entirely unnatural.   
She pointed her wand at the water puddle on the table and focused on the bonds within it. She didn’t just want it to harden where it was – she wanted it to be in a shape. It proved a lot more difficult to direct the electrons to be shared in the order she needed. Slowly though a wall of ice formed and then gradually more layers were added vertically until she’d essentially knitted a cube of tight bonds.   
The perfectly angular icecube sat on the desk innocently. 

Now for the other direction. She grimly set her jaw. This would be harder. She failed the first few times. It was very, very, delicate.   
She had to weaken the bonds just enough to liquefy and then keep control to prevent them from spinning out and losing structure.   
It meant concentrating on the movement of a multitude of invisible points, imagining what she wanted them to do.   
It was very very hard to focus on them all for any length of time but she could.. if she concentrated.. liquefy the cube of ice and hold it for a few seconds then solidify it again and rest.   
She wondered, exhausted, how the hell Tom had made it look so easy! 

She became suddenly aware that Sorrenson was looking at her like she had walked on water. “You figured it out!” he said faintly. “How did you do it?!”   
She struggled to explain it to him but he had no grasp of what atoms were or electrons and he just looked at her like she was mad when she tried to tell him the water was made of lots of invisible dots with bits of invisible energy whizzing around them at incredible speed.   
No matter how simply she phrased it – there was just too much missing understanding for him to make sense of what she was saying.   
He shook his head faintly “So.. these..things.. are made of water?”   
“No.. everything is made of them.. We are too. There’s little real difference between my hand, my wand, the air, the table, you. It’s all made of the same stuff.”   
He patted her reassuringly. “Ok.. well the main point is that you figured out Dumbledore’s homework. I can see I’m not going to be able to do whatever you did. It doesn’t really matter though. Come on.. I’ll walk you back”   
She smiled and gave up, gathering her things and walking with him. 

As they went, her thoughts were lost in the new idea she’d just found and the implications. When she transfigured lead into gold – was she really just changing the material on an atomic level?   
She knew that the nuclei of the atoms were actually different between different elements – it wasn’t just the electrons.   
It was one thing to change the state of water but to turn water into say.. silver.. on an atomic level that was really complicated. Water was hydrogen and oxygen and silver was actual silver atoms.. much, much, larger..many more electrons too.. where did all those extra bits come from?!   
How was it possible to just transfigure them effortlessly with magic?! Where did the magic get the bits it needed? 

She thought.. maybe.. it would be easier going in the other direction.. if she had a silver atom could she just pull the bits off it she needed and make it into a whole lot of hydrogen atoms?   
Trying to remember everything she’d ever learned about subatomic particles she wandered on amiably, led by the peripheral figure at her side, but not really seeing anything.   
Surely she could focus down onto the atoms themselves and take away the bits that made them silver and make them aluminium or oxygen or something else. There was a vague feeling in the back of her mind that something might be wrong with that idea. She was forgetting something somewhere..   
She was distracted suddenly by the awareness that it was dark. 

“Huh?” she muttered looking up and pulling herself back out of her thoughts just in time to feel herself pushed against a wall and Sorrenson’s lips pressed to her own eagerly.   
She emitted an alarmed noise and tried to push him back to get some sense of where she was and what was happening. He kissed her harder, his hands going to her own and clasping them. Bringing them up against the wall beside her body.   
She blinked in the dark, unable to make out a thing.   
Sorrenson pulled away from her and muttered something and she found she couldn’t move her hands away from the wall.

“Stop!” she said urgently and.. surprisingly.. he actually did.. There was silence in the dark for a few seconds. Then she felt him lean in and gently kiss up her jaw. He murmured at her softly “Let me, Maia.. I ..need you.. I..I won’t hurt you..ok?”   
She blinked in the dark, suddenly aware that these boys.. Abraxas, Septimus..as much as Palmer.. and Sorrenson too – they were death eaters.   
They had all done terrible things already.. and the ease with which Sorrenson applied the cruciatus..and over so little.. the venom he’d shown in watching palmer be punished..he came across as so tender and young and nice, but he was already dangerous. 

She had thought that Tom had asked him to watch her because he was safer to be around than the others. Now she realised slowly that Tom had had every confidence that Sorrenson could protect her if it came to it.   
Sorry was in some ways a bit like Harry – or the way Harry was now. He could do meek and mild very convincingly.   
And he was no novice in sex either, even if he’d been overawed at her performance last night. The lips that were moving over her throat..the hand that had lifted her robe up and was inching its way up her thigh under her skirt...She wondered whether Sorrenson had done this to any students before (like Palmer obviously had..) or whether he limited his darker side to Tom’s ‘parties’.

“Say yes..Maia..” he growled pleadingly against her ear.   
His hand reached her panties and slid inward and over them, fingertips brushing her pubic mound lightly, teasingly.   
“I want you..” he whispered and nipped at her earlobe. 

She had to admit.. what he was doing felt good. His other hand tugged at her robe, opening it and pulling her blouse out of her skirt so that he could reach under it and feel her skin.

“..Ok” she breathed. 

As if she’d said go, she found her uniform divestoed and he almost fell upon her like a wolf over a rabbit, kissing her roughly, his hands wandering all over her, pinching, groping, fondling.   
“Ohh.. Merlin.. you feel so soft..” he said, his face somewhere hear her left breast.   
She couldn’t help panting and whimpering as he sucked and then bit her nipple. He was.. so rough..it ..it was so like Rodolphus sometimes.   
His fingers sliced through her slit, slipping easily through.   
“Wet.. so wet.. you like this..” he said in a dark smug voice. “yes” she whispered back. “more..”   
He readily complied and she was thrown off balance as he kicked her legs farther apart and pierced her ungently with two fingers, his thumb on her clit.   
“Fuck..” he exclaimed. “You’re small.. Can’t wait to get my cock in you..” She moved her hips in time with his hand, panting.

He stepped close again and kissed her hard, knocking her head back against the wall, his other hand groping and then squeezing her breast painfully.   
Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered what was wrong with her that she liked it like this. When he hurt her...   
She was whining and riding his fingers eagerly and she felt his breath fast on her lips, his face just in front of hers.

When he mashed his thumb down on her clit she came, yelping and whimpering in pleasure. In the next moment his hand was gone and he had lifted her by the thighs and sunk himself deep into her with a satisfied groan. “Ohhh.. Salazar...fuck..hot.. tight little cunt!” He started to thrust into her as she wrapped her legs around his waist, leveraging herself with her bound wrists on the wall to gyrate her hips against him.   
His resulting groan was testament to how much he liked that. He slapped into her hard and fast and he was just thick enough to stretch her but not quite long enough to stab against her cervix.. it was really almost perfect.. 

Strangely.. she wished she could have.. something else.. as well.. Tom behind her or Septimus in her mouth.. or Draco.. or Rodolphus.. yes.. she wanted Rodolphus behind her and Sorrenson in front.. it would be beautiful! 

He pulled at her legs, unwinding them from around his waist and hooking his arms under her knees, pulling her up and apart, stretching her open for him..   
Panting he demanded “Say..my..name..”

She moaned at the angle of his thrusts, not really attending. He slammed into her harder and demanded louder “Say.. my.. fucking.. name.. you ..dirty ..little ..whore!”   
She whimpered, her mind not really working on all cylinders “Sorrenson!” 

He seemed to enjoy hearing it, his movements shifted and he was hitting a place inside her that made her see stars.. over and over..   
“Say it again.. I want to hear you scream it when you come..” he growled and lifted her legs, putting them against his shoulders and stepping into her, bending her in half   
“Sorrenson! Sorry..Sorry.. Sorry...” she moaned. “ohh.. fuck Sorry.. you feel so good.”   
He laughed low and brought his hand under her to tease at her little rosette with his fingertip. “I’m going to have you there too..” he panted.. “but.. not tonight..”   
He seemed to change pace and angle and the combination of the position she was cramped into and his hands gripping her ass, his breath on her face..and mostly the delicious little place inside her that he kept rubbing against ..had her shrieking his name in minute, cramping in delight.   
She felt Sorrenson losing himself too, his movements jerky and spasmodic, his cheek pressed against hers, breath fast and urgent on her ear. 

When he came he whimpered, wrapping his arms around her lower back, her thighs between them, knees bent slightly against his shoulders. 

Coming down he pulled out of her with a huffed exhalation and slowly lowered her legs to the ground, then leaned back in and kissed her gently, chastely, over and over, his fingertips exploring her face, her cheekbones, her jaw.   
“I can understand why Abraxas had so much trouble” he whispered. 

She tugged at her arms. “Want to release me?”

He sighed. “No.. not really.. I want to take you home and keep you locked in the family dungeon forever.. But..I’m guessing you probably wouldn’t like that and I’m sure Tom would kill me.   
Fuck..how can he do this.. Let any of us touch you?!.. If you were mine...” he trailed off. 

She sighed, closing her eyes. “Please Sorry.. dont’!”   
She couldn’t see it but she had the feeling that he’d turned his face away. “Yeah..” he said softly after a few seconds. “I..know you’re right...” 

She felt the spell holding her wrists dissipate and lowered them, massaging them with her hands. “Where the hell are we anyway?!” she grumbled.   
“Passage by the shepherd painting on the second floor.” He said absently.   
“Oh.” She said thoughtfully. She flicked out her wand and lit a lumos. Sorrenson’s face looked even more Rodolphus-like in the sharp shadows.   
He looked at her hungrily and leaned in again to capture her lips. “Go again?” he grinned. 

“No.. we have to get back. If Tom came to check on us again and couldn’t find us he’ll be...furious” she amended. She had been going to say ‘worried.’   
Sorry looked at her strangely. “How did you even meet him?!.. How did you get into this?!.. He gave you his mark.. It took.. you don’t want to know what it took to get it for each of us.” 

She grimaced. “You don’t want to know what it cost me either” she said quietly.

Sorrenson’s eyes widened with interest and he looked like he was about to say “Yes I do” She turned away and summoned her uniform, scourgifying it of the dust and applying the reverse of the divesto.   
“Come on” she said tightly.

He seemed about to argue but he shook his head and dressed himself with a wandflick. 

As she turned into the darkness of the passage that she knew came out on the ground floor near the entrance to the dungeons, Sorrenson said “I’ll wait.. and sometime you’ll tell me..” 

She didn’t respond but she was thinking ‘not bloody likely!’. 

 

They returned to the common room without incident and soon after, said goodnight as Hermione went to bed while Sorri went to go and sit with Cygnus and palmer on the sofa, who were playing a game with lots of black and white counters on a board. Palmer was playing white. Most of the board was covered in black. Cygnus looked greatly amused as usual.

 

When she entered the dorm, Amalthea, Antonia and Carmen were sitting on Antonia’s bed and talking. They stopped when she came in and gave her dirty looks.   
She ignored it and went to her bed to get her nightdress and escape them into sleep, but that was apparently not good enough.   
Antonia called across at her loudly – “Are you seeing Abraxas?” 

Hermione rolled her eyes and made a show of looking around the room, twitching aside the curtains. “Not at the moment.. Why, is he here somewhere? Are you seeing him? Are you sure you aren’t imagining it?”

Amalthea pulled a face. “Don’t be purile – are you dating him? Is he courting you? Answer the question.” 

“What does it have to do with you?!” she responded irritatedly. 

Carmen frowned. “Well.. nothing really except that he came in late last night but you didn’t come in at all! And we know you weren’t in the boy’s dorms either.” 

Hermione groaned. “I have no idea what it matters to you but I fell asleep in an alcove over my transfiguration text if you must know. I was more tired than I realised and didn’t wake up till early in the morning. Can I go to bed now or do you have more questions for me, O grand inquisitor?” 

The girls exchanged a look. “Fine. I’ll ask Abraxas then.” Antonia said snottily. 

“You do that.” Hermione shot back as she tugged the curtains closed around her bed. She heard the door open and close and got into her night dress, banishing her uniform to a hanger at the end of her bed.   
She was just getting comfortable in bed when the door opened again and Antonia said. “He said yes. He didn’t seem very bothered hearing she didn’t come in last night though..   
Do you know what he said?! He said I really should get a life and stop poking my nose into hers. Isn’t that rude!!.. What a jerk!” 

Hermione felt herself smile and warmth broke out inside her. Abraxas was wonderful. On a whim she got out of bed in her white nightdress, barefoot, and went to the door, letting herself out and going to the common room.   
Abraxas wasn’t up there. Nosy bloody cow must have actually gone all the way down into the boys dorms to find him and ask him.   
Sorri and palmer looked at her in shock. Cygnus who was facing the other direction turned around to see what they were looking at and his eyes widened too in surprise.   
“Uh.. sorry.” She said “go back to your game.” 

She nervously went to the boys stairs and descended two flights to the sixth year boys floor.   
She’d never been down here before. It was somehow different to the girls side. Darker or.. she didn’t know. Just less hospitable somehow.   
Which room was Abraxas in? Shit.. She should have asked. Oh well.   
She knocked on the first door and someone said ‘yeah’. She poked her head in and thank god.. it was the right room.   
Abraxas apparently roomed with Septimus, Benjamin and two others who weren’t present. He looked surprised and pleased to see her. 

“Maia!..” 

Septimus poked his head up from bed and sat up saying “what?”   
She bounded in, not unaware that all three boys were eyeing her in her nightie, and threw her arms around Abraxas, kissing him.   
He responded eagerly, his hands wandering over her through the thin cotton. 

“What in the world..” Septimus growled. “That daft bint Antonia was just in here. I assume this is related to that intrusion somehow.” 

Hermione pulled away and smiled up at the blonde dazzlingly. “Yes. Thank you. They were being nasty. I’m sorry. I stayed with Tom last night. Apparently the horrible cows are watching my bed to be sure I’m not in his-“ she pointed to Septimus vaguely.   
Septimus shot a look at Benjamin, who seemed confused, watching this going on, and bit his tongue.   
Hermione was almost certain if it had been just the three of them in the room he’d have made some comment about her being in his bed.

“I better go back to bed” she said reluctantly. “I just needed to come and thank you for putting her in her place.” 

Abraxas smiled at her, pleased. “You’re more than welcome. How affectionately grateful do you think you might find yourself if I came back with you and hexed all three of them?”   
She smirked at him. “Don’t tempt me!” and then she was out the door and climbing the stairs quickly, hoping not to be caught out by anyone in the boys dorms in her current attire.   
She only waved quickly to the three on the couch and called ‘night’ before darting back down the girls side and back into her room.

Amalthea, seeing her huge smile and bruised kissed lips demanded in a snitty tone “And just what do you look so pleased with yourself for now?!”   
She gave her the finger and went to bed.   
She heard them bitching as she closed her curtains. “She wouldn’t have gone into the boys dorm dressed like that would she?! There’s no way!! That’s.. that’s just-..” 

There was a scrabbling and then the door was opened and slammed again. Hermione didn’t hear the end of the drama because she cast a few wards, a silencing spell and drifted off to sleep happily.

 

 

She walked into the great hall that morning in fantastic spirits. Abraxas smiled brightly, seeing her coming and made space next to him.   
Septimus, she could see was not smiling. He looked a bit pissed at her actually.. 

Tom didn’t look up from the fruit salad he was stirring vaguely. 

She frowned. It was unlike him to not notice her.   
Sorry was looking at Tom too and seemed a bit uneasy. Nobody but him had apparently noticed a thing. 

She made Abraxas move down and sat between him and Tom. At this Tom graced her with a glance and then went back to picking at his food.   
Abruptly, his manner changed and he looked up and smiled that small self-assured little smile he frequently wore and ate with a more usual gusto. 

She frowned uneasily. Was he worried about something? Had something happened that she didn’t know about?   
Abraxas nudged her and smirked, schadenfreude all over his face – “You know.. last night after you left Septimus was practically assaulted by your roommates. It was brilliant. He was lying there trying to sleep and they were dancing about hurling accusations.   
They must have kept it up for half an hour at least. Truly unbelievable.   
Apparently he needs to stay away from you because you are a tramp and obviously betraying me already.” 

At that Hermione did smirk a little. “I hope you dressed them down again..” she said, looking across the table at Amalthea who was practically superglued to the weary, irritable, Septimus’ side, gripping onto his arm and glaring at her. 

Abraxas smiled back, flashing perfect white teeth. “I did.. I told them in no uncertain terms that I have complete faith in you and am absolutely certain as to where your loyalties lie.”   
At that even Septimus smirked faintly, although he hid it well, taking a bite of toast with butter and honey.   
Hermione put her hand on Abraxas thigh under the table and stroked him gently. Then she turned her attention to her own breakfast, turning only a half hearted ear to the conversation between Sorry and Abraxas. 

Soon enough it was time for class and she hung back so that she could walk next to Tom. He still seemed..off..somehow. She tried to ask him whether anything had happened but he changed the subject and enticed her into a debate on the nature of free will. 

 

 

In DADA they spent the lesson going over the new discoveries in the anatomy and physiology of haggarts thanks to Hermione’s accident in the previous class.   
Apparently the ministry had claimed the creature’s remains and were carrying out all manner of tests on it but Professor Merrythought had thoughtfully engaged in her own research before alerting them to its existence and it was this amazing new data she wanted to share with them.   
They could continue with their regular lesson plan next week. This was something special..

Hermione listened with interest wondering why she had never learned any of these things in DADA in her time – if they were established fact now – then why was the record still sketchy regarding the physical form of haggarts and boggarts.   
Assuming they even had a similar form. Simply because they behaved in a comparable manner did not mean that boggarts weren’t some kind of horsefly with grand aspirations. 

Tom asked a lot of questions – most of which Hermione probably wouldn’t have thought to ask. What differences did the creature’s brain show to other comparable organisms of that size and form. Implied – house elves and goblins. By the time class was over, Hermione felt like she probably knew more about haggarts than most people in her time. 

The last ten minutes of class she had been sitting on the edge of her seat impatient to go to transfiguration. In the corridor, on the way upstairs, Tom snorted and commented “I can only conclude you found a solution to the liquid-solid problem.” 

She smiled broadly. “Yes!!” she gushed. “More than that maybe..but I need to think about it first..”

He furrowed his brow. “What was your solution?” she snorted. “You wouldn’t tell me yours!” 

He started to say something but then Sorrenson appeared at her side. “You’re in trouble.” He said with a grin.

She startled   
“Why?!”

He told her that Madam Pleck had found her melted table and apparently they couldn’t get it to unmelt properly. Every time it was transfigured back together it would only hold for a while and then it just melted again. They had had to cut the corner off and then transfigure the rest of the table to replace it. 

Tom looked surprised and avaricious. “What kind of a solution did you find then that permanently...melts?! ..wood?”

She bit her lip “I forgot about the table. Damn. They don’t know it was me, right, though?”   
Sorrenson looked at her like she was daft – “There are spells to track biomatter you know. Of course they know it was you. Dumbledore was just in the library. I bet you have to demonstrate for the class.” He darted off ahead to tell Abraxas and Septimus. 

Tom looked at Hermione with a glint in his eye. “You’ll be teaching me whatever it is that did that later.” He said with conviction. 

She nodded on general principles. “Sure. But wait a bit till I’ve got it sorted in my mind, ok? It’s still a bit iffy.”   
He didn’t respond and then they were at the door. She saw Beatrice had saved her a seat and the girl gave a little wave.   
Abraxas had saved her a seat too though. She stood hesitating.

“Oh go and sit with her if you really want to” Tom muttered behind her.

She brightened and veered off toward Beatrice, offering her a bright smile and asking her how she was.

 

The class progressed quite well. Dumbledore, who had smiled and twinkled at her when he came in and saw her sitting next to Beatrice, had not asked them anything about the liquid solid transfiguration problem at all. Instead they were working on incremental shifts in colour and size – fine tuning, in essence. 

A number of people in the class seemed to struggle with even large incremental shifts. It seemed like the smaller the change you wanted the harder it was to focus in your mind on the different outcome.   
She saw sorry look over at her frustrated because his sea-green gem wouldn’t change to turquoise according to the colour chart. 

It was only at the very end of class that Dumbledore asked, as if in passing, whether anyone had solved the problem he had set at the last lesson.   
Only three hands went up. Tom, her own and a blond plaited girl two rows in front of her. 

“Ah. Excellent, excellent. Everyone else may leave early – if you three would remain please to show me your solutions. 

Internally, Hermione snorted. Of course he’d do it like that. For all Sorry’s enthusiasm – there was no way Dumbledore would allow the accidental transfer of some spell that he himself was apparently unable to counteract.   
She was certain he’d not have let her get away with not admitting it either. 

The class filed out with Sorrenson looking particularly peeved back at her. He’d obviously wanted to see the reaction – although whether Tom’s or Dumbledore’s she couldn’t be sure. 

When the last student had filed out, Dumbledore came around to lean against the front of his desk looking quite eager.   
“Right then. Miss Maplewood – please demonstrate for us your solution.” 

The blonde girl turned in her seat and asked for an ice cube. 

Dumbledore hesitated and then nodded “Of course..” He turned and retrieved one from a box on his desk.   
Hermione wondered if he had been planning to do the lesson on the liquid solid issue before the library this morning. 

The blonde girl took the icecube and concentrated on it and then it liquefied, rippling slightly over its surface. 

Dumbledore clapped and smiled broadly. “How did you do it?” he asked. 

She swallowed and dithered around.

When the girl finally got to the end of her meandering explanation Hermione pieced together that she’d only transfigured the centre to liquid, the outer surface was a gellikelayer sufficient to keep the form.   
Dumbledore smiled and told her that unfortunately that wasn’t the objective – and that Mr Riddle had used a similar method in the last class employing wards. 

The blonde looked very discouraged and started to make excuses about how she had looked through the library and found nothing that explained how to do it.   
Dumbledore smiled and said the answer would come to her. 

Hermione privately doubted it. If she’d had the solution the girl had had, she wouldn’t have raised her hand in the first place. It was obviously a cheat and a stolen cheat at that.   
When the girl asked if she could stay and see the other solutions, Dumbledore told her that it would spoil her drive to discover and sent her off. 

Hermione wanted to smirk at him. Drive to discover. Pfff. 

He turned to Tom then and asked him for his solution. 

Tom smiled politely. “Actually, I have two, Professor”

Dumbledore didn’t seem at all surprised or even particularly pleased, which peeved Hermione off. She was surprised. Which one had he demonstrated for her in the library? 

Tom went on. “I don’t need an ice cube, Sir. Thank you. I’ll make my own.” 

Dumbledore nodded. He had apparently expected no different. 

The display was exactly the same as he had showed her in the library. 

“The answer, Mr Riddle?” Dumbledore asked, with just a shade of predatorial glitter in his eye. 

“Certainly Sir. This is not an optimal method. I simply worked on casting more than one spell at once. Therefore I can levitate and shape the water with one while I transfigure it with the other. It’s a cheat, obviously Sir. – however I have found that the ability to focus on more than one spell at once has been useful to learn in any case.” 

Dumbledore looked a little put out by Tom’s outright statement that it was a cheating method – he had probably wanted to call him on it. Hermione was neither here nor there about the legitimacy of the solution. She was more preoccupied with the implications of being able to cast more than once spell at once with the same wand.   
That was fantastic! One could hold a high level shield charm and fire offensive hexes at the same time. How the hell did he do that!?

“What is the optimal solution, Mr Riddle” Dumbledore said, gifting him with a thin smile.

“It’s a matter of focus and intent, Sir” Tom told him. “Exactly like the gems we were transfiguring today. It’s not a matter of transfiguring merely a change to liquid water – you have to transfigure a cube of water and maintain focus upon the full idea of it.   
As water is nearly never a floating cube, it is difficult to persuade the mind to grasp the concept fully enough to intend it.” 

Dumbledore nodded slowly. “That is the correct answer, Mr Riddle. I am..unsurprised.. that you alone have realised it.”   
This was probably as close to praise as Dumbledore ever got. Tom looked shocked.   
“But let us see what Miss Schiller has come up with. I do not believe she employed the same methods as you have just demonstrated.” 

Hermione felt nervous suddenly. “Um.. ok..” she said softly. 

“Come closer Miss Schiller. Mr Riddle too. Let us all get a better look at your process.” 

Blushing against her will, Hermione got out of her desk and moved to the one in front of Dumbledore. Tom shifted to the one next to hers.   
He was visibly as eager as the professor to see her demonstration. 

Hermione cast aquamenti until she had a nice puddle of water on her desk and then tried to focus.   
It was much harder with these two watching her. 

“Er.. I need to concentrate..quite a bit.. please..”

Dumbledore nodded. “We will not interrupt you until you are finished.” 

She took a deep breath and focused on the water, trying to remember how she’d felt in the library when she’d been thinking about the bonds and the atoms in their orchestrated movements.   
It took a minute for her to get a grip on the impression in her mind and then she started to build the vertical wall of atoms bond by bond and layer by layer until she had a very solid, perfectly glassy clear cube of ice.   
Then, not realising her breathing was speeding with the effort to keep a fine touch and not topple everything with a clumsy bond pulled in the wrong place, she weakened the structure, rearranging the electrons until most of them were not shared and a delicate cube of liquid water sat on the desk rippling.   
Then she rearranged them back again – which was a lot easier and the cube became solid once more. She looked up, blinking. 

Dumbledore looked entranced - Tom looked confused.

“And... how..did you do it, Miss Schiller?” the professor asked. 

She sat back thinking of how to explain it. This was the part she had had difficulties with when Sorry had asked and she hadn’t come up with an easier explanation yet. 

“Well... um.. ok.. to start with – everything..is made of little tiny pieces.. like balls. And they have little bits of energy that orbit around them.” 

Dumbledore nodded. Tom didn’t but he looked interested. She went on. “and.. so.. the little balls – call them atoms.. in things that are solid are sharing the little bits of flying energy – right? They kind of move around several of them in figure 8s and other reciprocal orbits. But in things that are liquid.. they don’t so much – they just go around their own atom.   
So I just used the energy bonds to construct a lattice of atoms in a cube shape and then I changed the bonds a little bit at a time until enough of them were not shared that the lattice was liquid, but a few were shared, keeping the cube in shape.” 

Tom’s jaw dropped. “and it.. apparently works on tables too..” he said somewhat sarcastically.   
“Can you do that for metal? Or.. glass? Or..paper? The applications in potions seem phenomenal.. can you-“

Dumbledore held up a hand.   
“That is an extremely inventive method of solving the problem. I have to commend you. Fifty points to Slytherin, Miss Schiller.   
But now.. you must tell me how you thought of this! It seems such an unusual theory. ...atoms.. little flying energy.” 

Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it again.   
This was tricky – she could hardly tell the truth. She needed to use old explanations. Saying – my science teacher said so probably wouldn’t do. 

“Um.. ok.. in the 6th century BC in India jainists developed theories about atoms composing objects and then in the 5th century BC the greek philosopher Leucippus and then his student Democritus developed a theory based on the idea that there was some kind of smallest unit of matter – which he called atomos – it means uncuttable.   
Then um... in the late seventeen hundreds Antoine Lavoisier theorised about the conservation of mass and came up with the idea that there are elements which are different to one another on an atomic level – like.. um.. silver.. and gold. And then John Dalton in the 1800s proposed the idea of compounds of atoms – like.. um.. water which is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.”   
She couldn’t really remember when that particular factoid had been discovered – it was such a standard piece of knowledge in the nineties. Even idiots would know it.   
She decided she should probably leave it there. Dumbledore was looking at her with an intense speculative expression.

“And you have somehow developed a personal interest in..muggle philosophy and science.. while running from Grindelwald?” 

Hermione blushed. “No sir.. I had it before too. And.. my mother was very interested in philosophy. She wanted to be a teacher for a while.”   
This too was all completely true. Not a lie in sight. 

Dumbledore seemed to let it go although a sharpness in his eye told her that her story hadn’t convinced him at all. 

“Well...How fascinating in any case. This is exactly the kind of thing Grindelwald should probably think about while he’s on his little crusade.   
The muggles have come up with so many fascinating and useful ideas in their history and many of them.. as we see here.. can be very useful in the wizarding world also.” 

Hermione frowned slightly.. it seemed to her that the reason for not killing muggles should probably be a bit stronger than ‘they might do something that could be useful for the wizarding world in some way.’   
It was like Tom punishing Palmer because he had disobeyed and not because of what he’d done.   
“Yes Sir. I agree completely” she heard herself say. “Do you think that the man might be reasoned with?” 

Dumbledore gave her a long intense look. “I highly doubt it” he said after a while. “He is..convinced.. that he is doing the right thing.. people are so much harder to persuade when they are working in pursuit of what they believe to be noble ends.” 

Hermione observed the irony in his mentioning that in light of what he would do in the future. 

“Enough about that dreadful despot, though” Dumbledore said brightly. “Coming back to your method. I have not heard of anyone using it before – although I will have to do some research to be certain. If it is truly novel – you may be permitted to name the practice.   
In the meantime however I would caution you .. and yourself Mr Riddle – although I doubt the idea would occur to you to share something rare and potentially valuable – Do not talk of this practice further. It may be potentially dangerous.   
I do keep up with some advances in the muggle world through a friend I have known for many years in the Americas. They are working on..atoms.. there and from what I have heard there can be some very unpleasant effects if one is not careful.” 

Hermione experienced a tiny jolt – in the states right now Einstein and his group would be working on splitting the atom. She thought again about her idea to simply take bits away from silver to make it oxygen.   
Where would all the bits go? – they would be released. Explosively. 

Perhaps she should not experiment on that.. necessarily. And.. she’d have to do something extremely nice for Sorry later to thank him for possibly preventing her from blowing up Hogwarts and a large radius around it. 

“Ok professor. I’ll keep it theoretical and I won’t tell anyone else about it.”   
Dumbledore smiled.   
“Good girl. Now. Off you go, both of you – you are missing lunch.”

 

Outside the classroom, they had only walked a few paces before Tom grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her down the next side corridor and into an alcove. He looked extremely excited.

No sooner were they in the hollow behind the statue than he was pressing her up against the wall and kissing her urgently.   
“So clever... and you’re.. mine” he mumbled in between kisses.

He cast a series of spells over his shoulder without looking then vanished her underwear, lifted her against the wall and, freeing his cock from his pants and robes, took her, fast and dirty. Afterward he sunk to the floor with her on his lap, stroking her head and recovering.   
She liked it when he did that. He had a way of stroking her hair that was unbelievably relaxing and pleasant.   
She leaned her head against his shoulder.

“Now..” he said when he was calm again. “what are these..unpleasant side effects the old goat was referring to?” 

She snorted faintly. Typical. 

She raised her head and looked into his eyes suggestively. He took the hint and delved in. She showed him a memory of old film footage of atomic tests and then photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”   
He almost choked.

“Muggles did that?!..How?! It’s.. the scale of it.. It’s-.. are you sure?!” 

Turning her face away to break the contact she rolled her eyes “Am I sure? What kind of question is that? – It’s common knowledge in my time.   
Are you sure what the..five.. or six.. or nine or whatever uses of dragons blood are?” 

He turned her face back “And you are saying that ..you.. could do that?.. Dumbledore was implying that you might do that.. is that not so?” 

She wasn’t sure what to answer. It seemed like a no would cause him to want to experiment and a yes would cause him to want to experiment even more, with marginally more caution but a hell of a lot more devious intent. 

“I..think.. I might have come close to accidentally doing something like that yesterday.. My thoughts were going in a certain direction and I didn’t make the connection. Luckily Sorry distracted me and I forgot about it till class.”   
Tom looked annoyed.. almost bitter for a moment, turning his face away. 

She felt something stab inside for a moment, remembering how he had been this morning. 

Was he upset about Sorrenson? Did he find out somehow or did Sorrenson say something stupid.. He’d also looked a bit concerned this morning. 

She placed her hands on Tom’s face, turning him back to look at her.   
His eyes were blank and shielded although there might have been a flash of fury there for a moment.

“What is it? What has happened? This morning you were...bothered by something.. What’s the matter?” 

He turned his face away roughly. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”   
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheekbone lightly then lifted her off him and stood.

“Come on. We should get some lunch. I have arithmancy in a quarter of an hour.” 

She felt a worried shiver in the bottom of her stomach but straightened herself. He had vanished her knickers so she’d have to go without which was a bit...embarrassing if she was to sit in the grand hall like this.. she scourgified herself twice and hoped that nobody would notice 

Tom walked quite quickly and she had to hurry to keep up. 

In the Grand Hall everyone was sitting chatting and laughing. She smiled.   
Dumbledore was watching them both as they entered. He smiled at her and inclined his head, but his eyes looked slightly.. hard.. She smiled a plastic smile back.   
Her eye was drawn against her will to the vile man sitting next to him. 

Slughorn didn’t meet her eye although he was looking at them both. He was looking at Tom.   
Just then he smiled a nasty smile.. It looked like.. it reminded her of.. the way Severus had looked at her before he’d made her watch the memory of Lucius.. it looked..horrible..   
Just then his eye slid to her and if anything his smile widened. It was a different smile but it was very similar.. the difference was..one of anticipation.   
His smile looking at Tom hadn’t had anticipation in it while his smile to her had. 

She suddenly had a sick feeling.

Grabbing Tom by the sleeve she spun on her heel and nearly forcibly dragged him out of the Great Hall, although as soon as he realised her intent he shook her off and followed her with a polite confused expression.   
No sooner had the doors closed than his expression changed to one of blind rage.

“What in Hades do you think you’re doing?!” he hissed at her “In public!..If I had time..I’d-..”   
She interrupted him urgently, her eyes wide.   
“Did you go to Slughorn last night?!!”

He cut off as if silencioed. His face was perfectly blank.

“Tom!!” she pleaded with him. “Please.. tell me.. did you?” 

He turned away, his voice icy. “Go away, Maia. I am not in the mood right now. I intend to speak with Roan and then go to arithmancy.   
I have no intention of allowing you to have a drama all over me at present.”   
That said he marched away from her back into the great hall. 

She stood in the foyer in the sudden silence and felt extremely bad. Painfully sick in fact.   
She’d been sitting in the library and he’d come in.. had he already been to Slughorn and was seeking her out?.. or was he about to go and wanted to speak with her?.. probably the latter..   
He’d come to her and she was busy on..rubbish.. on tripe for Professor Dumbledore. 

Panic welled up in her. What had the sick fuck done? He.. he wouldn’t have..done..anything more than touch or ..insinuate or..anything..would he? 

But..Tom had seemed very reticent about the teacher when he was telling her to be perfect in potions - not to screw up.   
Tom was perfect in potions.   
Without fault, in fact. 

She thought about the information she’d learned about him when they were looking for the horcruxes. He’d got the idea and the information about horcruxes from Slughorn. Harry had shown her his memory of the memory.   
Tom had been.. young.. only what.. fourteen? Fifteen at the most. Slughorn had let him stay behind after the slug club meeting. 

Hermione’s mouth tasted coppery and sour. 

Little things.. looks.. gestures.. And Tom was used to abuse.. when it was for something he wanted, he’d just tolerate discomfort.   
He’d put himself between her and Slughorn without even hesitating.. and she’d been in a passageway fucking Sorrenson while.. 

Oh God!! 

She literally ran down the corridor to the girls bathroom and threw herself into the first stall, emptying her stomach.   
It hurt so much.. the thought.. What she’d done while he-..   
And he’d come to her and she hadn’t even bothered to lay aside her books and talk with him. 

Abruptly something twisted in her and she was filled with the most enormous rage. Hate for Slughorn. In a way she hadn’t even felt when he was leching all over her in class.   
She wanted him dead.. but how could she kill him?! – She’d taken classes with him herself in the future. It was not possible to kill him.   
Augh. Time!   
What would happen if she did kill him..

But then Tom seemed to believe that it wouldn’t be possible to create a paradox. Something would prevent her. Something would always get in the way – or else the future would have been different. 

But...perhaps Slughorn could be called away or sent away for a while now..   
He could get sick.. he could be injured.. something..

He had to be back for Professor Snape too, she realised.   
Oh god.. oh fucking god!!! The horror of that hit her too. NO!! The prick wouldn’t abuse Severus like he was doing with Tom and..god knows how many others.   
She would not allow this to continue. 

She needed air. 

No. She needed advice.. but air might be the first step to thinking clearly.   
She turned down the corridor and went out to the little courtyard with the fountain that she’d been on her first day. Breathing deeply she sat down on the little stone bench beneath the honeysuckle. 

Something.. she had to do something. Something to get rid of Slughorn for at least two years. 

It occurred to her vaguely that she was being unbearably selfish by only thinking of the next two years during which time Tom would be here.   
But you know.. she couldn’t do everything and obviously if he taught in the future she was limited in what she might achieve. 

A whistle attracted her attention and the red and blue bird twirled and looped and landed on the centre of the fountain chirrping at her. 

“Hello Mencius” she said sadly.   
The bird chirrped back.   
She watched him preen and jump about on the statue for a few minutes and then slowly she knew what she wanted to do. 

“I have to go now. Bye Mencius!” she said, as if the bird would hear or care. 

Obviously lunch was over, as the corridors were full of students. She took her time walking, hoping that they’d clear out into their classes by the time she got to the room of requirement. They hadn’t so she sat down on a bench some way down the hall and waited until the corridor was clear. 

“I need a book with a spell or potion to get rid of Slughorn for a few years and a quiet place to read” she thought over and over, pacing. 

The room provided.


	65. Chapter 65

Later on she was sitting, swinging her legs over a balcony the room had provided over a lake and forest that looked a little like the one the Dark Lord’s castle was situated near in the future. Behind her a cauldron was simmering in professor Snape’s potions lab.   
She’d had to specify and rephrase and try different requirements many times till she found a potion that would put the victim to sleep for several years, but not permanently harm them, which could be made with realistically attainable ingredients and which could not be easily detected or counteracted. The potion she was brewing was very old and extremely rare. The book had been in Aramaic till she’d required the room to translate it.   
She doubted anyone would recognise Amnui’s rest when the professor didn’t wake up one morning. 

The ingredients were with the exception of one item, quite readily attainable from any apothecary.   
Not anyone would have had access to a basilisk obviously, however, conveniently for her it was a small thing to open a tiny portal into the cistern system that she knew the basilisk had travelled through at one point before Myrtles death and summon what she needed. The handful of scales that returned were sufficient. Now she was simply hanging around biding her time till the potion was done. 

She was going to give it to him at dinner.. or possibly afterward.. she had decided. The next problem was simply.. how to do it. Or rather.. how to do it without getting caught. She was a bit paranoid that she would forget some means of tracing her and would end up in Azkaban.   
Not that she’d remain in Azkaban.. but if she couldn’t hide in Hogwarts then she’d end up in Nurmengard over long or short and she didn’t want that. So.. she needed to think of a way to administer a liquid that apparently tasted of bitter cherries without implicating herself. 

She was beginning to think that she did need to tell someone possibly.   
Maybe Tom.   
Or.. or Sorrenson? He seemed to know a bit about means of getting caught.. his dad was an auror, he said. And she thought he’d probably have every reason to want Slughorn gone, even if he didn’t take potions with him anymore.   
But there was time to go and talk to one or the other when the potion was brewed. For the moment she was enjoying the evening air in..wherever this was... and looking forward to the weekend.

She rested her head against the bars of the balcony. She’d asked for it to be like this so that there was no door and she could not fall. It felt a bit prisonlike but it was better than lying at the bottom of a gully..wherever this was. 

The time went by quite pleasantly until her mark started to burn. 

It hadn’t really done that before, she realised.   
It wasn’t the horrible searing pain of the punishment Tom had inflicted on her to keep her in one place while he came to her..and it wasn’t the tingle she’d felt in the past either.   
This was a definite..negative..sensation. Uncomfortable. Slightly painful. One quite wanted it to stop at the earliest possible convenience.   
This was obviously what it felt like when he was not in the best mood with you and desired you to come to him immediately. 

Well.. she couldn’t leave her potion simmering. There was no way she was leaving the room of requirement till she could take a bottled sample with her.   
On a whim she pulled back her robe sleeve and unbuttoned her blouse, pushing it up and then she licked her mark.

The burning stopped immediately. 

After a minute or so it started up again.. but it was much less. She repeated the action and then she got up from the balcony and went inside to check on her potion. It was almost time to stir. 

There was a knock, unsurprisingly, at the door ten minutes later followed by a tingle on her mark.   
She let him in and went back to the potion immediately, watching for the colour change.

He looked a bit miffed but it was tempered by curiosity.   
“What are you making?” he enquired, peering into the cauldron next to her.   
“Don’t inhale it. “ she said quickly, pushing him back protectively. “It’s..something for Slughorn. I need to find a way to get him to take it. I...can’t kill him..because he’s still around in my time – but I’ll be damned if I let him near you again!   
Why didn’t you tell me?! I would NEVER have let-“

he interrupted her “You have answered your own question. Do not concern yourself. It is nothing new and nothing I couldn’t handle.   
What exactly are you thinking to do to him with this potion?” 

She huffed angrily and turned away. “It’s a kind of ancient sleeping draught. He’ll be out like a light for about five years. Enough time for us both to be long gone.   
He teaches here again in the future.. Dumbledore brings him back. I took potions with him in my time.   
...He was different then, though.. perhaps something happens to his memory – he didn’t seem to recognise me at all, at least that I noticed.”

Tom snorted. “He needs to drink it, I suppose? Skin contact isn’t adequate?”   
She nodded. “But.. I-”   
Tom shook his head “No. I’ll make sure he gets it. Can it be mixed with alcohol?” 

Frowning, she chewed on her lip slightly. “I’m not sure.. better not...”  
“...Tom? ...What I don’t understand is how you just left him alone.. surely..you’d.. I mean..what you did to Palmer...Slughorn deserves so much worse” 

The elegant boy looked away.   
“He was..is..blackmailing me..” he admitted quietly, obviously reluctant to share this fact.

“...He said he had evidence of my conversations with him hidden somewhere and that it would emerge if I did not...play nicely.   
Eventually I managed to shift his interests onto another student and made sure to stay far away from him wherever possible.   
It was unsatisfactory but I thought I would return to deal with him later.   
However, his current behaviour is unacceptable. You are right.. It should not be endured for the rest of the year. I cannot keep him from you indefinitely and if the behaviour of Septimus, Abraxas and Sorrenson is anything to go by, once he has had you he will not simply go away.   
We will incapacitate him and see how things play out. It is possible that he was bluffing.” 

She nodded but a little seed of worry nested in her mind. Did he have some kind of provisions in place? She didn’t think he really took Tom seriously yet at this point..   
Perhaps it was necessary that he took him seriously first.. before he was taken out of the picture.   
“..Maybe we need to find out first.. Unless you’re willing to go to Grindelwald if something goes wrong – I don’t think you’d want to go to Azkaban for murder.. and making horcruxes carries a life sentence.” 

If Tom was startled, he hid it well.

“..Perhaps. However..I’ve tried to get the memories from his mind and they are blocked somehow with fabrications.   
I do not know if veritaserum would be of use.”   
Hermione frowned. “No... I ..I remember something about that.. He uses some kind of spell to veil and cover the memories he considers dangerous to his public standing. They are still there.. he still remembers them.. he is still capable of sharing them if he wants to. But... um.. maybe he needs to be a bit more..intimidated..by you.”   
Tom looked at her..

“You are suggesting abducting and torturing a Hogwarts professor.. you do realise that, don’t you?” 

Hermione had the remaining shred of decency to look a bit sheepish. “Well... I’m also thinking of poisoning and getting rid of a Hogwarts professor. It’s not such a leap from there.”   
Tom looked thoughtful and an armchair appeared over toward the balconette, looking out.   
“Finish your potion” he said absently and went and sat down, looking out over the view.

“You know..” she said quietly “Today is Friday...”   
She caught his smirk. “Yes?”

“Well..” she said.. “We don’t have class in the morning.. We could stay here..”

He snorted faintly. “And we would have to restrain your dorm mates for the entire period and obliviate them afterward.   
Your little drama this morning did not escape me. If you had hoped to avoid Septimus this weekend – or avoid spending the night anywhere except perhaps with Abraxas - you achieved your goal perfectly.” 

Hermione actually stamped her foot. She had seen people do it and thought it ridiculous but now she understood the impetus suddenly.   
“That’s not fair!.. I’m sick to death of those horrid cows! I couldn’t care less what Amalthea thinks of me! I want to be with you.” 

Tom smiled faintly. “Yes well.. she cannot stand you either. I have no doubt she will go to one of the professors and say she’s worried about you if you do not turn up in your bed all night again. You should have made an effort to befriend her, Maia.”   
Hermione felt indignant at that. “You know very well that that was impossible from the start.   
She’s actually right..technically. She’s worried I’ll steal Septimus and I kind of have already.” 

“Do you think so?” Tom snapped sarcastically, then sighed in irritation. “He was once again begging me to be allowed to break up with Amalthea this morning.”

Hermione raised a hopeful eyebrow and was met with an eye roll.   
“Oh certainly.. I should allow Septimus to pursue you also.. You would have a wonderful name in the school when you were on both of their arms.”   
Hermione frowned. “Why couldn’t I be with you... why can’t I be with you?! What difference does it make?!   
And.. it’s not as if I’ve dated Abraxas for very long.. I’ve sat next to him in the great hall and there are some rumours that we kissed. Why can’t I be with you instead?” 

Tom dropped his head back against the chair. “I couldn’t leave you isolated after you were attacked but Abraxas will be difficult if I deny him what he wants. And he wants to be seen as your beau.” 

She turned back to her cauldron. The liquid was still a faint orangy pink hue. It should have turned to pale yellow by now. “Why are all Malfoys bloody annoying?!” she complained under her breath.   
Tom sighed.   
“He is useful, Maia.. His family has a lot of resources that he will one day inherit. What’s more, their money comes from rather shady dealings so Abraxas naturally has a collection of useful contacts for obtaining items quietly. He already has a significant sum to toss around how he chooses.   
You know of my means, obviously” he said the last part with audible distaste.

“What about the others?!” she demanded. “Sorry, Septimus, Cygnus – they all have old money! I have no idea about the rest but I know that those families are really wealthy.” 

There was a pause and then Tom answered quietly “The princes are associated with the ministry.   
Deeply associated.   
Septimus’ finances are controlled – he has to submit a request to his father for his purchases – right down to sugar quills – he will one day inherit a part of the estate to be shared with his younger sister – I doubt you’ve met her. Eileen. She’s in first year.   
Sorrenson has a small allowance but his father’s employment makes it unwise to utilise his funds for anything even slightly questionable. He is an unmentionable.. not an Auror as he tells others.   
Cygnus.. well.. Cygnus has always been on the periphery of the group although he is only too pleased to participate in recreational activities. He is..difficult.. at times.” 

“..Palmer has some money – not much.. his father nearly bankrupted them with bad investments. His connections are rather poor also – His best links are to the other knights. I initiated him purely for his willingness to take care of somewhat distasteful jobs.   
Roan and Clemens have only very small means and few connections. Roan however is passably intelligent and Clemens is dull but completely devoted.   
Antonin’s family is connected to Russian wizarding organised crime and their money would inevitably come with debts that I have no wish to incur.   
Then there is Benjamin. His father is a strategist with the ministry. His resources are primarily information – a lot passes over his desk. It is not always possible for Benjamin to access this information, of course but still...” 

“Of the group – Abraxas has the most useful connections for acquiring dark objects and texts and his money is donated most readily to my purposes.   
He is also a petulant self entitled little prat often. For that reason I would prefer not to coax him into a sulk. Do you understand?!” 

She nodded glumly and, as the potion abruptly shifted to a bright yellow, seized the granite rod and stirred frantically. The mixture thickened and became gritty very quickly and she had to struggle to keep it from solidifying while she picked up the ginger oil.   
Trickling it in, the potion subsided slowly into a pale orange once more and was smooth and silky like thick syrup.   
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Three more steps and it’s done” she said, half to herself. 

“What did you do before, when I summoned you through the mark?” Tom asked curiously.   
“It felt..very strange..”

She smirked and considered whether or not to tell him. She could torment him with it, distract him in his classes by excusing herself to the bathroom and licking it.   
He’d probably be angry though..

She took a last look at the pale orange swirling shiny potion and stepped away, moving to his side and pushing her sleeve back.   
So that he could see, she raised her arm and licked along the mark. 

He shivered and closed his eyes for a moment as if in a tiny private climax, opening them a moment later and looking at her with shock.   
“I..Why would I.. How did I do that?” 

She shrugged. “You didn’t until recently. Mine is the only one that has that effect. You didn’t remember or know about it before I...” she petered out..   
Tom looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Before you what?...”

Sighing she sat down on the floor, leaning against the bars of the balconette.   
“I..Tom...you didn’t know about any of these things in the future.. you discovered them at the time.. I am quite certain of it..   
Just like.. You didn’t know me..either.. I’m..not sure what it means.. If I tell you now..something must happen between now and then to make you forget all this.. to make you forget me!..I can’t think of any other explanation..   
...Unless i’m creating a paradox here and there’s no future left for me to return to.” 

Tom looked unsettled. “Perhaps i am merely a very good actor” She shook her head but shrugged. 

“Perhaps. It ...seemed like you knew something toward the end.. you were behaving a bit oddly..before my initiation.   
You picked out my clothes for me – you never did that before.. and you... you made us late by dragging me back to bed after I had dressed and ...you said you wished you could take me and run off to an island for forty or fifty years and hang everything else.” 

Tom tilted his head thoughtfully. “That would seem to suggest that I expected..something.. but..” he trailed off looking suddenly pensive and worried, staring out over the twilight forest past the balconette. 

Abruptly, after several minutes of silence in which the shadows in the room lengthened, he said “It..doesn’t matter. Come here!”   
She got up and went to him and he pulled her down into his lap, holding her tightly. He kissed her forehead and her cheekbone and pressed her head into the crook of his neck.   
They sat there as the room became dark until Hermione remembered she had to check on the potion and struggled out of his arms to do so, requiring more light of the room to see the progress of her brew..

The knock at the door almost made her drop the quartz stirring rod she held. 

Tom rose and went to it expectantly, letting in Sorrenson, who looked at them both with some surprise.   
“My Lord?” he said tentatively. “You..called me?”   
Tom nodded and told him “I want you to play the role of Maia for the weekend. For the whole weekend, Sorry. You are to sleep in her bed, be seen as her in the common room.. you are to spend time with Abraxas as her.   
He is permitted to know that it is you and not she, however I would still like the rest of the house to be entirely convinced that you and he are smitten – I assume you understand my meaning...   
Should Abraxas have a problem with this you will send him to me.” 

Sorrenson looked conflicted by an array of different emotions. “You...want me to...with Abraxas... as...as her?!” he asked with wide eyes. 

Tom smirked. “Oh come now.. Abraxas has an attractive form, does he not? I have seen the way you look at him. It will not be a struggle for you to persuade yourself to touch him.. and in her body? I think you should thank me for the opportunity I am giving you to experience it.”   
Sorrenson swallowed uncomfortably, blushing, and nodded.   
“Uh... When...do you want me to start?” 

“Immediately.” Tom responded - He seemed to calculate internally and then walked over to Hermione, gripped a handful of her hair, severed it with his wand and re-grew it immediately.   
“This should be more than sufficient.”   
He walked back to the boy and held out the swatch.   
“And Sorrenson?”   
The mini Rodolphus looked back at him questioningly.   
“Be convincing. I do not want to learn that you have slipped. When you are warded into her bed and silenced you may return to your own form. If you need to go to the bathroom you must polyjuice yourself again. If you are in your own dorm room – only Septimus and Abraxas may know it is you and they may not reveal their knowledge.   
Tell the others that you are going to be with me for the weekend before you leave and be sure to change in the knights chamber. Do not fail.”

Sorrenson nodded slowly, with gravity. 

“Good.. you may go.” 

He had started to retreat to the door quickly when Tom called him back.   
“One..other thing...”   
He collected a hank of Sorry’s hair, regrowing the bald spot he had made. “Now you may leave..” he informed him and waved him away impatiently. 

After Sorry had gone Hermione laughed.   
“Did you see the look on his face?! I bet he runs down there to change. Good grief! I wish I-“   
She broke off mid amusement to turn back to the potion which had blurped loudly. “Oh. Damn!.. quick...” she cursed and grabbed the sea salt, scattering it over the surface and stirring with the quartz rod slowly, folding it under.   
It seemed ok and gradually gave way to an opalescent white milky substance. 

Tom was at her side in a second. “Is it spoiled?” he asked solicitously. 

She shook her head uncertainly.   
“At least.. the shift is correct. I assume that means it’s ok. It did say to be careful of overheating in this stage.”   
She turned the heat all the way down to a tiny flame.   
“It has to sit and cool slowly over six hours now before I add in the shredded belladonna.”   
He put his arms around her waist. “Plenty of time then..” he murmured suggestively into her ear, licking its curve with the very tip of his tongue.   
She shivered pleasurably. “Mmm..yes..” she agreed. 

The back half of the room shifted and grew a bed.. and.. a screen?!..

“That looks like.. a ..television – from your memories..” Tom observed, confused. 

What would something like that be doing in this place..   
Hermione pulled away absently and hurried over. 

A small black box appeared on the bed. It looked like a remote control.   
It was a television.. but one that would not exist in this time for decades and decades – a flat screened, wide TV with big speakers.   
It was a better TV than her parents had had. She wondered if the room used the mind of the witch or wizard to create its objects. It seemed so..to judge by this. 

Picking up the remote, as Tom walked over to stand beside her, she pointed it at the screen and pressed the red button in the corner.   
The TV sprang to life.   
There were no cables or antennas. Obviously it was just the..idea.. of a television operating in some other manner.   
A visual representation of a television for something else entirely.

She gasped in delight when the picture became clear on the screen, hearing Tom curse in surprise. 

They were watching Sorrenson in the common room as if an invisible cameraman were following him about. 

“Sweet Nimue.. I had no idea the room could do this.” Tom muttered. “Have you any idea how useful this could be?!” 

Hermione snorted in her own surprise and pressed her finger to the up arrow on the volume control.   
She could hear a group of seventh years arguing on the couch and some fourth years playing exploding snap by the bench seats.   
Sorrenson hovered in the centre of the room looking nervous. 

She pressed her finger to the channel up arrow.   
Septimus was lying on his bed with his herbology text levitated above him and his arms crossed behind his head. She could see Abraxas wandering around in the background now and then but he was off screen too much to work out what he was doing.   
She flicked the channel up and now the camera was following Abraxas. He was unpacking a box of ..apparently..clothing.. that must have arrived for him this evening. Occasionally he would hold some item up for someone else’s perusal. The someone revealed itself as Cygnus, when he spoke – asking where the grey cashmere jersey was from. 

She flicked on through the channels finding that each of the knights had their own, but when she got to Clemens (lying on his bed with the curtains closed and a dirty magazine floating nearby depicting a male wizard with black hair who looked..a tiny bit like tom..) – she flicked past him quickly and found that there were more channels than just the knights. 

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk in his office writing a letter. He looked up as some kind of silvery object started to flash and spin on his bookshelf, emitting a whirring sound and then he looked around suspiciously.   
Sneakoscope. She thought. Some kind of early version. She flicked on.

“Go back.. I want to know what he was writing!” Tom demanded.   
She shook her head.   
“No.. the thing that made the noise was telling him that someone was spying on him. He’ll find us somehow if we hang about there. I have no idea how the room is getting this view of them but I’m certain Dumbledore will figure it out if we give him half a chance.”   
The channel they were on was showing Dippet sitting down in the headmasters office by the fire, eating a bowl of spotted dick. The boring man even liked boring desserts, Hermione frowned. 

The next few channels indicated that after the knights came a series of channels devoted to all the Hogwarts teachers.   
When they got to Slughorn she lowered the remote in horror. The man was sitting at his desk and a small boy.. he couldn’t have been more than a fourth year, by best will – was on his knees before him, his head being guided by Slughorn’s pudgy fingers up and down.   
Hermione felt her stomach roil.   
Tom was grabbing and fumbling for the remote in her hand, fury on his face. “How do I operate it?” he demanded.   
She could hear the boy in Slughorn’s room making little sobbing noises and the look on the man’s face was revolting and gleeful.   
Pointing numbly she indicated the channel buttons and Tom flicked on to professor Paracelcius who was snipping at a bonsai tree with an expression of profound satisfaction.

“God.. That’s happening right now.. that.. who was he?! He had a Ravenclaw robe on. He’s down there NOW!!.. we have to tell someone.. stop him.. we have to save-..!”   
Tom tossed the remote onto the bed and trapped her panicking form in his arms.   
“Stop. Stop, Maia.. We’re not going to do any such thing. He would likely be finished by the time anyone could be persuaded to check.. and the boy has already been exposed to it – stopping it now wont reverse that.   
...He always goes for the clever ones...   
Just... let it be... It’s over now. Put it out of your mind.” 

She couldn’t understand him. He, of all people, should want to stop Slughorn right now.   
She burst into frustrated tears and stomped back to the potion, willing it to finish faster.

“Never again!.. If I have to castrate him.. he won’t do that to any more students.” 

Tom had not followed her but had tossed himself onto the bed and was flipping through the channels.   
“Every single student is here!” he said after a few minutes. “organised by house and year in declining order. This is phenomenal!”   
She growled in irritation and walked back over to him, climbing onto the bed beside him and watching the huge TV shift between different second year hufflepuffs in quick order - he was flashing through them without pausing.   
Eventually they reached the end of the students and the next channel showed the grounds, an aerial view from one of the towers. As it was dark, it was difficult to make out much.   
He flicked through a number of different, apparently static camera type views of different areas and then they were watching themselves sitting on the bed. The next channel showed the same thing.   
Tom frowned and clicked on and then they could see Hermione walking up a corridor in the dungeon. Her expression was one of curious nervous anticipation. 

“The other two must have been yours and mine” Tom observed absently. “This is Sorry again.   
He doesn’t walk very much like you, does he?! I doubt his father would be pleased with his performance.   
..But I suppose that most of them will not be looking too closely.” 

On the screen, Hermione-Sorry was letting her/himself in through the shield and hesitated just inside the door.   
On one sofa the seventh years were still laughing and carousing, but on the other, some of the knights now were sitting, their feet on the coffee table, chatting.   
Septimus was there with Amalthea curled against him. Hermione suppressed a flare of jealousy at the girl.   
Cygnus, Abraxas and Antonin were sitting with them. 

Hermione/Sorry seemed reluctant. After a moment’s hesitation he walked over behind the sofa and tentatively slipped her/his fingers through Abraxas hair to stroke the back of his neck.   
The blonde jumped a foot at the unexpected touch and whirled, calming in relief when he found it was her.   
“Merlin! You gave me a fright, Maia.. Come and join us.”   
Sorry smiled a secretive little smile with her mouth and crooked a finger at him, then sauntered off down the stairs to the boys dorm. 

Tom flicked to the Abraxas channel and saw him grinning lasciviously at the others and bounding over the back of the sofa. 

“I can hardly wait to see his face when he realises..” Tom snickered cruelly. He flicked back to Sorry, who had let herself into his room and gone to Abraxas bed, releasing the curtains and undoing the front of her robe, before looking off toward the door with a small smile.   
Abraxas entered the view then and he was all over her..her robe and clothes were on the floor in seconds and she was urged back onto the bed and the curtains drawn. 

When Abraxas kissed her/him..the look on Sorry’s face was shocked and pleased and he responded eagerly, pushing Abraxas back and climbing onto him, kissing him roughly. 

Hermione smiled – he was.. himself..that was how he had kissed her too. 

Abraxas seemed taken aback a little by the force of him/her but pleased enough as he ran his hands down her back and over her ass. When he started to kiss and nibble at her neck, Sorry seemed to melt and lose his fight and Abraxas turned them again, half rolling on top of her. Sorry’s mouth was open as if groaning but no sound was emitted. 

“He has silenced himself. A wise precaution” Tom observed quietly. 

Abraxas stopped after a minute or two and looked quizzically down at the girl in his arms. “You are so quiet, beautiful! What’s wrong.. don’t you like it?”   
Sorry nodded enthusiastically and put her hand to her throat, miming coughing.   
This seemed to satisfy Abraxas as he resumed his attentions, licking and sucking on Sorry’s breasts, which the boy/girl reacted to with shock and enthusiasm, pressing Abraxas face against her harder and curling a leg over him. His/her eyes were closed and he was panting in need.   
He/she reached for Abraxas hand and guided it to her pussy, rubbing against it urgently. 

When Abraxas, smirking, shifted down to lie between his/her legs and started to lick her, the experience seemed to be world-shaking for Sorry. She/he thrashed helplessly, clutching at the bedclothes, at Abraxas head, rubbing herself against his mouth desperately. 

Hermione found herself actually getting a bit aroused watching them together. She shot a glance at Tom from the corner of her eye. He was smirking and his eyes were dark and hungry.   
Catching her looking he turned to her and drew his wand, divestoing her clothing.   
She was only too eager to cooperate with his intent and turned herself to lay down the length of the bed on her stomach, so that they could both continue watching the appealing show being put on for them.   
Tom kneed her legs wide and knelt between them, stroking his fingertips down between her spread pussy lips, breathing out in a gasp when he found her sopping. He played his fingers over her folds and then dipped two fingers into her, pumping them in and out of her slowly.   
She responded with an eager whimper, pushing herself back on them. 

On the screen as she watched, Sorry had just come in a shaking, screaming climax and Abraxas was smiling smugly and crawling up the bed to kneel between her legs, pushing them up and spreading her as he looked down and admired her exposed, shining wet pussy.   
Sorry, exhausted, looked somewhat out-of-it, and let her/his legs be moved about limply.

Hermione felt the large shape of Tom’s cock pressed to her entrance and then he was sliding in, even as they both watched Abraxas roughly thrust into the dazed Sorry, causing a wide mouthed shout of alarm and full alertness to return.

Even as tom moved in her slowly, languidly, teasing her, leaning over her body and holding her, his head on her shoulder, both their faces turned up at the screen, Abraxas was fucking Sorry hard, slamming into her with great satisfaction on his face.   
Sorry looked like he/she was loving it and moved eagerly with Abraxas, straining up and pulling him down over him/her and snogging the hell out of him. They moved like two wild things in heat.   
Abraxas groaned loudly. “fuck.. you’re desperate for it tonight, aren’t you?! Turn over..”   
He pulled out, despite Sorry’s attempts to prevent him from doing so and then he flipped her effortlessly to her stomach, pulled her knees wide and slammed back in.   
Sorry/Hermione’s head went back in a wide mouthed, wide eyed shriek of pleasure and she moved like a dog in heat against the blond boy’s cock. Abraxas caught her hair and dragged her up by it, still fucking her as he bit at her neck and roughly groped her breasts. “Mmm.. you.. want it... so .. bad.. right now.. huh?” he murmured against her skin between bites and sucks.   
Sorry nodded frantically and moved one of Abraxas hands from her breast to her clit, turning her head and catching his lips. 

Hermione realised suddenly that the two were sexually well suited to one another.   
A sudden thought came to her about Lucius and Rodolphus. She didn’t think the two men had ever been with one another..that way.. they’d only shared girls together.   
It was a pity.   
She wondered if Rodolphus had ever had a crush on Lucius. It would explain how venomous he was about Severus.

“Mmm.. enough of them..” Tom said into her ear, pulling out of her and rolling her over to her back. “I’d rather watch you..”   
He slid back into her with satisfaction and fucked her gently and teasingly to a rolling orgasm..then he sped up and took her hard and rough, forcing another out of her, before he, in the end, flipped her back over and slammed his cock into her unprepared ass, relishing in her shriek and yelps as he seated himself, then commanding her to enjoy it, at which point she could only moan and writhe in pleasure.   
He experimented with her.. commanding her to tighten.. loosen..heat..move.. finger herself.. and come.. he ordered her to come over and over.. he ordered her to come and not stop coming till he told her to stop.   
The sensations were maddening.. beyond endurance.. but she couldn’t do a thing to stop.. didn’t even want him to stop.. her mind was just a trembling aching lustful need for him.. to please him.. She screamed her pleasure for what seemed like an eternity before he ordered her to tighten hard and come and the undulating pressure forced a yell from his throat as he spent himself in her. They both collapsed to the bed, gasping and shuddering and exhausted. 

They lay listening to the growls and sounds of sex from the TV screen quite comfortably for a while until there was a shout of alarm.   
Tom whipped his head up and she could see from the corner of her eye the bright schadenfreude on his face.

“What the fuck?!!” the voice shouted in horror and was abruptly cut off. 

Hermione pulled herself up to watch the screen.   
Sorry was back in his own form and had silenced and cast incarcerous on the naked and furiously struggling Abraxas.   
He cast wards and silencing charms around the curtains and then took off the silencing charm, with a small smirk on his face.

“What the fuck are you doing Sorrenson!! Son of a syphilitic mudblood – let me go – I’m going to fucking kill you!” 

Sorrenson laughed. “Well that’s not really a convincing reason to let you go then, is it?   
Look.. I was ordered..to play Maia this weekend and he said I had to make it convincing..” He sniggered.   
“Including with you in public.. he said.. no one should be in any doubt that we’re – I quote – smitten with one another” 

Abraxas looked furious.   
“You could have just fucking brought me down here and explained, you bastard! You deliberately tricked me into..”   
Sorry interrupted him.   
“I was curious what it would be like and he didn’t say I wasn’t to fuck you.” 

Abraxas snarled. “Let me go, damn you! I’ll fucking give you curious!..” Sorrenson smirked again.

“No.. I don’t think I will. I-..” He seemed to hesitate, uncertainly and then, setting his jaw, blazed on determinedly. “I..enjoyed..being with you.. in her body.. I want to do it some more.   
We’ve got the whole weekend. I’ll play Maia for you as much as you want – He gave me a lot of her hair...   
...She’s with him all weekend. They were working on something I think. – There wasn’t even a bed in the room. So you won’t be seeing her till next week probably, to judge by his orders to me.   
You can be a whiny little bitch about this and pummel me when I let you go.. or you could see it as an opportunity to have as much sex as you want for the whole weekend, without having to share.” 

Abraxas face became thoughtful at that for a moment.. after a few seconds it twisted in discontent again   
“But... its..you.. I’d be fucking you.. not her.. I’d know it was you.. it’d be fucking weird!”   
Sorrenson seemed to flinch at that for a moment, a tiny hurt look flashing over his features and quickly gone.   
He responded hesitantly “I’ll keep quiet.. you’ll hardly be able to tell its not her.” 

He pointed his wand and summoned a small flask from his robes, enlarging it and taking a couple of large sips, grimacing at the taste. Within seconds he was cramping and rippling back into Hermione’s form. 

Abraxas responded against his will, seeing the naked body kneeling above him and blushed at the twitch of his cock, covering his disarray with anger.   
“No. I’m not doing it. Get fucked, Sorrenson! Untie me.” 

Sorry, with Hermione’s face, smirked and shook his/her head and then lowered him/herself over Abraxas hardening cock, ghosting a breath over it and looking up at him.

“What..what are you doing?! Sorry.. stop!! Stop it! You’re.. Its.. don’t!!”

Abraxas panicked as the polyjuiced Sorry began to lick the head of his cock with a small pointed tongue. When s/he sucked it into her/his mouth Abraxas groaned and moved his hips helplessly.   
“Oh...please..Sorry...stop..” he whimpered, bucking weakly into the hot mouth. 

Hermione frowned, confused, glancing at Tom. “What is the problem?! He happily let Septimus give him a blowjob. What’s the bloody difference?!” 

Tom smiled coldly. “That was different, Maia. He did that purely because he knew Septimus didn’t want to and couldn’t disobey. He did it to punish him..to gain power over him.. it was an act of aggression.. it meant nothing to him beyond a hot wet hole to shove his member down.   
This is Sorrenson..wanting to fellate him.   
Even if it’s in your body.. for Sorrenson, the effect is the same as it would be were he not polyjuiced in this particular act. He doesn’t have to do it.. and it has nothing to do with curiosity about being female – the feeling is unrelated to his body.” 

She understood, she thought..and turned back to the screen. 

“Oh..fuck... don’t stop.. don’t stop, damn you..uhhh.. deeper!” Abraxas was pumping his hips up at the mouth moving up and down over him and his face was caught in something between ecstasy and agony.   
Sorry complied and forced himself to take Abraxas deeper, choking slightly, unused to the sensation.   
Abraxas groaned low and urgent. 

Reaching for his wand, Sorry silently finite’d the ropes and Abraxas hands flew to his head, pumping him roughly up and down, more deeply than he had been going, choking him.   
He whimpered and the sound seemed to only incite Abraxas to even rougher treatment. The blonde opened his eyes and looked down in furious lust at the teary eyed polyjuiced Maia lookalike and commenced to brutally skullfuck him/her, growling through his teeth.   
“You want this.. you want me to fuck you, Sorry? Want my cock? Take it! Fuck! Swallow it all you little faggot!”

When sorry whimpered and choked again it pushed Abraxas over the edge and he forced him deep, his body flexing and convulsing in exultant release.   
He roared in satisfaction as Hermione/sorry flailed and panicked, choking and suffocating and screaming around the cock.

“You bite me and I’ll make you eat your nut like palmer!” Abraxas warned him. “Now swallow it all.. like a good little whore.”

Hermione watched on the screen as her own eyes watered and filled with tears and her throat worked frantically.   
Abraxas released Sorry then and lay back, stretching his arms above him lazily and shifting position to be more comfortable. “Ahh..” he sighed in afterglow then sniggered.   
“Was it as good for you as it was for me?”

Sorry/Hermione was resting back on her heels wide eyed and looking confused.   
After a minute s/he crawled tentatively up Abraxas body, straddling him and then lowering him/herself to curl around him with his/her face pressed to the centre of the athletic blonde’s chest. 

Abraxas had watched him approach and crawl up him with shock and horror on his face and now that his roommate in Hermione’s body was curled around him, snuggling with him, he looked down at him/her in disturbed confusion.   
“Sorry?!..” he said weakly. The girl cuddling him shivered slightly.   
“What are you doing?!” Abraxas whispered, although his face displayed sudden understanding.   
“Nothing” Sorry said almost inaudibly.   
Abraxas let his head fall back and looked up at the ceiling of his bed with a conflicted, distressed expression. After several minutes he said, swallowing.. “Look.. you..you know I’m not..like that..right? I’m not.. homosexual. I like girls. And that’s all... I..” he trailed off, not finishing whatever he’d been about to add. 

There was no response for a minute or more and then Sorrenson said quietly “Yeah? Well as far as i can tell I am a girl right now – I have all the parts and everything. Have to sit down to pee, I’ll bet. Don’t see where your problem is.”

Abraxas clenched his eyes and massaged his forehead with a hand.   
“Yes.. ok.. but.. you’re still you.. you’re Sorrenson.. not Maia.. When you ..touch me.. its.. ...Fuck Sorry.. you were bloody kissing me.. I mean..its..not..right..” 

Sorrenson pulled him/herself up to look Abraxas in the face. “So you are going to be a whiny little bitch about it then, Brax?! Fine. I’ll spend the weekend reading and sleeping in Maia’s room instead of in here shagging the shit out of you.”   
S/he pulled himself up onto his hands and knees and made to get out of the bed, reaching for the curtain.   
Abraxas grabbed his/her arm suddenly.   
Hermione wished she had popcorn. This was like watching a Mexican soap. She glanced at Tom. “This is why TV is great!” she informed him.   
He nodded, an expression of morbid fascinated by the drama playing out before them. 

Abraxas mumbled uncomfortably. “Stop.. wait.. look.. let me think about this, ok.. Just stay here and calm the fuck down and let me think.”   
Sorrenson, visible to them but turned away from Abraxas flashed a tiny smirk on Hermione’s lips and made a big show of hesitating.   
“If you can’t handle it then you can’t fucking handle it. I’m sure I can go off and amuse myself with this body. Lots of things I can do with it even without you.” 

Abraxas swallowed. “Such as?!” Sorry snorted, ignoring him “-And maybe I can find some time alone with Sep.. he obviously didn’t mind me sucking him off.. and his cock is bigger than yours..”   
Abraxas snarled at the slur against his manhood.   
“Fuck you, you little fag! Think I care what you want?!” He dragged the polyjuiced boy/girl back, slamming him face down on the bed and wrapping an arm around his neck in a chokehold. Sorry gagged and struggled weakly. 

Hermione thought she should probably be disturbed at seeing herself in that position but it was more exciting than anything else.

“You want this?” Abraxas growled at Hermione/Sorry, his other hand roughly stroking at his overused length and rubbing it at the girl/boys ass cheeks, forcing it to harden faster.   
“You don’t want it like before though, do you?! Not like a real girl..no – you want it in your ass..like a proper little filthy queer. Isn’t that right?!   
Fucking answer me, Sorry! – Beg me to put it in you! Beg me for my cock and I might give it to you.” 

Abraxas loosened his arm around the girl’s neck and Sorry gasped for air, coughing. He moved to tighten his arm again and the polyjuiced boy choked out “YES!.. I want it, alright?!.. I want it Brax.. I want you.. your cock.. please! Do it! Fucking do it!”

Abraxas snarled and then he released Hermione/Sorry’s throat and pulled back onto his knees, roughly forcing the small slender body before him into position on the bed, spreading wide her/his ass cheeks and then, with no preparation, much like Tom had done with her, except that his cock had at least been slick from her juices at the time, Abraxas viciously forced himself through the small ring of muscle.   
His head inside he leaned his full weight on the upper arms of the polyjuiced boy, pressing him/her into the mattress and against the screams and sudden struggling, shoved himself in deeper, his teeth gritted and face contorted in a snarl, till he was seated all the way inside his/her back passage.

“Like it, then? This is what you wanted? What are you crying for, Sorry?” he sneered and started to move ruthlessly, pulling out and slamming back in hard over and over.

Hermione imagined by the easing of his movement that he’d ripped her/him and was now lubricated with blood. 

Sorry was sobbing helplessly. “Ohh.. it hurts..it hurts Brax..I didn’t think it would hurt so much..I’m sorry.. I shouldn’t have.. oh Merlin.. fuck.. it hurts.. stop.. please.. PLEASE.. fuck it hurts too much...”

Abraxas paused in his rutting and leaned down over the girl’s body. “You should be used to it by now you little cocksucker..quit whining. It’s not as if you haven’t done it before. Look at how pushy you were.. and as you said – my cock isn’t as big as Sep’s”   
The boy below him only sobbed harder. “I haven’t, I haven’t ever I swear. Please Brax.. I thought..I wanted you but I didn’t know it would feel this bad.. please, please let me go.. I’ll never touch you again.. I swear.. I’m sorry.. I didn’t know.. please.. don’t anymore..” 

Abraxas seemed startled and almost looked regretful.   
“You really haven’t? What the hell did you think you were playing at then?”   
Sorry babbled pitifully “I just wanted you.. that’s all. You’re so strong and bright and you look good.. and.. I saw you with Sep and wanted to be him and then..today when Tom gave me these orders I thought I could have you ....and the way you fucked me when you thought I was her..you kissed me...I’m sorry Brax.. I just.. I just wanted... fuck.. I don’t know what I wanted. I’m sorry!!.. Please don’t do it anymore – I ..can’t take it..” He started to cry again. 

Abraxas looked uncomfortable and wrong footed. “I..I said I’m not queer, Sorry” he mumbled almost defensively.   
The crying girl below him continued to cry pitifully.   
He moved his pelvis experimentally, obviously considering finishing himself off before he pulled out of her, and Sorry howled, his fingers fisting in the bedclothes and eyes clenched.   
Abraxas swallowed and then eased himself out of her/him slowly. As he moved away, Hermione could see blood all over his shaft and..darker matter.. she grimaced. Obviously Abraxas hadn’t used the scourgifying colonic.   
The mess on the two bodies was scourgified away as soon as Abraxas reached his wand. 

He hesitated on his knees, biting his bottom lip and looking down at the weeping boy in girls body. “I’m s-..I’ll heal you.. ok? Just..calm down, alright?”   
Sorry nodded slightly with Hermione’s head, eyes still closed as Abraxas softly sang a basic healing charm over him/her. 

Hermione knew that it would do precious little. It was designed for external use, not internal. 

Sorry shivered and swallowed. “Don’t worry..” he muttered after a while. “It’ll..It’ll be gone after I change back. It doesn’t matter.”   
Abraxas stopped his soft singing and looked around uncomfortably. “Oh.. right.. yeah.. I’ll just.. leave you to ..rest..for a while then.”   
Sorrenson didn’t answer but curled up smaller, turning his/her face into the mattress. Abraxas dithered, his hand on the curtain, looking guilty. Then, a reluctant averse resigned expression on his face, he lowered his hand and looked down as if contemplating cruciating himself on orders.   
He turned and hesitantly lowered himself to lie down behind Sorrenson on his side and, swallowing uncomfortably, reached for him with his hand, pulling him/her close to lie against his chest and wrapping an arm around her/his waist.   
Sorrenson uncurled carefully and turned, clinging to Abraxas like a child and burying his Hermione face in the broad golden chest.   
After a moment Abraxas lowered his arm around him/her again and held her/him gingerly, stroking his back slightly, a haunted expression in his eyes. “Its..ok..Sorry. it’ll be alright..” he said weakly. There was no reply and after a while he looked down and realised the girlboy had fallen asleep. 

Hermione sighed looking at the bewildered distressed expression on Abraxas face.   
Tom, apparently losing interest, flicked around the channels aimlessly for a few minutes. Septimus was playing wizarding chess with Cygnus (and they seemed fairly neck and neck at the moment) while Amalthea was snuggled up against his side talking animatedly to Antonia and Carmen. Palmer sat next to Antonia and she seemed to direct the conversation to him quite frequently. Benjamin sat off to the side and read a book, only looking up at Antonia every so often with a faint resentful expression.

Carmen was exuberant and visibly overjoyed to be sitting where she was. Hermione wondered where Marta was and who her regular friends were.. whether, indeed, she had any.. although..it was probable she did. Maybe in another house? The ravenclaw girls had been very nice so far. 

When they got to Clemens (now napping with his trousers still undone and the dirty mag lying on the end of the bed) Tom flicked back to Abraxas.   
Sorry had transformed back in the meantime, apparently not even waking up and Abraxas continued to hold him, looking uneasy and even a bit ill. It was clear big troubling thoughts were going through his mind. 

“They could be so good together” Hermione observed sadly. Tom emitted a noncommittal sound.   
She had an idea..   
“Um.. can i have some of Sorry’s hair?” she asked quietly.   
His eyes flicked to her and his eyebrow raised. A nasty little smirk twisted his lips.   
She did not return it but informed him with a serious conscienscious expression “I just want to broaden his mind a little. And I’m sure Sorry will get a kick out of it too. I’ve noticed that wizards don’t seem to have so much of a problem with the idea of um..sleeping with.. themselves as witches do.” Tom’s eyes flashed in interest and now she smirked.   
“Point proven. Can I have the hair?” 

He snorted and summoned a few hairs from the pocket of his robes on the floor. She noted that the room had already registered her requirement and placed the huge flask of polyjuice on the bench next to her cauldron. 

It was only a matter of minutes to check her brew, take the vile, horrid muck (and a prepared flask just in case), transfigure her clothing and make her way down to the dungeons. 

She had a weird feeling walking down there, knowing that Tom would definitely be following her on the screen. It felt a bit like being on candid camera or an extra in a film.   
It was also weird to walk around in this body. It was kind of like wearing Tom’s body but smaller, less muscled..it felt less powerful. She tried to walk as ungirly as she could. 

Stepping into the common room Septimus immediately caught her eye and brightened. “Sorry – where the blazes have you been! Come and join us.”   
Although she felt an internal warmth that Septimus so obviously embraced Sorry since yesterday, unlike Abraxas, she shook her head and smiled, making a beeline for the boys dorm. Septimus’ face fell slightly and Cygnus reminded him it was his move. 

She reached the boy’s room and quietly let herself in, closing and warding the door behind her, just in case.   
Oh.. that was the next problem, she hadn’t thought about, she realised. Sorry had warded and silenced the bed. 

She hesitated and then said.. “Abraxas.. it’s me.. can I come in?” in a quiet voice. After a full minute there was a sizzle of the wards dropping and Abraxas said “Maia? I was sleeping.. come in..” with only a hint of panic.   
She frowned and twitched aside the curtain. He was lying under the covers and Sorry was nowhere in sight.   
His face displayed shock and panic at seeing her face and he glanced to the side tellingly. He must have kicked poor Sorry out of bed and told him to hide and now he wasn’t sure whether it wasn’t him standing at this side of the curtain. 

She laughed and he seemed to become more confused not less.   
“Sorry? Where are you? I know you’re somewhere here.” she called, waiting.   
The disillusioned form appeared beside her, fully dressed and looking almost as startled as Abraxas.   
She smiled at him with his own face and he smiled warily back.

“I’m waiting for a potion I’m brewing to be finished and Tom said I could come down and um..be with.. you both if I wanted – so I did. Is that..ok?”   
She raised an eyebrow at them both and Abraxas hesitated for a moment..   
“You want to.. be with us..like..that..” he asked, looking nonplussed. “we could wait till you change back..”   
She laughed again. “Oh I don’t have that long. Perhaps three quarters of an hour or so – I want to go up and check on my brew then.”   
Sorrenson looked at her with a fascinated growing smile. “That’s fine by me, Maia..” he said and stepped closer to her.. to himself..

Yup she thought. Wizards just find it a turn on to be with themselves. It must be some ego flaw.   
She leaned in and kissed him, wrapping her arms around him and feeling that alien weight in her pants give a twitch.   
If Abraxas didn’t want to join them then it was his loss, she decided. Sorry was really..good.. when she was in the passageway upstairs – no doubt he’d be just as good if she was a guy. 

He kissed her back enthusiastically and she reached for his hand, placing it on her hardening cock. He moaned into her mouth in excitement and she couldn’t help but do the same at the unbelievable sensation of his hand gripping and rubbing at her in a practiced manner.   
There was a small choked sound from Abraxas. “Maia?! That’s... How can you?! I don’t understand!”

She pulled away, reluctantly removing Sorry’s hand from her and gave him a few small pecks..unwilling really to move away from him. “Oh Abraxas.. quit being so stuffy. There’s so many things that feel sooo good..once you try them properly. But you have to know how to do them right.   
For your information - I happen to like being a boy from time to time. And right now.. I’d like to sleep with Sorry. You can watch..if you like. If you are less ‘boring’ in your moral perspective, maybe you can even join us.. if Sorry is ok with it.” 

Abraxas sputtered but she was not watching him anymore.. Her mission had changed at some point between the room of requirement and seeing Sorry disillusioned and hiding in order to allow Abraxas to pretend he hadn’t been fucking him.

“Which one is your bed?” she asked him. 

He virtually dragged her by the forearm to the bed nearest the wall on the opposite side of the room and pulled her into it, using his wand to free and close the curtains.   
She smirked at his eagerness and took it off him, tucking it under his pillow. This only seemed to incense him further and he pulled at her clothing, tearing it off her impatiently.   
She laughed and caught his hands.   
“Calm down.. I promise I won’t go away.. and you will enjoy it.. trust me.. I know how to make it good.”   
He swallowed and breathed fast and deep, licking his top lip slightly.   
She leaned in and kissed him, untying his tie and sliding it off. 

The remainder of their clothes came away in a choreography of tongue and teasing fingers till the two identical bodies knelt facing each other, one eager and uninhibited and the other confident and ..marginally less uninhibited. 

She’d forgotten how different arousal was in the male form and her erection was giving her trouble.. It was saying it wanted to be inserted into something now..   
Peripherally Hermione was aware that Abraxas had followed them and was standing at the side of the bed, the curtains twitched back to let him watch them. He had an unreadable expression on his face that wasn’t quite pleasure but looked unable to tear himself away. 

Ignoring him she moved closer to Sorry, urging him down onto his back on the bed and following him, straddling his body with her own and kissing him, worshipping him with her tongue, teeth and fingers as he sighed and moved beneath her. 

He made the most delicious little sounds when his nipples were sucked and when she started to suck his cock he groaned and tried to push her away almost immediately.   
“No!.. this is too fucking hot.. I’ll blow my load before we even start!” 

She smiled up at him ferally with his own mouth. “Don’t worry.. you do get to come more than once” and dropped back down onto his prick, sucking the life out of him.   
As threatened he popped less than a minute later, looking down with delight at his own face sucking him with great satisfaction.   
She continued on. Flicking out her wand and casting the scourgifying colonic on him. He shuddered but seemed to realise what it was and parted his legs for her eagerly, an expression of excited nervousness on his face. 

Hermione moved back and started to ‘romance’ him all over again, licking and nibbling up his thighs and sucking on his balls then licking further down, gently raising his legs and trailing her tongue over his cheeks, circling her way in till she could reach the tiny pink rosette.   
His excited little gasps and sighs gave way to a mewl of pleasure as she tongued his ass thoroughly, his legs twitching.   
His cock, she could see, was fully hard once again and she ran her tongue up him from periwinkle to cock tip, making him writhe in pleasure. Licking her way back down she tongue fucked him some more till he was nearly frantic and then flicked her wand out and cast the lubrication charm on his ass and her fingers. 

One finger made his little ring contract and protest and she felt him tense, probably remembering the pain of Abraxas brutally fucking him in her body.   
She moved back up and started to lick his cock and balls again, just gently fucking him with her finger till she felt him calm down.   
Her own cock was protesting at all of this and begging to be allowed to get to the part where she fucked him.   
She rubbed herself on the mattress absently. 

Adding another finger carefully caused Sorry to whimper and clench but she fucked him with them slow and easy and only when he relaxed and started to move slightly with her fingers did she start to scissor them in him and added a third, widening him in earnest.   
He moaned as his cock was bathed by her tongue and her fingers stretched him. 

Wanting to be on the safe side she gingerly eased in her little finger, stretching him wide. She wanted him to enjoy the next part as much as she had when Draco had done it.   
Ohh.. Draco.. She hadn’t thought of him in..a while.. but she realised suddenly that she missed him. Not so much the..physical side of it.. Strangely enough she missed his..deference.. his..coy romance.. She missed him as a ferret too.. He had been a good pet.   
Putting it out of her mind and turning to the young Rodolphus lookalike, she got up onto her knees and lifted his legs, putting them on her shoulders.   
“Relax..” she told him and lined her weeping, eager cock up with his nicely stretched ring. 

Ohhh.. it was going to be so hard to hold on, she realised. She just wanted to come so badly now.. Shit.   
She turned and became aware of Abraxas once more. He looked..excited, against his will. The bulge in his pants certainly suggested that he was..   
She smiled darkly and pushed, forcing the head of her cock past the oh-so-deliciously-tight little ring of muscle.   
Sorry whimpered slightly and she took his legs off her shoulders and encouraged him to wrap them around her waist.

“Push me in” she said softly, letting him gauge the speed at which she entered him.   
He got the idea immediately and tightened his legs around her gradually, drawing her inside him with a sensation that was agony and bliss all at once. She bit her lip, groaning softly in the effort of not moving.   
His eyes were closed and mouth wide, an expression of curiosity and wonder on his face. 

Reaching for his cock she stroked him gently..teasingly, and his eyes flicked open. “Ohhh fuck.. that feels good.. oh.. when you’re in me and you do that..” His eyes rolled back to indicate the feeling of bliss and she informed him. “It will feel better when I move” His legs loosened slightly immediately and she slid out slowly, still stroking him and then pumped in just a little faster.   
He moaned and turned his head away mumbling. “Oh.. you’re right.. so good.. Merlin!... keep doing that.. harder!..”   
She didn’t know which he meant and her cock was getting rather insistent so she tightened both her grip on his cock and the speed with which she moved in him, snapping her hips at the end.   
He moaned loudly and his hands fisted the bedclothes like they had when he was in her body and Abraxas had licked him   
“Ohh.. harder!.. gonna come.!.” 

Hermione turned quickly and glanced at Abraxas who in the interim had divestoed his clothing and was actually stroking himself watching them both.

“Do you want to have him too?” she asked urgently.   
He hesitated looking conflicted.   
“If you do, I’ll keep him from coming and finish myself and you can bring him off when you take him.   
Hurry up and decide.. he’s so hot and tight, not moving in him is making my balls ache!”

A dark greedy look dawned on Abraxas face and he responded quickly “Yes. I’ll fuck him when you’re finished.. leave him for me.”   
As if the sound of Abraxas saying he wanted to fuck him was too much for him, Hermione had to clamp down on the base of Sorry’s cock to prevent him from spilling his load right then. His groan of pleasure turned into a wail of desperation.   
“Fuck.. I need.. please.. Maia.. or.. no.. want him too.. but.. oh..alazar.. it feels so good... Move.. touch me!..” 

She kept hold on his cock mercilessly, fucking him hard, to her own organ’s delight. She didn’t last even a minute but cried out in sudden exploding release soon after, spasming and gasping.   
“..So..good..Sorry... You feel..so...good..” she choked out, not releasing his cock as she pulled out.   
He shuddered and moaned at the feeling of it and she leaned over him and captured his lips. His kiss was hungry, desperate, needy and so..so..appealing.. she felt her cock actually twitch again in temptation. 

Flicking her wand out, figuring Abraxas might be a finicky jerk, she reapplied the colonic and the lubricating charm and, thoughtfully, cast a very, very, weak binding charm around the base of Sorry’s cock. She’d release it when Abraxas was close. The experience would be better for both of them if they came together. 

Abraxas was already climbing up to kneel over Sorry and looked like a child doing something disobedient who hopes not to get caught. She wondered whether that was what he was – perhaps his parents had instilled in him the belief that it was naughty and bad and wrong to do this.   
He seemed, whatever the case, horny enough to get past that little issue as he positioned himself at the slick entrance to Sorry’s prepared little hole and pushed in.   
“Fuck... YES!!!..” the boy beneath him groaned, bucking up toward him.   
Thus encouraged, Abraxas leaned down over him on his hands and knees and quickly snapped his hips in, thrusting all the way in one stroke. 

Sorry cried out in pleasure and Abraxas seemed relieved, lowering himself still further to stroke over his chest and neck with a tentative hand.   
Sorry had immediately wrapped his legs around him and was rolling his pelvis, revelling in the feeling of the boy he wanted most fucking him on purpose. Abraxas too seemed to be thawing and Hermione, curious whether it might work, joined them both, kneeling behind Abraxas and running her hands up his spine.   
He stiffened. “What are you doing Maia?” he asked fearfully.   
She smirked, although he couldn’t see it and told him. “Just relax... I’ll only use my mouth, ok?”   
He calmed again somewhat and started to move in Sorry. She heard the catch of his breath.   
“He is..really hot..and tight.. fuck.. feels..good..”

She started to lick up his spine and kiss his back, leaning over him and brushing his hair aside so that she could kiss and suck his neck and shoulders. If he felt her newly hardened erection he didn’t react. 

Curious, she pulled his hair, dragging his face around to hers and kissing him.. moaning into his mouth.   
He responded reticently, reluctant to kiss her in Sorry’s form, so she continued kissing him till he reacted with more hunger. 

“Mmmm... much better..” she praised him, releasing him.. 

Sorry was looking up at them both with wonder, watching Abraxas passionately kiss a face that resembled his own.   
He licked his lips and the blind wistful desire was painful in his eyes.   
Hermione leaned down and kissed him, knowing it wasn’t what he wanted. He responded eagerly even so, wrapping his arms around her (himself) and pulling her closer.. S

he withdrew after Abraxas obviously started moving in him more vigorously and he started moaning and panting in need again. 

Applying the scourgifying colonic to Abraxas (at which he stiffened again and looked at her fearfully) she returned to kneeling behind him and kissing and licking his, it had to be said, beautifully built body.   
This time she licked her way down.. to his increasing excitement.   
It was hard to lick his bottom when it was moving so she held him in place and engaged in a more thorough exploration.

When her tongue delved between his virgin cheeks he cried out in surprised pleasure. 

She thought he might be getting very close now so she precautionally released Sorry’s little binding as she made her way down to the puckered flower squeezed tight against her unnatural, arousing, intrusion.   
Abraxas made a little whine of confusion and she heard Sorry snicker. “Yeah.. her tongue feels fucking lovely doesn’t it?! You should feel her cock.. ohhh Merlin Brax.. if you don’t start moving again.. i’m gonna go mad” 

Hermione slid a hand up Abraxas spine as she forced her slick muscle past the tight little star, making him buck away and into Sorry helplessly.   
She pushed down with her hand, urging him down closer to Sorry.. hoping..he might let go and kiss the poor crushing boy.   
Reapplying her tongue to his ass and gently urging with her hand, he actually did bend to the boy and a little while later she heard the sound of Sorry’s excited joyful moan through a kiss.   
Abraxas started moving again, forcefully, fucking into him hard and fast and Sorry’s sounds of raw pleasure were muffled by their mouths pressed together, devouring one another like creatures possessed. 

It seemed seconds and then she heard Sorry’s muffled yell of release, his body cramping and clinging around Abraxas and shortly thereafter the blond boy, broke the kiss and threw his head back gasping and crying out in that exultant ecstatic way he had. Then he shuddered all over and turning his face back down, plunged back and claimed Sorry’s lips again... 

She felt overjoyed at how well it had worked out for them both. The way they were slung together peacefully now in their afterglow and Abraxas was still..kissing and holding Sorry. It was beautiful!   
She smiled and cast tempus..and sighed.. just under 15 minutes to go before her polyjuice would run out. 

She crawled close to them both.   
“I have to go now, my beautiful.. beautiful boys. But you have fun this weekend. There are so many things you can do.. and you have lots of polyjuice.” 

The two had broken off their kiss and looked pink and flustered. She could see Sorry’s cheeks were wet – he had cried at some point. Her heart pricked and she leaned in, kissing them each in turn twice, pulling away when they tried to kiss her longer.   
She stroked Abraxas hair and wiped Sorry’s cheek with the back of her finger.   
“SO beautiful.. Thank you..both of you.. I have to go. Don’t forget your polyjuice if you leave the bed, Sorry, ok?” 

She left quickly, not wanting to hang about and risk changing in the middle of the corridors somewhere.

When she reached the common room, Septimus called out to her again and she just grinned and left through the shield hole, rushing down the corridor.   
She’d almost reached the stairs back up to the ground floor when a hand caught her arm and spun her around. 

“Damn it, Sorry! You’ve been ignoring me all day – are you angry about.. about last night?” 

Septimus stood nervous and upset.   
She shook her head. 

He furrowed his brow. “Then.. what the blazes are you-..” 

She smirked and put her finger to her lips, beckoning him to follow.   
He did, with some confusion and she hurried up, by every secret passage she knew, back to the room of requirement, knocking and being admitted by Tom immediately. He had obviously seen her coming. 

“What did you bring him back here for?” he demanded when the door was closed behind them both.   
“The point is for him to be around Amalthea so that the silly witch doesn’t have a fit over nothing.” 

She snorted – “Well – as you know – Maia is currently shagging Abraxas silly in his dorm room – Amalthea can go and check and if Septimus is away somewhere and not with Maia, then it’s none of her business, is it?!” 

Septimus behind her was displaying the slight disturbance that for Prince descendents was obviously the genetic facial expression of extreme shock and horror.   
“Maia?!!” he ground out.. “Then.. Sorrenson is..” 

Hermione remembered and jumped slightly in pleasure. “Ooooooh.. I wonder!!” she remarked and sped across the room to the screen where.. yes.. Abraxas and Sorrenson were still in bed together.   
Sorry was sucking Abraxas off again with enjoyment. Hermione wondered how the blonde had so much stamina – he’d already come three times in the last couple of hours! 

Septimus and Tom had followed her over and while Septimus looked shocked and horrified that they were apparently watching the two in bed, Tom snickered. “It appears that Abraxas mind has indeed been broadened” he observed. 

As they continued to watch, each fascinated with the scene playing out, Septimus looked increasingly upset.   
She looked at him, surprised.   
“It’s not the privacy thing is it... don’t tell me that you wanted one of them.. Sorrenson.. you liked Sorrenson?” 

Septimus didn’t reply but the faint guilt on his face confirmed it.   
She laughed.   
“Well you’ve already been with both of them – go and join them. I am quite certain they will take you in their current state of mind – especially if you tell them i sent you down to join them.”   
Septimus brightened slightly and seemed to be considering this as he watched the screen fixedly.

Tom frowned, however. “That wouldn’t solve anything. The whole point of the switch is for Amalthea to see that Septimus is nowhere near you.” 

Hermione shrugged and took out the flask with Sorry polyjuice in it and gave it to Septimus. “Here. Just make sure you change back in the knights’ chamber so that no one twigs.   
Oh.. and.. give me some of your hair! You never know..” 

Tom wiped his hand down his face in irritation but nodded and Septimus happily snipped off a swatch of his hair in exchange for the silver flask. 

 

After he’d departed, Tom seemed annoyed.

“What?!” she prompted uneasily. 

He glared at her and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

She felt the room change around her and, although the potions area remained stable the rest of the room suddenly shifted into her room in the future.   
She looked around bemused. “We aren’t going to watch them to see what Septimus does, then?” 

Tom growled and turned away. “I couldn’t care less what they do.”   
He stalked angrily to the fireplace and threw himself down in one of the wingback chairs. “Come here” he demanded tightly.   
She obeyed, a little unsettled by his apparent dramatic shift in demeanour, with no discernable reason.   
He pulled her down into his lap and held her, sighing. 

She relaxed after a minute and let herself cuddle into him, putting her head on his shoulder and watching the fire. 

After a long time she felt him sigh and his arms tightened around her slightly. “I won’t allow anything to happen to you” he said quietly. She felt his hand stroke her hair slowly and they didn’t move until it was time for her to add the final ingredient to the potion.


	66. Chapter 66

The weekend passed very quickly.

Tom didn’t pick up a book the entire time although he did ask her to explain her atomic method of transfiguration.   
After a number of diagrams and explanation he was able to operate it to some extent, with varying results. He found it much easier to solidify things than to liquefy them for some reason – even when he wasn’t trying to form objects of liquid. 

Most of the time they spent sitting together talking about everything and nothing, eating, sleeping tangled close together and of course having sex. Lots and lots of sex.   
In some strange way it felt like he was trying to possess some part of her he couldn’t quite reach. 

Monday morning swung around far too soon. 

They had intended to go back to the ‘real world’ on Sunday night but it hadn’t happened. Tom had pulled her back into bed when she’d gotten up to dress and then one thing led to another and they were waking to the sunlight streaming in the window wherever it was in Europe while the Hogwarts clock read 4.45am.   
Dressing felt like preparing for the gallows and they trudged through the secret passageways disillusioned to the Slytherin common room, where Tom left her with a kiss. 

Still disillusioned she crept down to her dormroom and found her bed, naturally, warded and silenced.   
She couldn’t exactly speak – it would alert the others to what had been going on, so she used a little magic to dissolve the ward and crept between the curtains as quietly as she could into the silenced area, re-warding behind herself.   
Sorry was lying in her bed, his hair arrayed on the pillow and one arm tucked underneath.   
He looked lovely and she crept into bed next to him. 

He only opened his eyes a crack, recognising her and pulling her close, falling back asleep.   
“You have to go back to your bed, Sorry!” she whispered against his cheek and gave him a kiss.   
He grumbled and pulled her closer.   
“I’ll go back when they’re at breakfast”. 

Relatively content with that solution she wrapped her arm around him, curled up and went to sleep too. 

She was woken by the feeling of fingertips stroking over her cheekbone lightly.   
Opening her eyes she saw Sorrenson was lying on his side, watching her contentedly.

“Sorry.. I shouldn’t have woken you” he whispered.   
She shook her head slightly. “It’s ok. Gotta get up soon anyway. How was your weekend?” 

He smirked faintly. “busy.. “

She poked him and he jumped and grabbed her finger, pulling it away from his ribs and kissing it lightly.   
“Thank you..” he said earnestly, looking into her eyes. “for..Abraxas.. you know?” 

She shook her head “No.. don’t.. But tell me – what happened when Sep came down?” 

Sorry grinned as if reliving the memory.   
“We thought he was you..polyjuiced again.. and he didn’t say anything.. just kissed us..   
Abraxas nearly jumped out of his skin when he spoke after he’d sucked his cock, thinking it was you. It took ages to calm him down again and get it through his head that nothing had changed and it was still ok.   
...Sep is better in bed, isn’t he?”

Hermione smiled a little smile. “Well.. let’s just say they’re different in bed and leave it at that.   
Abraxas seems to only have two gears.. soft and loving and really vicious. Septimus seems to be more in the middle of the two extremes.”   
Sorry nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! That’s it exactly.. ..I don’t know which I like better.. I like to look at Abraxas.. think of him..think that its him touching me.. you know... but Sep was definitely hot to fuck.   
Neither of them would let me top them and neither would do more than suck each other.. but.. it was good anyway.”

Hermione pecked him on the lips and stroked his hair.. “Get me Abraxas hair and I’ll let you top me in his body if you like..”

The boy’s eyes widened. “Really? When? I can have it ..well.. fuck – I can go and get some now if you-“   
She laughed.   
“Not before breakfast on a Monday morning maybe, Sorry.”   
He scowled but there was no real vitriol behind it. “Another time then. Later!.. tonight.. or tomorrow! She nodded.

“I better get up now.. Stay here and wait till everyone’s gone, ok!”   
He nodded and she slipped out of bed to get ready for the day.

 

 

Abraxas and Septimus were in bright spirits at breakfast, which almost made up for Tom’s pensive restrained mood.   
Amalthea looked a little less suspicious and frosty too.   
Antonia seemed to be sitting down the end of the table with Palmer and Cygnus was two seats away with Dolohov and Clemens in between! Something had certainly changed there.   
She wondered whether Palmer might be redeemable if he had a girlfriend – he seemed to be angling for one, the way he was talking to Antonia and hardly ever wearing that creepy little smile when he looked at her. 

Abraxas took her hand and brought her knuckles to his lips. She just caught the dark little narrowing of Tom’s eyes and wondered why he was suddenly possessive after everything.   
“Thank you for a wonderful weekend, beautiful!” he whispered with a secretive little smile.   
She reflected it back at him. 

“I’m surprised you can walk after the amount of time you spent in the boys dorms” Amalthea tossed at them both nastily, a snide little smile on her face. 

Tom looked at her with a cool even eye, sizing her up and finding her wanting. 

Hermione blushed slightly, hoping others hadn’t heard that.   
“Yes well.. life is too short, you know and virgins are for dragons.”   
Abraxas grinned. “Virgins are for dragons.. I like it..” he stroked her knuckles again and looked at her adoringly.

“Perhaps, but whores are for Knockturn Alley” the redhead sniffed. 

Tom narrowed his eyes, then turned to Septimus and informed him. “You have my permission.” He pushed his plate back untouched and, rising, stalked out of the great hall.   
Septimus looked overjoyed and helped himself to another roll, cutting it open and drizzling it liberally in melted butter and honey. 

Hermione watched Amalthea with something akin to fascinated pity. She was like a man who’d just had his head severed by a very sharp sword and hadn’t twigged that he was dead yet. The girl picked at her fruit salad looking very self-satisfied. 

Just as they were getting ready to go to herbology, Sorrenson came in, bright and shiny. She handed him a piece of toast with melted butter under a stasis charm and he smiled gratefully. 

The day was off to a promising start! There were no parrots on the way to herbology or on the way back, however this might have been due to the way Tom held his wand at the ready and scanned the surroundings with a carnivorous expression.   
On the way up to Runes, Septimus smiled at her in the same manner that Abraxas and Sorry had already smiled at her this morning. They walked in silence for most of the way but just before they reached the classroom he said, almost too quiet to hear “Thank you”, ducking his head as if embarrassed and hurrying into the class.   
He didn’t look at her for the rest of the lesson.   
After class she told him. “You’re very welcome” and no more was said of it. 

Sorrenson was waiting outside the door for them by the DADA room and he looked like a puppy pricking its ears up and wagging his tail when he saw them both.   
“Sep. Maia.” He acknowledged and opened the door for her. 

They walked into the bright sunny room together and everyone seemed quite content, Gryffindors and Slytherins alike.   
With the exception of Tom.   
He was leaning back on the bench in his effortless king of this domain pose and a dark cloud hung around him, rendering the blond locks dull. 

Hermione sighed. She was really over the hair.   
She’d asked him to change it back on the weekend but he’d smirked and made it longer.   
She wanted him to look like himself again.. Translation – like her Tom again. His black perfect hair had always been so attractive. She’d never really had a thing for blondes.   
Course.. She’d always have a thing for him. It wouldn’t matter if his hair was green and orange with spiders in it. 

Ok.. maybe not so much if there were spiders in it. 

She walked over and he looked at her with a pensive expression. “Sit with me” he commanded. She sat next to him.   
Septimus, Abraxas and Sorry seemed quite content to stand together to the side although they exchanged a look at Tom’s behaviour. 

“What’s wrong?” she whispered at Tom, rather expecting that he wouldn’t respond to it.   
He didn’t. He did stare across the room and narrow his eyes however.   
She followed his gaze. 

Alex Potter and his little group were chatting. Alex was looking serenely over at them as he talked. The redhead from potions was hanging on his words and laughing. A tall boy with short straight black hair smiled at his right side and the Brown ancestor she’d cursed last week was standing facing him, her back to the Slytherin side.   
Two other boys, one blond and one red headed walked over from another group and joined Alex Potter’s little conversation. 

It was obvious they were talking about someone over here, from the way that even the LavLav girl looked around every so often and smirked.   
Hermione felt a sense of antipathy for Alex Potter suddenly. Tom was in a bad mood and Harry’s ancestor was making it worse. 

She scowled at him and folded her arms. 

The smile on Alex Potter’s face faded somewhat and he looked slightly pained. He must have changed the subject or something because the giggles and looks stopped right then and there.   
“Jerk” she muttered.   
Tom turned and looked to her with something like satisfaction. She was pleased to see the first smile of the day on his face. 

At that moment Professor Merrythought bustled in and started booming at them like a drill instructor.   
“Right then! Come on – We’re starting late so get yourself into pairs and warm up with a quick duel and we’ll get to learning these new defensive spells in ten minutes. What are you waiting for?! HOP TO IT!” 

Hermione sighed, looking around vaguely. “What does that mean? Pairs with anyone? Or pairs with the Gryffindors?!” 

Tom decided the matter by informing her she’d pair with him.   
She frowned slightly. It didn’t escape her notice that none of the other Slytherins had been particularly eager to pair with either of them.   
It was obvious why nobody wanted to pair with Tom.. the reasons for not wanting to pair with her were rather more speculative. 

She mused on it as she drifted after Tom toward the open space near the back wall.   
It was more shaded over here. And it was one of the last areas that Merrythought circulated around.   
She moved into place where Tom had set her up. He took the position with his back to the wall. She would have preferred that place but what could you do?! It hardly mattered, she supposed.   
She just didn’t like the feeling of having spells moving behind her back. 

Tom raised his wand to his shoulder and cut a small bow and she did the same, smiling. 

Real duels were never polite, she thought idly. 

They raised their wands and then Tom had fired off a tickling hex. She repelled it with a wave and returned a leglocker.   
He flicked it away with the same ease and then, smirking, sent three spells in quick succession. Something red, purple and orange. The red could be a stunner, the purple was something along the lines of a diffindo.

She flicked up a strong shield and sidestepped the orange, not knowing what it was. But he was already casting again.   
She smiled and recognised the next three, casting them away with a flick and allowing the third to bounce off her shield while she sent her own midrange offensive spells back.   
He cast something but no spell seemed to be emitted and he simply caught and absorbed her spells with his wandtip, flinging them back at her at speed. The second one seemed to be augmented somehow. She felt her shield shiver at it.   
His superior smirk irritated her and she strengthened her shield further, making it self-sustaining and started to cast in earnest.

Tom grinned and seemed to come alive at her challenge, whirling and defending, casting even as he was defending.   
Not all of his spells were visible! She saw only one, but there were three crashes against her shield. She made a mental note to figure out how he had learned to cast more than one spell at once. It was very difficult to deal with.

She tossed a shield corroding hex at him and he sidestepped it, sending a spell at the stone floor below her rendering its consistency that of quicksand. Attending to that problem, she was distracted while he sent off another two hexes at her, a black sticky morass that she remembered he had used on Grindelwald and a small fleet of scorpions that swarmed over, searching for holes in her shield.   
She managed to rectify the melting stone situation and dispelled the black slime with some effort, the scorpions, no longer useful, faded away by themselves. 

His duelling, she thought, was almost preternaturally graceful – as if he were dancing. The way he held his wand so delicately and the swirls out of the way of her more complex hexes. It was very distracting. She wanted to stop and drool.. resented the spells for forcing her to divide her attention between his beauty and her own safety. 

As neither had breached the barriers of the other, neither particularly noticed that the spells they were using were becoming more dangerous. Tom was getting into the play with enthusiasm and suddenly flicked off a sizzling black jet that moved at least twice as fast as everything else he’d been casting.   
She gasped and tried to leap aside but it was too quick and her shield shattered.   
She was too busy being stunned that it had happened – it shouldn’t have even been possible to break her shield – to react with enough presence of mind to the three spells moving at her now, one on either side, preventing her from dodging sideways.   
In the last moment, realising, she tried to drop and get under them, but the centre one hit her in the side of the throat as she ducked too slowly.   
She felt a terrible painful coldness rush through her and looked up at Tom fearfully. His gleeful triumph had shifted into shock and he flicked a countercurse at her immediately, rushing over. 

She couldn’t breathe. When she brought her stiffening hands up to scratch at her throat it felt bizarrely smooth and cold, like glass. 

“What the fuck!!” a voice cried from behind her furiously and then spat “What in Merlin’s name did you think you were doing using a dark spell on her, Riddle?! I saw you duelling. Were you trying to put her in the infirmary?!”

Hermione scratched more urgently at her throat. Her lungs felt like they were exploding.   
Tom was white   
“I didn’t imagine it would actually hit her. And certainly not there..” 

Alex Potter, the owner of the furious voice, dropped to his knees beside them both. “She can’t breathe! Take it off!”   
Tom growled at him angrily “I have.. It takes a minute or two to melt away.”   
Hermione’s eyes widened. A couple of minutes?! She needed to breathe NOW.. 

It seemed the rest of the class were gathering round now and Professor Merrythought was pushing through them. 

Hermione panicked. If Merrythought saw this hex then Tom would be in deep trouble probably.   
She flexed inside and melted the horrible blocked cold feeling in her throat, gasping desperately.

“Now.. What has happened. Let me through please.”   
The energetic little woman emerged and looked down on the three students on the floor.   
“Miss Schiller! Mr Riddle – what was she struck with?” 

Alex opened his mouth to speak but Tom got in faster – “A minor blasting hex, Professor. She is a little winded.”   
Alex turned and glared at Tom poisonously. He whirled to correct the lie and Hermione reached gingerly and grabbed his hand. When he turned in surprise, she looked at him meaningfully and shook her head slightly.   
He seemed to become even angrier and she squeezed his hand, letting it go. 

The boy who looked so much like harry folded his arms and gave the impression of being extremely put upon. 

“Perhaps miss Schiller should go to the infirmary – she may have broken something.. or sustained internal bruising.” 

Hermione shook her head more definitely and pushed herself up into a sitting position.   
“I’m fine, Professor. I’m sorry that everyone got worried. I just slipped but I feel fine now. I’d like to stay – please?” 

Professor Merrythought looked at her pensively and then nodded. “Alright miss Schiller. But if you feel light headed or if there is any further pain.. You will tell me immediately, is that clear?” 

Hermione nodded gratefully, letting Tom help her to her feet. 

“Right then class – everyone back into your pairs. We’re going to work on detection spells.”   
The woman bustled off again. 

Tom had moved closer and was proprietorially checking her over when Alex Potter yanked her away from him by the upper arm.   
“Ow! Hey!” she yelped softly.

“Stay away from her Riddle. You almost killed her. I’m not going to lie for you again. Maia – work with me for the rest of the lesson.” 

She raised her eyebrows in dismay and looked to Tom for guidance on how to react. He looked like he wanted to cruciate Alex but he nodded at her almost imperceptibly, turning away.   
“It was an accident Potter. I’m sure you know how easily one’s wand can slip in the heat of a duel.”   
The boy dragging her away didn’t respond and she bobbled after him, almost stumbling at one point. 

He dragged her all the way over to the farthest point in the room away from Tom and then turned to her looking distraught. “Are you ok?” he hushed out when they stopped.   
She noticed peripherally that his little group of friends had positioned themselves strategically between her and Alex and the rest of the room.   
It reminded her weirdly of Tom’s knights.   
The ginger haired girl from potions frowned at her slightly but another tall boy who looked very familiar smiled in a shy friendly manner. 

“I’m fine” she reassured him. He didn’t seem to calm much.

“You aren’t even bothered by the fact that he hexed you! That you might have died. Merlin – what has he done to you that that doesn’t even trouble you?!” 

Hermione put her hands on her hips indignantly “Hey! It was an accident. If you were watching – you’d have noticed that I wasn’t exactly duelling with tickle and leglocker curses either – and neither were you when I saw you two duelling last week, I might add!   
He didn’t mean to hit me with it – I should have reacted more quickly – and he really wouldn’t have used it if he’d thought it would hit me there. He said so himself – you heard him!   
There’s no need for a fuss over it – it was just a bloody accident.” 

Alex Potter’s face shifted like storm clouds. “...Maybe. But he had no call using that kind of curse on you anyway – even if he thought he wouldn’t hit you – and I don’t believe he did. Tom Riddle never does anything expecting to fail.” 

Hermione huffed. “Well. I’m fine so just stop please.”

The other boy pouted in an overly familiar way, folding his arms again.   
Harryharryharry.. her mind whispered.   
She wondered idly whether Tom had killed him over what had happened. It seemed plausible. Nothing stopping him now except the soul fragment.. and now that his soul was mostly healed, possibly Tom wouldn’t even care about destroying that fragment. 

Their attention was dragged away by Merrythought drawing them all back in to teach them the detection spells they’d be working on.   
She walked them through them one by one and then, with a slight glance in Hermione’s direction (making her blush in shame) she projected the incantations onto the wall and left them there. 

As they walked back to work on the spells, Alex touched her shoulder and she jumped and flinched away, making him look at her suspiciously again. “Sorry” he said defensively.   
She waved it away. “In case you were wondering – that reaction isn’t Tom Riddle’s fault either”

He took a deep breath and let it out again slowly, then, with effort, cleared his face of the petulant worried expression and smiled brightly.   
“Could we perhaps start over? I’m Alex Potter” he held out his hand.   
Hermione took it without thinking and then let go as if burned, her eyes flicked of their own volition to the other side of the room where Tom stood watching them both like a hawk even as he, absent thought, cast the detection spells they had been shown at Abraxas.   
Alex followed her line of vision to its end. “So the rumours are true then?” he said.   
Hermione realised he thought she was looking at Abraxas. She turned her eyes back to him and stepped back a half step. “Depends what they are.” She answered. 

The brown eyes of the boy narrowed slightly and he tilted his head, offering a half smile.   
“That you’re being courted by Abraxas Malfoy” 

Hermione nodded warily. “I am.”

Alex smirked “-And you’re also dallying with Septimus Prince, or so the rumour goes.” 

Hermione folded her arms and looked back angrily, cold fingers of fear scratching up her spine. “That’s not true!” 

Alex nodded absently and glanced at the incantations “We should practice these”

Hermione unfolded her arms reluctantly and drew her wand, performing the first spell. It worked first time and she rattled through the other four quickly, without looking at the board, as if to prove that she wasn’t incapable of remembering a spell taught to the class.   
Alex watched her with an unreadable expression. 

“Are you in trouble, Maia?” he asked softly. “Do you need help? ..I’ve been watching you and.. I think you might not be telling the truth. And I don’t think it’s just Prince either.   
Tom Riddle’s group are a bad lot. I...don’t know how much you’ve learned about them yet but I really wish you’d take my advice and steer clear of them. If you’re not already in up to your neck, I’m sure you will be soon – and then it might be too late. “ 

Hermione rolled her eyes. “I take it you and Tom have some kind of grudge against each other” she diverted. 

Alex seemed to think for a moment and then nodded. “You might say that” he agreed.

She sighed wearily and then looked the Harry lookalike in the eye and spoke clearly, wanting him to believe her   
“I’m not in trouble. I don’t need help. I appreciate you taking off the petrificus last time but I already told you – the ones who hexed me were Gryffindors. Thank you for not making a fuss with the accident before but everything is fine. You don’t need to concern yourself any more. I’d rather you didn’t in fact.” 

Alex’s face hardened “And Slughorn? Is that fine too? You didn’t seem fine in class. You seemed terrified.   
If you’re prepared to lie about that then how am I supposed to believe Riddle and Malfoy and the rest of his little gang aren’t-..” he broke off and swallowed, his face insinuating clearly what he suspected.   
It probably wasn’t that far off from what was actually happening, she mused – with the exception that he obviously presumed it wasn’t voluntary. 

Hermione looked over at Tom in frustration.   
“It’s under control” she ground out between her teeth. 

Alex threw an exasperated expression at her “Just what is that supposed to mean?! I was IN potions you know. If I hadn’t distracted him..”   
Hermione looked up at the vaulted ceiling in fury and wrapped her arms around herself.   
“YES. Fine. Ok. Thank you for that too.” She gritted at him.   
He reddened and countered angrily “I don’t want thanks! Merlin! I want you to be safe. You’ve only been here five minutes and you’re in the worst possible state already.   
From what I heard you shouldn’t even be in Slytherin – Witherstead said you should have been a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw. Maybe you can be resorted.. If you were in Gryffindor I..we.. could protect you from them.” 

Hermione facepalmed, wiping her hand down her face in irritation.   
“That’s enough now” she growled. “I’m fine. If you feel like exercising your protective instincts – exercise them on someone else. I’m in Slytherin because I asked to be there – yes. I like it there. I am lucky that Tom offered me his friendship and if I weren’t there – I wouldn’t have met Abraxas, who I like very much.   
Septimus is a decent guy but his girlfriend is totally paranoid. Don’t believe every bit of gossip you hear-“ 

She flinched as Alex stalked very close suddenly and whispered angrily “I’m not only in Potions and DADA with you.. I’m also in your astronomy class you know. I don’t expect you’d have noticed me – since it’s a Slythenclaw class – but I had a clash in my courses and so I take it then. I saw both of you.” 

She felt the blood drain out of her face.   
Well. That was..just..unfortunate. Damn.   
Recovering slightly she hissed back “Mind your own damn business!”   
“You’ve been watching me? well stop! I already told you politely to leave me alone. Since you apparently didn’t understand the first time – I’ll make it clear – Leave. Me. Alone!”   
She turned on her heel and stalked quickly past the tall Gryffindor boy who looked a wee bit like Cedric Diggory and seemed to want to reach out and stop her, a perturbed look on his face.   
She flinched away and kept going till she was back beside Tom, folding her arms and making clear her irritation. 

He smirked and brushed her hair to the side in an overly familiar manner, glancing over her shoulder at Alex and his friends and broadening his smile for their benefit.   
“I heard everything” he murmured. “Lip reading charm. I don’t want you speaking to him again. He is already affected.” 

She nodded “I know.” 

Abraxas moved close and growled “I saw him shake your hand - I don’t want you touching him. You’re with me”

She exchanged a look with Tom. They were both thinking - there was already suspicion and when Septimus broke up with amalthea it would be for most of the school pretty much confirmation that something was odd.   
“I will speak with him.” Tom said low. “I cannot stand the girl either but it would be best not to allow this to devolve. I do not want you to be seen talking to him or even standing near him. Steer clear Maia. That goes for Sorrenson too.” 

Hermione glanced to the side and saw the boy in question ten metres away watching them talk and looking disappointed. She wondered whether he also knew the lip reading charm. 

“I would encourage you to make friendships among the other houses but I suspect those who would want to befriend you at present would only be seeking to squeeze information from you. No. Continue as you are. It will settle when no new incidents with Septimus occur. We will have to restrict our night time activities for a while, perhaps.” 

She nodded glumly. Bloody Harry ruining everything all over again, she sniped. 

“By your socialising – I take it that everyone is finished with these detection spells?” Professor Merrythought called over the buzz of conversations. The class reluctantly turned and focused on her.   
“Good.. because we are going to practice them now.”   
The small energetic woman bustled over to the door in the back of the room. “Shortly, we will engage in a very different kind of duel.   
In most duels you are likely to face, your opponent will be standing before you with honour and you will obey the rules of wizarding etiquette – In battle this will not be the case – however even off the battlefield, if ever a dark wizard determines to kill you.. you may not see him coming. And that is the duel we will practice now.” 

“You will in groups step inside, take an invisibility draught and then as pairs enter one of the duelling rooms.   
You will use only level one and two spells – and no stunners please. The winner will be the one able to land three hits on their opponent. The winners will then take on one another. Are we all clear?” She didn’t wait. “Good. I’d like two lines now. Quickly quickly!”

The students drifted in toward the centre hurriedly and the bunched crowds became two lines – Slytherin’s and Gryffindors.

Abraxas had placed himself in front of her in the line and Tom behind. Hermione looked to the side at a Gryffindor boy she’d never even seen before. He smiled nervously.   
Internally she rolled her eyes. 

The line moved swiftly forward by five pairs. Surprised, she walked forward. Then nothing happened for a while. 

The boy standing at her side kept stealing looks at her and Abraxas growled out low “Eyes forward Peakes.”   
‘Peakes’ scowled and looked away.   
She could feel Tom close behind her paying attention to events. The boy in front of Peakes half turned at Abraxas voice and glanced at them all. 

The line moved forward again as five disembodied white powder coated faces emerged from the door complaining.   
It looked like the Professor was not having invisible students run about willy nilly.   
Hermione tried to collect herself. There were four Slytherins in front of her. The next time the line moved, she’d be duelling this Peakes guy. 

Leaning forward she whispered in Abraxas ear “good luck”. He smiled and turned around. His expression reminded her of Draco more than Lucius right now. Focused and pleased with a hint of proud.   
“I don’t need luck. I’ll see you in the final rounds, beautiful”   
She smirked at the way Peakes in her peripheral vision seemed to start slightly and look at her again more warily. 

The door opened and Hermione recognised Roan and the ginger-haired girl from Gryffindor among the floating white masks coming out. Roan seemed disappointed and avoided all their eyes.   
Shaking his head slightly Abraxas tsked as he turned to follow the others through the door.

She glanced back at Tom, who was looking at her with a knowing expression of anticipation. He expected to duel her again. She could feel it.” 

She smiled and followed after Abraxas. 

Inside, the antechamber was a curved room with a door on the left. A corridor extended away on the right.   
Professor Merrythought smiled at her kindly and told her “Just do your best Miss Schiller”, handing her the invisibility draught in a tiny silver cup. “Mr Peakes will keep in mind your earlier mishap, I’m sure. If you decide you do not feel well enough to continue, you may go to the infirmary at any time you wish.”   
Hermione thanked her and knocked the salty tasting liquid back feeling a very strange sensation seep up out of her insides until it tingled over her skin. It was like a disillusionment spell, but from the inside out. A cold strangely slick smooth sensation in her nerves. 

“The fourth door, both of you” 

Hermione nodded, remembered that this would be of absolutely no use and thanked the Professor again, walking down the wide corridor.   
Halfway down, something brushed against her arm and she stopped dead, turning to look at the wall suspiciously.

“It’s just me” Sorrenson’s voice came out of empty space near the wall. “When you win you have to wait out here for the second round. See you in a minute then.” 

She didn’t respond because she could see the fourth door opening. It would have been better to go in first.   
She cast thick silencing spells over herself, layered a couple of shields and hurried to the door. She would be the last to enter the duelling rooms it seemed. 

Coming up to the door the size of the room surprised her. It was very large and had a sand covered floor.   
She had no sooner placed a toe on the sand than a spell bounced off her shields. Shit!   
She ducked back away from the door again.   
Peakes wasn’t even going to let her get into the room. What a prick.   
She cast the detection spell and registered the presence of ten students standing against the opposite wall of the corridor, many of which she assumed were currently monitoring her just as she was monitoring them. She also detected the moving point of Peakes as he tried to get into a position to cast on her again as soon as she appeared in the doorway.   
She scowled and held the detection spell in place till he stopped moving and then prepared a leg locker.   
Dropping to her haunches quickly and slipping the bare tip of her wand past the door she shot him and was satisfied to hear the soft bang of it bouncing off his shield. 

When she recast the detection spell she could see him moving away rapidly and took that chance to dash into the room, moving quickly to the left wall and then doubling back slightly. He would have to drop the detection spell to fire at her and so continuing in any trajectory would be a bad idea.   
Indeed spells flashed off the walls ahead of her when she doubled back. She could see him trying to do the same thing, moving quickly. 

Dropping the spell she fired off a mild stinging hex at where she thought he would be and missed. 

This was irritating. The detection spell should be constant. This entire activity would be much easier if it was.   
Tom, she knew, would be able to keep it up and fire too.   
Well.. If he could do that, then no one could argue and say she couldn’t too, she reasoned and fed the spell with a little raw magic to hold it in place.   
Now it was like having a strange blind vision of the room. Nothing had any definition but the vague form was clear.   
She could clearly register Peakes draw down on her and ducked away just as the spell he fired would have hit her. 

It was a simple matter to run and crouch, flicking a stinging hex at him and then another at his new position.   
She heard him swear under his breath in irritation. 

“Good duel, Schiller” he said quietly. She thanked him and told him he was good too, even though she wanted to say he was a colossal prick for not even letting her into the room before he began, but it didn’t really matter.   
He stamped off down the corridor to get his face painted white by Professor Merrythought. 

She turned her gaze to the shadow outlines of the other fifteen students against the walls. 

Turning, she could see Tom’s shadow coming down the corridor toward her with those going in for the next round.   
It was the way he walked. So graceful and somehow centred, strong. Regal. The shadow of the boy trailing after him looked harried and aversive by contrast. 

An arm sliding around her waist made her jump and she turned recognising the faint pleasant crisp scent of his aftershave a moment before the silhouette of Abraxas appeared.   
“You weren’t in there long” he said approvingly “that is.. when you finally got in there”   
The smirk was audible.   
Sighing, she leaned against him and wished he were Tom. 

The next round was over in record time and Tom emerged first, strolling over to them easily and standing close.   
“I am disappointed that not everyone made it through” he said quietly.   
Hermione looked around, trying to make out the silhouettes of his knights from the others. Seeing her looking around he informed her “Roan, Clemens and Benjamin. No real surprises – but they should have made it through the first round at least. They will have to work on their deficiencies.”

Professor Merrythought called out to them down the corridor “Right.. two in each room. I don’t care about the pairings. Hurry now.”   
Hermione suddenly found herself abandoned as the others moved rapidly to find some unknown shadow to duel. 

“Um.. hello again” a voice she didn’t recognise said beside her.

“Hello?” she answered uncertainly.

“Lawrence Diggory” the tall silhouette offered and her mind flicked back onto that familiar boy who had been part of Alex Potters group.   
“Oh.” She managed eloquently.

“You can call me Law if you like. My friends do.” 

She mulled that over. Another one potentially affected. She would have to tell Tom after DADA.   
“Ok Lawrence.. let’s go” she said sternly, marching down to the second duelling room where the door was still leaning open and getting there a second before another shadow.   
“Ours!” she growled and the other form muttered, revealing itself to be Sorry, and stamped down to the first door. 

She hurried inside and positioned herself in the shadow of the door. She did not attack ‘Law’ as soon as he entered, though she was tempted to – but waited till he had crept silently to the far wall before flicking the door closed with a spell and setting off at an erratic run, watching the boy raise his wand and try to follow her movement.

She could almost see the moment when he dropped the detection spell because the shadow of his wand flickered as he moved it to cast the offensive spell. Doubling back she fired off a tickling hex, hitting him.   
The rest of the duel was equally simple and they walked out of the room less than a minute later. 

Law seemed mortified.   
“Wow.. you’re really..good..” he mumbled.

She grinned invisibly and thanked him, politely returning the compliment emptily and turning away. 

Tom, she saw was already waiting there his posture smug.   
“Who’s left?” she asked curiously.   
Tom angled his head at her in recognition of her maintained detection spell. 

“Antonin and Abraxas are both still in their duels. Sorry beat Wood. Septimus, Palmer and Cygnus are here. As are Pettigrew and Frobisher.” 

At that moment the door at the end opened and Russian expletives emerged.

“Ah. And that would be Antonin and Potter, I suppose” Tom said with a half sigh. 

Hermione felt Dolohov’s shadow brush past her hurriedly and had the strange feeling the boy was ashamed. 

Alex Potter’s shadow sauntered over and stood by them. He said with surprise “You made it through? Who were you duelling?”   
She turned to him and answered shortly “Diggory” then looked up at Tom’s silhouette. “Which one is Pettigrew?” she asked idly and Tom’s shadow hand gestured to a boy standing behind her against the wall.   
She nodded and left them both.

“Maia..” Alex said questioningly after her. 

Ignoring it she approached the small shadow of Pettigrew’s ancestor.   
“Hello – I’m Maia Schiller. Will you duel with me in the next round?” she asked softly. 

The shimmery black form seemed to pull itself up and answered eagerly “Sure! You’re the new girl aren’t you! I saw you talking to Alex. You must be pretty good to have gotten this far.” 

Hermione smirked invisibly. ‘I could wipe you out of existence entirely’ she thought nastily. 

The next round went even more smoothly than the last and she stepped out of the duelling room, seeing Tom emerging at the same time from the next one.   
It was difficult to persuade herself that she didn’t need to go and fold herself into his arms. They were the first to finish duelling and it seemed as if nobody would really notice if.. 

The next door down opened and Palmer came out in a snit. “That’s cheating, Potter!” he threw back.   
The second silhouette came out with quiet confidence. “That’s the voice of a sore loser Avery!” came the response. 

Septimus was the next to come out, Frobisher stalking off down toward Professor Merrythought and then finally Abraxas came out with Cygnus. The later laughed and didn’t seem at all bothered to have lost. “I’ll get you next time, Brax” he promised and sauntered off. 

Professor Merrythought joined them soon after, beaming. “Well then! My best duellers! Well done all of you.   
I think.. perhaps you might wait for the moment, Tom. I’ll have Mr Prince against Mr Malfoy and Miss Schiller – you are a surprise. After the last two lessons... oh well – You will duel with Mr Potter next, in any case.”

She could feel.. she could almost scent Tom’s amusement at this. “I would like to see you in the final round, Maia” he said quietly. 

Professor Merrythought looked at the wall where he stood with an unreadable expression on her face that held components of scepticism and turned back to them.   
“Yes.. well just do your best everyone. I think we might raise the bar slightly. Five strikes. An immediate win if you can land the hex. Keep in mind as you duel that if this were a real attack – the hex speeding toward you would not be a harmless one – this is very much the kind of duel that is likely to be life or death. Right. Off you go.” 

Hermione walked amiably into the second duelling room again, following the black shadow of Alex Potter warily with her gaze as she did. 

“Perhaps I might have been wrong about you..” he said softly as he entered. “You seemed.. nice. I didn’t tip you as one of Riddle’s snakes.. I thought they were forcing you to..” he trailed off suggestively and shook his silhouetted head.   
His wand had come up in half a second and he shot off a hex toward her. She gasped and darted to the side, barely missing it. He was already firing another. 

This was a very, very, different pace than she’d had to deal with from her last partners. She ran and fired off stinging hexes toward him.   
He avoided them easily.   
Crap. He seemed to make almost no visible sign when he had a hex ready and he was herding her. She could feel it. Half the time he wasn’t even trying to hit her, he was just forcing her to change her path and moving her toward the back of the room.   
He was a very good dueller. At this point it wasn’t even as if they were invisible.. It was like a regular duel in which for some inexplicable reason neither party could allow a hex to meet their shields.   
And he was running less than she was. 

She fired off three hexes in quick succession, which he dodged. Crapcrapcrap. She hadn’t even hit him yet and he was having to switch between seeing and shooting while she could do both at once.   
He was a better dueller than she was. 

She dropped as she ran and fired off a hex that was just on the upper border of level two. It had a wide spray and she caught him at knee height, hearing the bang of his shield.   
He snorted and then fired down at the ground in front of her, which reared up and tried to grab her. 

That wasn’t bloody level two, whatever it was. She retreated backward, firing a reducto at the sandy tentacle.   
And then she was up against the wall a second later.   
Alex’s hands were around her wrists and had her pressed against the stone in milliseconds. 

She gasped and struggled, trying to turn her hand to point her wand at him. He prevented it but he didn’t try to take her wand and he didn’t use a spell to fix her to the wall.   
She realised it was because if he did then the duel would be over. She had lost, technically, by allowing herself to be pinned like this, but apparently he didn’t want the duel to be over. 

“Of course.. if they’re not forcing you..” the black shadow in front of her said very quietly. “Then maybe you don’t deserve help. Maybe that kind of treatment is what you want. Maybe you’re just gagging for it from anyone and everyone.”

She struggled again and tried to kick at the boy holding her. The memories of Harry were rising up and threatening to swamp her.   
He pressed close against her, preventing her from getting leverage to kick or knee him. She could feel his growing arousal against her thigh

“Stop fighting Maia.. I’m not going to hurt you” he said very quietly. “I-...” 

Recovering from her panic at the situation she decided if he was going to cheat with higher level spells and.. and touch her like this then she had every right to kick the crap out of him. 

Twisting the magic she flung him off hard. He hit the ground almost six metres away and skidded with an oof. 

Pointing her wand at him and tweaking the spell she sent a powerful stinging hex at him. It struck home with perfect aim directly on his groin and he screeched in pain.   
Already having won the duel by landing the hex she sent off another one before anyone could come and pull them out of the room.   
This one was her own invention.. an older hex but it had made a big impression on Marietta Edgecomb. She was sure that it would take hours for Alex to even realise it was there since the invisibility potion would have to wear off first. 

That done, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, leaving Alex crumpled and clutching himself in a foetal position on the floor. 

Tom was waiting outside and his posture changed when she stalked out. “You didn’t lose?!” he asked shocked and concerned that she might have.   
She shook her head curtly. “Potter might have to go to the infirmary though.”   
She could envision his expression. He reached as if to pull her to him happily and stopped himself.   
“Well done. I take it that he ..upset.. you then.” Another curt nod was the only answer. 

Professor Merrythought bustled down, probably wondering why Alex hadn’t come to her for a spray of facepaint yet and heard the groan as she passed the door.   
“Oh.. Goodness! Mr Potter! Miss Schiller – what happened?” 

Hermione turned to her and answered simply “I hit him with a level two stinging hex Professor. I might have hit him..um.. somewhere a bit unfortunate. He was moving around a lot. I was just coming to get you!” 

The woman shot a dubious expression at her, probably using the detection spell herself, Hermione imagined.   
“Well from the sound of him, I think Mr Potter will have to go to the infirmary. The rest of the duels will be cancelled. 

The next door opened and two shadows emerged, one extraordinarily pissed off and the other triumphant. She could tell by the silhouettes that Septimus had won the duel.

“Mr Prince – There will be no further duels. I’m afraid Mr Potter has been hurt. I’ll have to take him to the infirmary. Mr Riddle – if you could spray the others with the marking powder and dismiss the class – I think Mr Potter might prefer not to have an audience detect the source of his pain at present.”   
At that she hurried into the room to help the invisible groaning boy. 

Tom had grabbed her hand and was dragging her quickly down the corridor in half a second.   
“Come on. Hurry up” he instructed the others. 

He let her go before opening the door and called to the others. “Class is dismissed.” There were a couple of half-hearted calls of ‘who won?!’ from the Gryffindor side.   
He responded “The duels were cancelled. Alex is going to the infirmary. Everyone – Dismissed!”   
He reached for the old fashioned perfume bottle and pumped the little round pillow on the tube once, watching the powder spray into the air.   
“Abraxas, Septimus. Here.” 

When Professor Merrythought hurried down the corridor, with a levitated Alex Potter still curled into a foetal position, Tom sprayed Abraxas and then Septimus carefully.   
The Professor didn’t look twice at them but bustled past and out of the antechamber. 

“Well done, Septimus” Tom said quietly. “Abraxas – you will seek to improve yourself for next time. Leave us. Maia will be with me for the next few hours. Make her excuses should anyone enquire.” 

The two boy’s faces twisted disappointedly but they nodded and left.   
The door had barely started to close when the black silhouette that was Tom grabbed her and spun her up against the wall, pressing her there in a way that was entirely different to the threatening gentle restraint of Alex Potter.   
Tom was not gentle and he felt like anything other than a threat even when the prospect of being painfully hexed was ever present.   
“What happened?” he demanded softly.   
She wriggled her hands and he released them, allowing her to wind her arms around his neck and lean into him. 

“He cheated” she said simply. “He used a level four spell on the sand to distract me and then he pinned me against the wall with his body and said something insulting.   
I..he reminded me of.. something else.. I didn’t react quick enough but when I did I tossed him away and hexed his balls off.   
– no not literally” She added the last at the delighted little gasp Tom emitted. 

He sighed. “Perhaps next time..” then leaned down and gently, teasingly, captured her lips, prodding with his tongue and then surging forward and devouring her with tangible satisfaction.   
She felt his hands wander down her body. There was something possessive in the gesture.   
When he broke away he returned immediately and took her mouth again as if unwilling to stop when he had decided to. 

Finally he pulled away again, dragging his head to the side and moving away quickly. She was dragged out of the antechamber and across the large empty DADA room to the corridor which was bustling with students. The effect of the detection spell on these made them painfully bright to look at.   
He hesitated at the door and then leaned back, murmuring that she should meet him in the knights room. She felt her heart twinge briefly in pleasure.   
Then he was gone.   
She spotted his black shadow picking its way through the painfully bright stream of light and switched off the detection spell to navigate the corridor better.


	67. Chapter 67

It was not as simple as it should have been to get down to the knights room. Walking through the corridors while invisible was like playing on the highway. She was almost run down by students several times who tried to walk through the empty space she was occupying. Eventually she arrived however.   
It appeared to be empty and she was dragged up against the wall and hungrily kissed before she could put the detection spell back up.   
“Mmmmm” Tom growled into her mouth and ended the kiss reluctantly. “If only we weren’t on a tight timeframe..” he sighed long sufferingly and she felt him pull away slightly.

She wondered at why he had called her down to the room now.. Not that now wasn’t good. Now was fantastic. They were both supposed to be in Transfiguration. Being here in the dim hidden room with Tom embracing her and snogging her was infinitely preferable to the sharp blue eyed gaze of the wizard she felt sure suspected her of some form of duplicity. 

Dumbledore would notice if they were not in class, however. The man did not miss much and they were probably his two largest concerns among the student population at present, she assumed. What was Tom thinking... He was not one given to impulsive skin of the pants actions. That was more Harry’s department.   
Was he deliberately provoking Dumbledore?   
It didn’t seem quite right.. And only hours earlier he had been concerned at Alex Potter’s accusation regarding Septimus. Missing class with him would certainly not aid her already tarnished reputation.

“I did not expect Merrythought to organise a class in which invisibility potion was utilised” Tom stated obliquely. She blinked, confused.   
“We will deal with Slughorn now” he informed her quietly. “It is an unexpected opportunity to have the chance to cloak ourselves so completely. Particularly in light of the fact that Slughorn’s last class on Monday is parallel to Defense.   
We will have a window of four hours before the potion wears off, and Slughorn is unlikely to be expected anywhere until Dinner.”

Hermione gaped! Invisibly, thankfully. This was not how she imagined this taking place.   
She had thought she might slip the potion into something in his room.. sometime when she knew he would not be there.. She had thought Tom might do that. The notion of having a confrontation with the sick creep was just horrifying.   
And what if he was expecting guests or students or something. This was such a Harry kind of plan. No warning. Great risk. Tom had pointed out that Harry was not so very dissimilar to himself when younger.. but she hadn’t really considered how true this might be until now.

Tom continued informing her quietly of what they were going (since reasoning and arguing was unlikely to be well received she suspected) to be doing shortly.   
“I have thought about it at length and moving him is too great a risk. It must take place there. We will break the wards, enter, take Slughorn by surprise and force him to swallow the potion. There must be no physical damage – no wounds.. There must be no evidence whatsoever” 

She nodded, resigning herself to the task.   
Fingertips stroked down her cheek and she turned her face toward them needily.   
“I want to destroy Alex Potter” he murmured, leaning in again until she felt his smooth cheek pressed against her own. “Later.. when this wears off.. you will show me the memories of what he did to make you hex him in that manner..”   
She nodded against him again, her arms wrapped around the wonderful hard body, feeling safe in the circle of his embrace. She just wanted to stay here forever.   
“Diggory is affected too” she whispered unwillingly. The body close to her own stiffened slightly and then he held her more tightly.   
“I..find..I am increasingly dissatisfied with the thought of sharing you, Maia..” he murmured next to her ear. “I regret bringing you here as a student.. I should have..” he trailed off and she felt a tiny flimmer of worry ignite. Whatever he should have done, he was considering the possibility of doing anyway.   
She pressed a kiss to his cheek and another to his soft invisible lips. “What’s done is done” she muttered dismissively. “You’re the one I love, Tom.” 

 

 

They crept silenced down the corridor to the potions lab which the detection spell showed was empty.   
Penetrating further they moved right up to the door in the back of the room which led to the potion master’s quarters. 

There was one..rotund..shadow moving around in the first room. 

That was less than ideal. He would notice the door open immediately.   
On the other hand, the longer they hung about in the potions lab waiting, the higher the chance that Slughorn could decide to leave his quarters.. possibly even through the door at which they were waiting.

“You will stun him as soon as I take down the wards and open the door” Tom breathed next to her ear.   
She nodded against him. 

Tom turned back to the door and was still for a while, obviously concentrating on the warding. She dropped down to a crouch and positioned herself where she could have a clear shot at Slughorn.   
She felt Tom tap her head lightly a moment later and tapped his leg back to indicate she was ready. 

He opened the door quietly and quickly and she flicked off the stunner as soon as the blinding white shape that was Slughorn appeared. He went down like a ton of bricks. They both slipped into the room and she paced over to the crumpled pile of brightly glowing pederast on the ground while Tom closed the door behind them and replaced the wards, augmenting them slightly. 

“Restrain him.. a chair or something would be best” he whispered as he walked past. “I’ll ensure that there are no observers” He made a sweep of the entire chambers looking for detection spells and wizarding portraits.   
By the time his shadow had returned she had bound Sughorn to a kitchen chair tightly with a cordless spell. 

I suspect that I will have little success with legilimency.. he muttered resignedly. “However..against my better judgement I have decided that the chance that he has truly arranged for information to be released is a negligible risk..at least in light of the current..stand.. of things. If he has.. Well.. I shall deal with that if it happens.

Hermione bit her lip. Slughorn hadn’t ever revealed anything about Tom’s questioning on the topic of Horcruxes.. at least not until the very famous and very lucky Harry Potter had persuaded him to do so..   
Of course there was the faint possibility that he had and that Tom had somehow dealt with it, as he said he would.   
Either way though.. the knowledge of the horcruxes would take a long time to escape.

She mulled over the fact that Slughorn had seemed a very different man by her own time.. She would have never thought of him as a sexual predator.. an attention seeker and an exploiter of children.. yes.. certainly.. but not a sexual one.. Perhaps something had changed..

“All the same... By the time the good professor awakens.. I shall be long gone from Hogwarts.. Perhaps it might be fitting to give him something to dream on..” Tom mused aloud with the calm merciless tone in his voice she recognised well in the meantime. He used it when he was about to do something horrible. He had used it on Lucius.. and Palmer.. He used it frequently before he cruciated someone.. She remembered Tom’s expression when he had cruciated Draco in the viewing room and suppressed the faint sigh that thinking of the unfortunate boy seemed to cause each time. The expression on his face now was not dissimilar. A wrathful dark sense of purpose. Impending psychopathic behaviour. 

But then.. Slughorn deserved some horrible punishment. Something worse than a sleeping draught. She thought he deserved worse than Palmer..

And well, Tom had-..

He’d.. 

Tom deserved revenge on the sick bastard. 

She didnt even want to think about how often Slughorn might have-..  
she didnt want to think about it at all.

 

“Enervate” Tom said quietly.

The piggy eyes blinked drowsy and confused.

“What.. what in Merlin’s-... Why am I..” His head darted around looking for his assailant. Not finding anyone in sight he struggled against the bindings frantically

“Don’t tire yourself. You won’t escape Professor.” Tom informed him as he walked slowly around to the back of the man.

Slughorn jumped dramatically, as far as the bindings would allow. “Who’s that.. who’s there.. show yourself! – Stop this at once, whoever you are! Release me!”

Tom laughed softly. It was a chilly sound that held little true amusement. “Oh no.. I’m afraid not, Sir.”   
He snorted and now there was a note of disgust and suppressed hate in his voice. “It doesn’t surprise me that you would have no idea who might wish to attack you. After all.. there are so very many.. aren’t there Sir..

Slughorn paled slightly and struggled again. “Who are you. What do you want?!” 

She saw the shadow of Tom’s hand brush over the man’s shoulders in an overly familiar way that set her teeth on edge.   
“I am..disappointed.. that you don’t recognise my voice, professor.   
Although.. I suppose you prefer all of your favourite students to be silent..”

He stroked his wand across Slughorn’s neck, who was now even paler and looking seriously worried.

“Tom? Tom Riddle? Is that you?” he asked uncertainly, with just the faintest tinge of terror in his tone. 

Tom chuckled and squeezed his shoulder.

“Oh there you go... you do remember me, after all. Well done Sir.”

“Tom.. what are you doing?! Let me go now and we can find some way to resolve this little problem between us.. The headmaster doesn’t need to know that you assaulted a teacher.. No one will find out.. But you must stop this foolishness now. This is no game!”

She saw the wand twitch and suddenly Slughorn’s lips were melting together, growing shut. He yelled out his panic, which was increasingly muffled until there was nothing where his mouth was but flat unblemished skin. The professor’s nostrils were flared and wide as he screamed in his throat and gasped for breath

“This is no game, Sir.. But don’t concern yourself – the headmaster will never suspect a thing. No one will in fact.. As I said – you do have so very many enemies, Sir.   
Now... It would be in your best interests if you would not try to occlude. If you do occlude.. it will change nothing and you will only increase your suffering. We can finish this quickly, with a minimum of pain if you simply allow me into your mind..”

The bound man started to struggle and yell frantically now

She saw Tom reach a hand around and wrap it over the pasty sweating forehead. He withdrew it briefly and wiped it on the man’s shoulder then replaced it. She wondered how it was possible to do this without making eye contact. Was he perhaps using some other method of mental access that she hadn’t yet learned about?!   
On the other hand.. in her time, Voldemort and Rodolphus both had seemed able to hear her thoughts without making eye contact or touching her in any way. There was probably a lot she had not learned about legilimency. More’s the pity.   
If she had known then what she knew now she would have dedicated herself to learning it.

She could see Slughorn fighting against the onslaught. The way his entire body became rigid and strained, his eyes bulging, breathing like a locomotive through his nose. 

“Sir.. you are being difficult.” Tom chided mildly. 

Hermione scowled at the repulsive worm before them who had stolen the innocence from so many and was now daring to resist. It bothered her that she couldn’t simply kill him. Right now.. she really.. really.. wished she could. The feeling was a hundred.. a thousand times stronger than with Ginny..

Well.. she couldn’t kill him and not rewrite the entire course of time.  
She couldn’t kill him and not create a paradox.  
So she couldn’t kill him. She would have to just content herself with the fact that he would be removed from the school.

Tom made an impatient frustrated sound. It seemed Slughorn was extremely capable in defending his mind. But then.. in order to remain teaching in a school in which at least one other teacher was a legilimens - and a rather suspicious nosy busybody at that – he had to have phenomenal occlusive ability.

She reached for her own magic. A compulsion spell. A minor one. She turned the power all the way up and flicked it at him.   
Slughorn fell back slackjawed and blinked but Tom didn’t seem to shift at all. She assumed that it had failed. Well.. it could not be allowed to fail. She wouldn’t leave Tom vulnerable.. even if Tom might otherwise solve the problem. Focusing on the simple idea of breaking Slughorns occlumentic barriers, ignoring the ‘how’ part, she centred herself..trying to calm her mind – which was not easy considering the strength and direction of her emotions – and when she began to feel she had the concept firmly entrenched, she summoned a channel of magic and directed it to the outcome desired. It was nothing more or less than focused application of raw magic to will.. but then, it had not been any more difficult than this to create wands and hair from pure energy. Slughorn made a choking panicked whine. The way Tom’s posture shifted, leaning in, she assumed he was inside the man’s mind, taking what he wanted now. 

The two remained like that.. still and connected.. for several minutes. She watched them, wondering what it was like to explore the inside of another person’s head.   
She wishes she could see Tom.. The look on his face..

All of a sudden, Slughorns eyes clenched closed suddenly and he whimpered through his nose.. then he started to wail and squeak in apparent horror. His struggles were different now. It looked like he was trying to get away from something touching him. After a while he started to scream in hysterical terror in the back of his throat.   
She wondered what exactly he was experiencing.

Tom’s black silhouette shivered slightly and then he removed his hand from the panicking man’s forehead. He bowed his head and seemed to need a moment to collect himself again. 

“I believe it is time to feed him the potion” he instructed quietly and, although he sounded tired, there was a dark undertone of satisfaction in his voice.   
“There was no base to his threats. He has not arranged for any contingencies as they would incriminate him just as they would myself. I suspected as much.. If only I’d done this sooner...   
...nevermind, though.. His punishment will continue through the duration of his little nap. I sincerely doubt he will ever touch another student.” 

She watched the shadow pull out the small rounded potions flask and, with his other hand he cancelled the dark curse that had removed the professor’s mouth. As soon as he was able, the man was screeching in the most urgent hysterical terror

Hermione smiled, satisfied as she watched the screaming writhing man who now had tears streaming from his clenched eyes. 

It was beautiful to see the piggy head wrenched back by its nostrils and the potion upended into the gaping screaming maw. His jaw was held closed and Tom clamped his hand over the man’s mouth until he had swallowed.   
She could see the potion was correctly brewed because all at once the man became quiet.. peaceful... His face flattened and took on the impression of a sleeper. He looked..normal. 

Tom sighed in the contentment of a job almost completed. “What a wonderous potion...” he observed. “He gives every appearance of one who is dreaming sweetly..”   
She didn’t need to be able to see his face to imagine which smile he would be wearing now.

They unbound and prepared the professor for bed. Hermione felt terrible for looking away – refusing to contaminate her mind with the knowledge of slughorn’s naked form - as the spell unclothed him and reclothed him in the night shirt which Tom informed her quietly was the correct sleep attire for the man. She shivered and forced her mind away from the statement. How exactly Tom knew that would be speculating and she didn’t want to speculate. He might have taken it from his mind, while he was in there. It was possible.   
After the horrible..evil man at the orphanage, the thought of anyone else forcing Tom..at all.. made her want to invent a curse more painful than the cruciatus. 

When Slughorn was packed away into bed, Tom cast a moderately dark spell which removed evidence of all prior spells cast against him and then they performed a quick once over to remove all trace that they had been in the man’s chambers, before they both slipped away again undetected.

It had taken an hour and a half. No more than that.

Hermione realised she had a fizzing inexpressible excitement inside her. It had been so..easy.. They’d decided to take Slughorn out.. and then they’d done it. In a matter of days.   
Was this how Voldemort felt all the time?! She could almost understand it. It was amazing to feel like justice had been.. at least in part... served.. that they had done it. 

The morning and the next few days would of course tell whether they had gotten away with it... but for the moment she felt a soaring dangerous elation. 

It seemed Tom was quite pleased too.. He didn’t take her down to the knights chambers.. nor did he lead her back to the Slytherin common room.   
“The others are likely to look for us in those places..” he murmured against her ear before he kissed the inside of her wrist and pulled her at speed up to the first floor and through an ornately decorated archway. 

Inside there were three doors. He dragged her to the one on the far right, letting them in and slamming it after them.   
He was upon her at once, his invisible mouth hungry and rough, his arms around her, walking her backward until her legs hit the back of a double bed. She collapsed onto it and he fumbled at her clothing which became visible as soon as it was flung from their bodies.   
He was animalistic in his urgent need to be inside her.. She let her head fall back and gave herself over to the sensations. The shadow above her,.. the silhouette of the boy...man...she adored, pushed her roughly into place and buried himself in her to the hilt, with a groan of relief. She pulled him down to her and kissed him, wrapped her body around him as he held still, his entire form trembling slightly. 

The urgency.. the near frantic desperation seeped out of him with her kisses and he simply lay over her..in her, devouring her languidly.   
His fingertips traced over her cheekbone.. her jaw, down her neck. Hers in turn grazed the perfect skin of his shoulders..his back.. down to the pert curve of his buttocks  
“Never leave me” he whispered against her mouth. She held him more tightly as he wound his hips in her, as if trying to delve deeper still.   
“Never..” he demanded...but it sounded closer to pleading.   
She sucked on his lip.. then the tip of his tongue gently, releasing him and telling him no – no she wouldn’t leave him.  
He seemed spurred by her words because he began to move then, slowly, achingly.. long deep hard strokes that set her to gasping.. that made her tingle and want. She rocked her hips up against him in time. 

With no other was it ever like this.. When Tom was with her it felt ..right...  
She wished for a moment that all the others would disappear and she could simply be with him.. forever.. Without all the problems.. the complications.. no Grindelwald.. no Dumbledore.. No Harry.. none of them...

Their movements sped gradually until he pushed her over the edge. “I ..wish I could see you” he groaned wistfully against her ear as she panted and whimpered in pleasure. 

He held off his own release for a long time, turning them.. folding her shadow form into different positions as if tasting and sampling to find the one he liked best. He would take her over and over again and shatter her and then withdraw slightly.. licking.. tasting the salt on her skin.. sucking at her breasts..her neck...trailing his tongue down the slight dip of her abdomen, building her need once more, only to sate it.. 

It was when he was spooning her, her leg lifted and wrapped up and back around him and her head pillowed on his arm as he moved in her slowly.. gently.. that she felt the droplet.   
She didn’t pay any attention.. she was sweating too.. but he let slip a soft gasping sigh and rested his face against her neck and she realised that he was crying. Almost silently.   
He was probably only allowing himself to do so in the knowledge that he was invisible at present and no one could see...even so, he had, it seemed, only allowed the emotion to take him when she was turned away and could not even face his shadow form.   
She struggled slightly, wanting to turn.. needing to hold him but he pinned her as she was and shook his head mutely against her skin.   
“No..” he breathed, his hand stroking her calmingly. He picked up the pace again until he was slapping into her hard and fast and she was panting through her conflicted worry. The hand on her thigh, holding her tight against him slid down her damp skin to her core and found the tight engorged little bundle of nerves, teasing at them.. circling them slowly.   
She crashed into her climax almost at once, moaning his name.. pleading with him. 

His tongue licked away a trail of moisture on her neck as he pulled out.. She felt him placing himself at her ass.   
Slick and burning hot as he was he pushed past the initial resistance and into the tight tingling connection they shared. 

It felt like he was all over her.. under her skin. He groaned and bit her neck gently, mindlessly.   
“Hermione..” he whispered and it was almost a hiss..

He had only used her real name once since realising what the unabbreviated form of ‘mione’ must be, and the use of it now, in this moment.. while they were connected so deeply.. it was as if he had physically stroked her mind with soft fingertips. She shuddered and writhed on him, moaning and squirming and revelling in the connection that was more than purely physical..in the the physical sensation that was somehow dirtier...even more intimate than every other way he could take her..  
“Come, my precious..” he murmured against her ear and the ground fell away beneath her, dropping her without warning into stormy waves of bliss. He clenched around her and groaned in a guttural growl, losing himself.. pouring himself into her in harsh driving spasms that subsided into the almost silent gasps.. the barely detectable shaking that told her that he was sobbing. 

Afterward he remained there, still and quiescent, curled around her, holding her tightly against him. She fell asleep with him enfolded around her in that manner

 

Hours later he shook her awake and she blinked in the unexpected darkness. He had let her stay? 

“I will not share you with them any longer” he said softly in the dark, his arms tightening around her. 

A faint quiver of fear vibrated through her.   
They would turn on him.. He needed to think rationally.

His voice was quiet but it had the chilly ring of absolute resolution. It was that voice..  
“Do not attempt to persuade me. I will not allow any other to touch you again. You will not be ‘courted’ by Abraxas.   
You are mine.   
Let the school know it.. Let Dumbledore know it – I will not continue to deny myself this for any of them.”

She felt very afraid for him.   
For them both.   
She thought of Lucius..and Harry and the lengths to which they had been prepared to go...

He kissed her forehead.. her cheekbone and her lips, chastely and told her that she would stay here with him from now on. He would deal with the girls in her dormroom.

The fear did not abate.  
It remained for a long time after she felt his soft regular breath on the side of her face and his arms loosened slightly in sleep.


	68. Chapter 68

She woke again slowly. The room was bathed in soft yellowish light.   
The boy whose face was on the pillow next to her stirred. He had one arm thrown heavily over her, as if to make certain that she couldn’t run away. She could smell him.. the warm..lovely scent of his skin.. all over.   
“Go back to sleep..” he muttered.   
She wondered how it was that he always woke when she did.   
She also wondered vaguely why he wasn’t propelling her out of bed and downstairs to get ready for class. 

“Um... It’s Tuesday.. she said pointedly.

Tom’s eyes flicked open and he stared straight ahead, wide eyed.   
“Damn it” he hissed and cast tempus wandlessly.   
‘9.37’ shimmered in the air on a translucent clock face. 

Tom was vertical in a small fraction of a second and practically leapt to the wardrobe, scourgifying himself rapidly and dragging out a new uniform.

“Move, Maia!!” he yelled back at her. “We missed transfiguration yesterday. If we are not in classes this morning someone will-“

There was a knock at the door.

Both their heads turned toward it with similar horrified expressions. 

The silence hung thick and heavy until it was broken by another knock – this one a bit louder.  
Hermione looked at Tom, feeling panic and mortification rising.   
It could be one of his knights! Or.. or just a student. It didn’t have to be-

 

“Mr Riddle... are you there?” 

 

Oh god.   
Dumbledore.

She exploded from the bed and raced around summoning the various bits of her uniform and underwear and diving into the bathroom.

She heard Tom open the door a few seconds later.

 

“Good morning, Sir. I’m sorry – It seems I overslept. I can’t think what-“

“Tom.. have you seen the new student? Maia Schiller. She was absent this morning also. You were both.. absent from class yesterday I noticed.. It seemed rather an odd coincidence when I noticed you both missing this morning also.”

Dumbledore apparently was not in the mood to beat about the bush this morning. 

Hermione swallowed, straightening and charming her uniform fresh.   
She had to go out there.  
She couldn’t not go out there.. Hiding in the bathroom was not an option.   
She had just realised why Tom had allowed her to stay.   
She chose to believe that it was not the reason he had woken her in the night and declared their future monogamous status, however it did not escape her that an official relationship was fairly parsimonious with the probable reason he might have chosen to allow her to stay all night in his room.   
She was his alibi.

The news with Slughorn would come out today.. if it had not come out already.. and anyone who had showed odd behaviour yesterday would be implicated.   
They had both definitely showed ...well.. Ok.. Tom had showed odd behaviour. He never missed classes. Whereas, she had already been known to.. in this time. She had skipped astronomy and Dumbledore had stopped her from missing arithmancy.   
To be fair, she hadn’t intended to miss class purely in order to avoid class.. there had been other variables involved.. but still..

She steeled herself and opened the bathroom door guiltily.

Dumbledore did not look overly surprised to see her. His gaze was unreadable as she padded over to them both. Tom, on the other hand, looked as if he were mortified to physically painful levels. She supposed it was his reputation.. his precious hard won reputation being incinerated before his eyes. 

“I’m sorry, professor..” she said, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks  
“We..kind of..   
it.. um..   
...after defense yesterday.. we.. were talking and kind of..lost track of time..  
er... a lot of time...  
sort of.. up until a few minutes before you knocked, sir.”

She had the decency to look ashamed and lower her eyes to avoid the piercing pale blue scrutiny.

“Miss Schiller.. I had, I admit, rather hoped that I wouldn’t find you here.” Dumbledore sighed. “I had..thought.. perhaps that you might feasibly both be ill with some form of flu. Or that there were some other explanation for this..”

Tom frowned slightly and stepped closer to her. She moved even closer in response.   
Dumbledore’s eyes scanned over them both and his lips tightened marginally.

“I would appreciate it, if I might speak with you in private, Miss Schiller. If you would accompany me to my office, I will excuse you from first period.   
Tom.. I would recommend you hurry to class. No doubt Professor Kettleburn will have marked you down as late already. The lesson did begin a half hour ago after all.”

Hermione looked up at Tom in poorly veiled horror. She wanted to cling closer and refuse to go. He blinked at her slowly, the appropriately flustered, concerned and embarrassed expression still on his face. 

“It would be best if you went with the Professor, Maia. I..I’m sorry.. I didn’t intend to put you in this position.. I.. Come and speak with me later... please? ..If you still wish to..” He trailed off sounding more disordered and confused and regretful than she’d ever heard him sound before. He was a bloody amazing actor if he wasn’t feeling at least a small portion of those emotions, she reasoned.

She blushed even more profusely and she didn’t have to fake it. It was horrible to be in this position with Dumbledore looking at her like everyone’s favourite disapproving father figure.   
He was looking at her with disappointment for goodness sake. Good God the man was an expert at emotional manipulation.

“I’m s-sorry too, Tom. You’re a prefect.. I didn’t mean to... That is...I didn’t think!.. And.. oh god.. Abraxas... I shouldn’t have.. we shouldn’t have. He’s going to be so hurt... What have we done?!!”

Dumbledore frowned slightly and stepped back, sighing.   
“I will give you both a moment, perhaps..” he conceded unwillingly. “Miss Schiller, I will wait for you outside”   
He walked calm as anything to the door and let himself out, closing it behind him.

Tom’s first act was to place a finger to his lips and point to the door.

“I think we.. got somewhat carried away..last evening..” he said in a guilt ridden uncomfortable voice.

“Just a bit..” she said slightly sarcastically. She smirked at him and he smirked back slightly and stepped closer, brushing her hair out of her face gently.

“I...don’t regret it” he murmured as if against his will. “I am ..sorry..that Abraxas will be upset... but I don’t regret kissing you..or...anything else that happened last night..” 

He was playing to an audience, obviously. She sighed and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. “So .. you don’t want to pretend this didn’t happen?” she asked uncertainly, with an edge of hope in her voice as if she had feared he might do exactly that.

“No, Maia.. I..did not..would not.. lead you on... My words.. my actions last night were earnest demonstrations of my feelings toward you..   
I hope you feel about me as you appeared to feel last night.. I don’t think I could stand being without you now..   
...The thought of Abraxas kissing your hand makes me physically ill..   
I will speak with him.. Don’t worry, Maia.. I will explain the situation to him.”   
His hand stroked down her back slowly.   
She shivered and snuggled closer, considering how best to respond.

“Oh Tom.. I was so frightened you would take it back!” she whimpered dramatically “I.. after you sent me away from your group.. I thought..”

“No. I sent you away in your best interests, Maia. I had hoped you would find a place in a less visible clique.   
I am not..universally liked at school, you know, despite...how things may sometimes appear, I suppose.   
There are those who think very badly of me...and others who would be jealous.   
I knew there would be gossip if you were to immediately circulate with myself and my friends.” 

He traced patterns on her back with a fingertip absently while he spoke. She realised that they were actually his initials in the stylised cursive that was his normal handwriting.

“I couldn’t exactly prevent Abraxas from speaking with you however.. and if you are to be gossiped about.. forgive me please.. I would rather it is because you are with me.   
I..wanted to know you from the moment I saw you in Dippet’s office. I was so pleased you were sorted into Slytherin..  
It was..agony to watch him court you... I couldn’t bear it any longer..”

She knew that his words were for Dumbledore but she couldn’t quite prevent the fizzy joy bubbling up inside at them.

“I felt the same way.. I asked the sorting hat to put me in Slytherin just because I hoped to meet you. I... Abraxas is nice.. I get along with him well.. as a friend...but..I think I only let him carry my books and flirt with me so that I could be around you.. I’m a terrible person!!”

“No! No you aren’t Maia.. Please.. It will all be well from now on.. We’ll speak to him. I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”  
He hesitated as if worried. She was still inspecting his previous statement which was obviously a barefaced lie. When he continued, his voice sounded insecure and troubled   
“...Please.... please don’t listen to Dumbledore if he wishes you to- ... if he.. tells you-..   
Don’t make any decisions before you allow me to defend myself.. please Maia.. I know that he dislikes me!”

She snuggled against him harder and scowled at the thought that she would have to leave him very soon and go off with the man who seemed to see right through people. She really, really, didn’t want to be alone with Dumbledore if she could possibly avoid it.

“I promise, Tom.” She said softly and inhaled deeply against his shirt. He always smelled so damn good.

“You’d better go.. He is waiting. I... we’ll speak later. Professor Dumbledore is right. I should go and apologise to Professor Kettleburn.”

She nodded reluctantly and pulled away. His deep blue eyes were glittering in delight. She wouldn’t put it past him to be full of schadenfreude that she had to go and continue acting with Dumbledore while he could escape to magical creatures. His eyes hardened momentarily and she knew he was warning her not to fail.

 

 

Dumbledore was silent and seemed quite preoccupied as they walked through the corridors toward his office. She glanced at him nervously. She didn’t expect him to talk about the issue in the corridors, necessarily, but this silence was making her jittery and worried. Probably that was why he forbore to engage in any kind of polite conversation, - it was probably the point to make her nervous and put her off, she mused pensively. 

He let them both into the tiny cluttered room and gestured for her to seat herself in a rather more comfy looking chair than the one that had been in here last time she was being tested. She lowered herself into the pale blue chintz chair hearing him close the door quietly. 

“I..have been following your progress since you have arrived here Miss Schiller...” he said with a heavy tone.   
“I was...rather hopeful when I first spoke with you. Your performance on the entrance exams was phenomenal.. I believe there are few students at Hogwarts who could compete with you in your chosen subjects.. and indeed, your standard of work in your classes.. not to mention the groundbreaking achievement you have made in transfiguration.. –it is..was.. all..very encouraging...”   
he trailed off leaving a precise ‘however’ shaped gap at the end of his compliments.

“However-“ he said, confirming her apprehension “The things that I have heard the students saying about you have been...of concern to me..in the least – not to say disturbing.   
I will tell you that I was disappointed when you were sorted into Slytherin. Not particularly surprised..but disappointed.   
I had hoped...”  
He sighed long sufferingly, shaking his auburn locks.   
Looking up at her he pushed his round glasses up his nose in a way she found disconcertingly familiar.

“You were not entirely truthful when you spoke of your background and identity.. were you, Miss Schiller?”

Hermione blinked, her mind blanking in panic. This was not the direction she had anticipated this conversation would take. It was supposed to be about persuading her to stay away from Tom.. perhaps even about asking her about Slughorn..  
What was she supposed to say to that.

She looked back at him anxiously, keeping her eyes fixed on the bridge of his nose and trying her hardest to wipe the fear from her face.

“I see that you were not.” Dumbledore observed quietly. “Although you are merely confirming what I had already realised.  
Perhaps you might..begin..with your connection to Grindelwald..”

Her jaw dropped

She blinked, stunned. He knew about that? How?

That bloody buzzard!   
Either he had seen Mencius or ..possibly.. Grindelwald himself had dropped him a friendly little threat letter.

“What is your true name, if I may ask” he said in a quite amiable voice.

“Maia Schiller” she managed through her shock.

“Very well.. if you insist. A name is perhaps not so important. What is your purpose here?”

Her brain spun.   
um..  
‘Shagging Tom Riddle’ probably wouldn’t cut it.

“I’m hiding from Grindelwald” she said uneasily. “He’s trying to-.. That is..I ran into him in Germany..and he took a shine to me.. he tried to trap me.. I escaped and ran here.”

It was better to stick to the truth, she told herself. And indeed, Dumbledore was nodding pensively as if he believed her too.

“Perhaps you might fill in that account with somewhat more detail, Miss Schiller”

She swallowed.

“Um.. I.. I was in Berlin..  
and he was there.. shopping.. with some blonde woman..”

“He came over to me on the street. He spoke to me.. he invited me back to his castle for ..for..tea and cakes.. of all things... I was afraid.... I ran.. I hid...   
His..his bird is always looking for me. It found me when I arrived at the gates. I thought it would catch me.. take me to him..”

“I wrote him a message. I told him to leave me alone..   
Since then he keeps writing back.. Trying to get me to come to him willingly..”

Dumbledore’s face had paled somewhat.   
“Yes.. he is a rather persistent individual.” He said quietly, seeming deeply perturbed.

“Have you any idea what he... well.. what I mean is – Do you know what he wanted from you?”

She shot him an ‘are you an idiot’ look. He smiled weakly and shook his head.

“Ah.”

“I’m sorry I lied. I thought.. Headmaster Dippet might not let me stay..let me hide here.. if he thought it might bring Hogwarts under threat.”

Dumbledore massaged a youthful temple with his fingers, looking concerned.  
“Has he expressed anything to that end? Has he threatened the school?”

She looked away, kicking herself for having said that. 

She chewed on her lip.  
“no.” she lied.

The older wizard frowned at her in mild irritation.   
“Miss Schiller..”

“Ok.. yes.. alright. He said he would come and get me by force if I didn’t see reason.   
He said...He said he was closer than I knew... He ..he’s known things about what I have been doing which he couldn’t possibly know. He has someone in Hogwarts.. I’m almost certain of it.”

Dumbledore got to his feet abruptly and paced away to the back of the room, inspecting some spinning dohickys and softly glowing stones.. He clasped his hands behind his back and turned away, pensively, seemingly internally preoccupied as he paced to the fireplace and then faltered, pacing back.

“Do you still have any of his missives?” he asked anxiously.. She shook her head. The memory wasn’t exactly a missive. 

“I ..will have to inform the Headmaster of this..” he said reluctantly.

Swallowing, she asked in a pleading tone “Can’t you do anything, Professor?! Can’t you -I don’t know -write to him or something and tell him to leave me alone. I mean.. I’m no one. .. Surely there are plenty of other girls he could..”

Dumbledore looked thoughtful, as if this idea had not occurred to him. He seemed to sigh after a while.  
“I sincerely doubt that my discouragement would change anything, Miss Schiller. Gellert Grindelwald is many things, but ‘easily dissuaded from an action he has decided upon’ is not among them.

“Then.. we could fight him..” she pleaded.   
“Tom... You.. Surely ..”

Dumbledore looked at her in horror.

“Please do not tell me that you have ensconced yourself in Tom Riddle’s affections in order to gain protection from Grindelwald?! Have you ever heard of the phrase – from the frying pan into the fire, Miss Schiller?!”

She frowned at him, mildly insulted. “No.. I haven’t. I..like Tom.. He’s..he’s brilliant... How could I possibly not want to be with him. I never expected he would be interested in me.”

Dumbledore paced wearily back to the desk and lowered himself back into his chair with an extremely troubled expression.  
“Miss Schiller... You are an intelligent young lady. Everything I have observed of you thusfar has led me to the conclusion that you are logical..inciseful.. capable of reasoning.   
Please believe me when I tell you – Tom Riddle is a dark wizard.. He is a most..dangerous..boy. He has been responsible for monstrous acts in this school before..   
I am almost certain that he articulated his darker nature once again last night, although I doubt that any evidence for it will be found.

Hermione stopped herself from gulping although the lump stuck in her throat. He did know. He had simply assumed it was Tom. Probably because it was so cleanly achieved.   
“Are you talking about what ..we did together?!” she said in her tiniest voice.

“I’m sorry! It wasn’t Tom. We were talking and ..I couldn’t stop staring at him. I wanted him to kiss me.. and then.. he did – and I was so ...and it was.. and then we just sort of.. kept kissing..   
But.. But... its not that bad ...surely.. I mean.. other students have..done ..it...before..surely..”   
She blushed. Talking like this was embarrassing her again.

And Dumbledore blushed!!

“No.. Miss Schiller.. I was referring to....something else...” he said quickly.  
“Do you know.. was Tom out of your sight at all between the time you both had Defense and the time I retrieved you this morning?”

She shook her head.   
“We fell asleep...quite late..” she blushed.. “perhaps around midnight..”  
“What do you think he’s done?! And..why?!”

Dumbledore sighed heavily and his pensive frown deepened.   
“Perhaps... I am wrong in this case. Perhaps.. it was..someone else.”

Hermione wanted to scream at him. Did he know what Slughorn did to the students?! Did he know what he’d done to Tom?!   
She wanted to scream and rail and tear Dumbledore into very small pieces.   
She wanted to.. but she put the entire issue out of her mind altogether. It was not helpful to be thinking of that right now.

“Miss Schiller...” Dumbledore began uncomfortably. Her hackles rose again.  
“...I ...do not know whether Hogwarts will be capable of holding Grindelwald at bay if he determines that he will enter.”  
He looked at her meaningfully, tilting his head in a manner she knew in the future would have him looking at her over the top of his glasses.   
In these glasses the effect was somewhat lessened.

She looked at him in horror and disbelief.   
He wasn’t actually suggesting... he wasn’t implying that she should..  
Dumbledore was many things.. he was a manipulative old goat in her time.. but he wouldn’t actually sacri...

Oh.

oh.   
Yes.. Dumbledore would sacrifice children.. for the good of the many.   
Dumbledore was very nearly the poster-boy for sacrificing the few for the greater good.

“I won’t!!” she growled furiously.  
“I am not going to go and.. and..   
No!   
and.. Tom.. I’m not going to stop being with him either.   
You say he’s dark?!.. Well he wouldn’t suggest I go and give myself to Grindelwald. That I go and give my..my ..body to him. Just so that adult wizards don’t have to face him!”

Dumbledore looked moderately ashamed but he responded blithely even so. “Miss Schiller.. be reasonable. There are young students here.. Children of eleven and twelve.. Grindelwald has an army of tens of thousands.. If he penetrates the wards with only a small force – there will be deaths. Many innocent children will suffer.. You do not truly believe that the faculty of Hogwarts can hold him off?!”  
“Can you really accept the children’s deaths.. knowing that you could so easily prevent it?”

Hermione glared.   
“I am going to leave now, Professor Dumbledore. I will think about our conversation.” 

She got up and turned, refusing to look back at Dumbledore although she felt his eyes follow her to the door. He did not try to say any more. He did not try to persuade her.   
Perhaps he’s expecting me to ‘make the right decision’ she griped to herself as she closed the door behind her. 

Bastard.  
You’re supposed to save the wizarding world from Grindelwald. Couldnt you bloody well do it now? Before you give me to him to enslave?!   
She wondered vaguely why her wonderful magnetic pull had to affect Slughorn and not Dumbledore. At least then ...  
her stomach turned.   
No. No amount of persuasive power would make up for the thought of Dumbledore panting after her. God No!!!  
She wondered whether Dumbledore was really gay as the rumours had suggested.   
Clearly Grindelwald wasn’t... although he’d made a few slightly suggestive comments about Tom..

She stomped down the corridor toward charms, wondering what she was going to do about Grindelwald.. Really..he hadn’t responded since her last unfortunate letter.. She’d asked for time but she hadn’t, to tell the truth, actually expected he would give it to her.

 

 

She was early for charms and so she ended up standing around in the corridor, uncertain where to go for the quarter of an hour she had until the students poured out all around her. 

She saw the girl marching all the way from the end of the corridor. She had the walk of the indignant.   
It was clear that Hermione was her destination.   
She groaned inwardly.   
Fine. Would it be Tom or Alex she was upset about?! Or perhaps even Abraxas?

The girl didn’t bother to make any nasty comments at all, she simply drew her wand as soon as she had reached six or seven metres away and fired off a spell.   
It wasn’t a conscious decision to repel it. It happened so automatically that Hermione was still processing the fact that this girl had just tried to hex her in an open corridor even after her hand had flicked aside the stinging hex with a casual movement.

“YOU POISONOUS TROLLOP!” the furious screech came. Hermione felt her hackles rise. With that level of volume she’d have the class coming out to investigate in a minute.   
She pulled a muffliato up around them.   
She recognised the girl now. The Gryffindor sat only a few metres away from them every day at breakfast. She would always sit on the other side of the table, facing Slytherin.   
She had short wavy brown hair, large dark blue eyes and was neither particularly pretty, nor concretely unappealing. Hermione’s eye had passed over her probably more than a dozen times and she had never thought about her at all. The girl just blended into the background.   
Well..that was good to know..but it still didn’t clarify whether this was about Tom or Alex.. She herself usually sat facing away from the room. She couldn’t be sure, therefore, whether the girl often spent time sitting staring googly eyed at Tom.

“What exactly have I done that has upset you, please?” she asked politely. It seemed to incense the girl.

“You WHORE! How can you even ASK?! Though I can understand it since you’re probably gapping your legs for so many boys, it’d be easy to get confused. You shouldn’t have done it though!! You should have left him alone!”

This too did not help Hermione.

“Um.. Who?!” she tried again, the polite tone wearing thin.

“I imagine that Elsbeth is referring to me, Maia.” Tom’s warm caramel voice drawled. She looked and found him approaching from the other end of the corridor. 

The girl, Elsbeth, lowered her wand and her bottom lip protruded just a little. It trembled. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.   
“It’s not true, is it? What they’re saying. You wouldn’t.. You’re the head prefect. You’d never.. and not with her!”

Tom reached Hermione and slipped an arm around her waist casually, pulling her closer and pressing a gentle chaste kiss to the side of her forehead.   
“I learned in Magical Creatures of the reactions to our absence. It would seem, exactly as I expected, a certain section within the student body has taken exception to the colourful rumours that flared up at breakfast this morning.”

Elsbeth was gaping at them both looking distraught.   
She snapped out of it a moment later as Hermione’s eye rested upon her. As she had just been anticipating ominously, the girl’s reaction was not pretty. Her screech had something of a tea kettle at full boil to it

“NO!! You CAN’T!!   
You don’t date.. you never date!! And she’s a whore.. you’d never fall for that! You’re far too clever to want something so tawdry!!   
And... and she’s a halfbood!! Doesn’t even have a father! Her father’s a muggle rapist!!! You CAN’T POSSIBLY want her!! WHY?!! WHY, TOM?!!”

Tom looked at ‘Elsbeth’ disapprovingly.  
“You will lower your voice and cease these wild accusations and blood slurs. Do not profess to know her.. or myself either, Elsbeth. You and I have exchanged words only once and I communicated my disinterest clearly enough, I believe.”

The girl’s mouth shut like a door slamming.  
“But...”

Tom sighed long sufferingly and softened his voice.   
“Yes... I realise it is ...difficult... when the object of your desires does not reciprocate them. I understand that you had convinced yourself that it was not yourself, but indeed any girl.. or boy, for that matter, that I did not want.. that I was in principle celibate. You realise how foolish such a delusion is, surely?  
You will accept that Maia and I are courting and you will not intrude. Should I learn that you have been contributing to hateful rumours.. or should I detect any ploy on your part to divide us.. I will be rather harsh with you.   
Do I make myself absolutely clear, Elsbeth?”

The girl blinked and now two glistening tears did race down her cheeks as she nodded dumbly.  
Her face tightened still more when Tom turned away as if she were no longer important.

Hermione watched her retreat down the corridor looking defeated.

Tom pulled her close and enfolded her in his arms.   
“It is a relief to be able to touch you, Maia..” He murmured against her hair. “Although I am certain that Elsbeth was merely the first snowflake before the avalanche.. Do not let your guard down over the next weeks.”   
Seemingly reluctant, he released her and moved a respectable distance away.   
“No doubt charms will be very interesting today.” He muttered grimly.   
“You will sit next to me. Septimus can sit next to Abraxas. With luck he will opt not to make a scene before he has spoken with me.”  
She nodded and bit her lip.

“Tom.. are you sure.. this is a good idea?!” she began, worried.

He threw her a scornful, mildly irritated expression. “It is too late to go back, Maia. Are you unhappy to be publicly seen to be courting me rather than a Malfoy?!”  
She shook her head emphatically.  
“No, No! It’s not that!.. I mean.. You said that they weren’t to.. I’m..worried.. If they-..” She tried to explain without saying any of the actual words.. It was obvious he understood however.

“I have decided, Maia. No more. I entertained the possibility for a while but I have found that it does not agree with me.”  
He moved closer and brushed his face against her own, his lips were warm against her ear for a moment.  
“I have never been inclined to share what is mine..”   
He sighed against her   
“I should not have allowed them to touch you. I was ...concerned... about things that should never have concerned me.   
They will obey or they will be punished. That is all there is to it.   
I do not care what my future self might have chosen to do. I cannot stand watching you with them.. any of them.   
He stepped away quickly and she realised that class was ending. The door to the charms room was opening. 

The corridors filled rapidly with talking bustling students.   
Hermione stood uncomfortably, trying to think of a way to explain her diffuse sense of anxiety in a way that wouldn’t anger Tom.   
She didn’t want to suggest that he couldn’t handle his knights. He would not respond well to that.   
And she also certainly didn’t want him to think that she was disappointed that she couldn’t have Septimus, Abraxas or Sorrenson as well as him.   
Because she wasn’t! She only wanted him. How often had she cursed and sighed that she couldn’t simply be with him.  
Often. That’s how often.

“Good morning, beautiful! Where were you at breakfast?!”   
Abraxas strutted up and put his arms around her. A moment later he flinched back as if in pain and released her with a confused expression.

“The situation has changed, Abraxas” Tom said quietly. “We will speak later. For the moment.. you will not..fawn. You will not draw any unnecessary attention. Maia and yourself are no longer courting.”

“WHAT?!!” Abraxas looked furious. “BUT-“

Tom halted him with a raised hand.  
“We will speak on this..later..Abraxas”

He looked at her sharply, worried and desperately wanting to question her. She could see he thought that he had done something to upset her. She smiled at him uncertainly, trying to let him know that he hadn’t – that it was not her decision at all... He seemed to calm somewhat, but the confused expression deepened and began to take on a note of suspicion and dread. He looked back at Tom   
Tom was unreadable. He turned and walked calmly into the classroom with a soft “Maia.. come now”

There was no dramatic scene. Abraxas was, despite his ire when she sat next to Tom instead of at his side, fundamentally a Slytherin. More so perhaps than his son and grandson would be. She knew that the Draco that she had attended school with would never have stood for this development without making a fuss. He could barely allow Harry to walk down the corridor without making a snide comment and drawing attention.  
Instead though, for the entire duration of the lesson, she felt on the back of her neck the twin stares of Abraxas and Septimus – who had been similarly confused to discover his seat occupied. He had not needed an explanation however – his expression shifted directly to suspicion and recrimination.  
Sorrenson too looked angry and impatient for the end of the lesson, she caught out of the corner of her eye. He sat further back in the room and she didn’t want to turn around and look openly. 

It seemed that the rest of the knights were merely mildly confused however. They had been confused when she was suddenly on Abraxas arm.. this they seemed, if anything, less confused about. 

She couldn’t ignore the way that the rest of the students seemed to be observing Tom and herself.   
Admittedly there was a legitimate reason to look over at them. It seemed their professor approved of the new seating order. He smiled kindly as he not so subtly alternated in selecting Tom and herself to answer questions. It led to much of the attention during the class being directed upon them both.   
They did collect sixty points for Slytherin between them... but she knew that if she had been in this class in her own time and had been faced with a professor who persistently favoured two students from Slytherin..  
..But what was she saying. She had. He had. Snape had been incorrigible.   
Even he, though, perhaps hadn’t been quite this obvious.. this smilingly overt about it.

After Charms had drawn to a close, the rush for the door noticeably lacking as nosy students procrastinated in order to see just what would happen next, she rose and preceded Tom out of the classroom.   
He walked close to her, his hand lightly on the small of her back, guiding her.   
She turned, catching at least eight pairs of eyes watching.   
A hand gently captured her own, drawing her attention back. Tom intertwined their fingers and stepped off in the direction of the Grand Hall. She moved to his side and let him walk them both down there. 

All the way down the busy corridor she could see students stop, gape or start whispering to their friends at the fact that they were hand in hand.   
Many of the expressions of the female students watching did not convey friendliness or acceptance of this new development. Disturbingly enough, many of the male students looked somewhat sour too.

The situation only worsened as they entered the grand hall. She understood finally just how Harry had sometimes felt.   
Tom led her gracefully to his place at the head of the table, but instead of allowing her to sit in her usual place on the right with her back to the hall, he drew her around to his left and indicated that she should sit in the place normally occupied by Septimus.   
She could see the entire Great Hall watching from this vantage point. It was terrible.

The rest of the knights, who had been slouching after them both irritably, distributed themselves around the table, exchanging tense glances. She could guess that they were trying to convince one another to say something.

“Orange juice, Maia?” Tom’s soft voice called her attention back. She smiled and nodded, shifting her glass closer so that he could pour the heavy jug.   
He served himself afterward, taking then a small scone and buttering it. She watched him with interest. He looked entirely comfortable...as if he were oblivious to the oppressive weight of the stares.   
it..was.. wonderful to be able to stare at him openly like this. 

Septimus, at her side, took a slice of bacon and egg pie as if there were nothing at all in the world unusual this afternoon.   
Amalthea, at his side, looked like the cat that got the cream.  
Apparently her being with Abraxas had not been guarantee enough that she wouldn’t attempt to steal Septimus.. however a connection to Tom was. Tom obviously wouldn’t put up with any funny business, in Amalthea’s view.  
She caught Hermione’s eye and her pleased expression became somewhat sour as she couldn’t prevent a slight sneer of disgust.

Someone cleared their throat pointedly. Her eyes flicked to the source of the noise.

Abraxas looked incandescent with rage, his face hidden from the rest of the hall due to where he sat.   
“I would like to know just what is going on here!” he hissed at her.  
She looked to Tom.  
Who took a sublimely unaffected bite of his scone. 

“Have some lunch, Maia” he reminded her softly. 

“My-.. Tom! What is going on?! I would speak with you in private at once!” Abraxas tried in frustrated anger

Tom’s composure didn’t even flicker. He informed Abraxas disinterestedly “This is hardly the time or place...We will speak tonight, after classes. I would suggest also, Abraxas, that you restrain yourself from employing that tone with me.” 

Abraxas swallowed and struggled to clear his face of the emotion twisting it. He succeeded partially and Hermione thought he had done well to achieve that much. 

The rest of the knights..with the notable exception of Sorry, who looked as unaffected and oblivious as Tom himself, seemed to view this little episode as entertainment. 

Palmer grinned.  
“Looks like the honeymoon’s over, Brax” he sniped under his breath and snickered.

Abraxas turned, his wand suddenly in his hand, and hexed him before getting up from the table and marching out of the great hall in grand snit.  
Palmer, who had yelped, now spat out a large mouthful of teeth into his hand. He curled his lips and ran a tongue over his gums now a smooth and toothless as a baby.  
“Bafftard” he slurred.

The conversation in the great hall buzzed loudly in the aftermath as everyone discussed the apparent rift between the Slytherin elite. 

“Don’t worry Maia” Tom said quietly. “Abraxas and I shall have words about that later.” 

He reached out and claimed one of the strawberries in the bowl of fresh fruit, offering it to her.   
She moved to accept it from him but it shifted and transformed itself in a fraction of a second into a deep red long stemmed rose. She looked up at Tom with a gasp of surprise.   
His deep blue eyes were studying her. A faint twist of the edge of his lips suggested that he was inwardly smirking at how predictably she had responded to that greatest of all female triggers.   
She accepted the rose carefully. It had vicious looking thorns.   
Out of curiosity she brought it to her nose and inhaled. Unsurprisingly, it had a delicate strawberry scent.   
Over the dark red velvety object she could see that a number of the girls in the room were sighing wistfully  
“Thank you..” she murmured.   
He reached out and brushed her hair aside with a finger.   
“It was my pleasure”

 

Septimus did not even attempt to speak to her in Runes. 

She found herself slightly miffed about it actually. He ignored her utterly, focusing on the classwork. After class he walked by her side silently toward astronomy.

“Septimus..” she murmured, trying to be unobtrusive. A couple of faces ahead of them both turned.   
Septimus glanced at her with mild irritation.  
“Maia - anything you say at this point will be transmitted throughout the school within the hour..”

She gave up on trying and simply walked behind him up the narrow staircase up to the astronomy tower.   
It wasn’t till she had reached the top and met the wide brown eyes across the large space that she remembered just who else was apparently in her astronomy class.

Alex Potter stared at her balefully from the left of the distant balustrade as Tom glided over and captured her hand smoothly once again.   
She knew he was doing it in order to draw the attention of the student body to the recent change that had placed her at his side; Leaving no room for doubt in those who may not have seen them walk down from Charms together.

He glanced at Septimus but seemed satisfied that there was no cause for concern there.

Tom led her over to Roan, Benjamin and Sorrenson, who were all waiting with a couple of other Slytherin’s she didn’t know but recognised vaguely. They sat near Carmen’s group in the Grand Hall.

Behind them, Septimus glided smoothly to Amalthea’s side and took her hand. She couldn’t quite prevent herself from an internal annoyance when he raised her hand to his lips, pressing a brief kiss to her knuckles before tucking her hand into his arm.   
Amalthea smiled delightedly. It seemed that all was well in her world again.

“Maia.. I don’t think you’ve met Gowan and William.” Tom distracted her pointedly, gesturing at the two unknown Slytherins. One was tall with short tidy brown hair and dull brown eyes, the other was smaller, of slight build with strawberry blonde hair and freckles.   
She smiled politely, thinking to herself that she wasn’t really much interested in meeting them either. Why was he introducing her unnecessarily to two more bloody guys. 

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Maia” the first boy – Gowan – said, suggestively. She hated him instantly. 

Turning to Tom, she raised an eyebrow, communicating her discontent with the present situation. He smirked and squeezed her hand gently.   
“You’ll have to forgive Gowan” he instructed her mildly. “He is an absolute boor. Most likely the reason that you have not met him before today.”  
A glance in Cygnus’ direction was ignored. Roan however quickly stepped up and drew Gowan aside with a fabricated ‘question’. 

“I’m sorry about that” the smaller ‘William’ said, blushing slightly. He held out his hand. She looked at it uncomfortably, unwilling to touch him. After a minute his hopeful little smile faltered and he withdrew it.  
“Um.. I really am sorry” he said earnestly before nodding respectfully at Tom and withdrawing to join his friend. 

“Don’t introduce me to anyone!” she hissed at Tom when everyone was, she thought, far enough away. “It’s bad enough that everyone’s attention is on me...that so many are affected already – You need to take this more seriously. Don’t let anyone touch me. It gets worse if they touch me.

As if her words had conjured up the devil himself, Alex appeared next to them.

“I..wanted to..apologise...” he managed, although the words seemed to be causing him to chew broken glass.  
“I think we..had a misunderstanding.. in defense yesterday, Maia.” 

She looked away, focussing on Tom, whose polite smile had taken on a certain diamond bit edge

“Oh no, I don’t believe so, Potter. I think she made herself quite clear to you.   
However you may consider your apology delivered, if not accepted. You have no further need to speak with Maia. Run along and play with your little chums. They look quite confused that you are over here.”

Alex huffed and tried to catch her eye. She stepped closer to Tom and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder protectively.

“Maia.. Please... If I could just speak with you for a moment.”

Tom abandoned the polite expression and his eyes narrowed. In half a second Septimus, Palmer and Roan were at his side. None of them said anything threatening, but Tom guided her back a few steps, placing them between her and Alex. They then proceeded to half turn and overtly ignore him.

Alex, frustrated and looking almost desperate, scrunched his hand in his hair for a moment before turning on his heel and marching away. She saw him snap at a blonde Ravenclaw boy who spoke to him when he returned to the other side of the room.

Tom’s hand stroked her back calmingly.   
It was amazing how he did that. She could be afraid.. or furious.. and he would touch her and the emotion would just dissipate gently.  
She wondered whether he was allowing his magic to flow around him slightly. Whether it was a subtle effect of that, before he learned how to control it precisely.

The little orange haired woman had apparently entered the room in the meantime, she realised, as her voice rang out over the babble, calling them all to attend to the board now.

Abraxas hadn’t come to class yet.

By the time class had ended, he still had not shown his face.  
This was perhaps a whole new level of snit for a Malfoy, she pondered.

 

 

Abraxas remained absent for dinner also and as Tom walked down with her toward the Knight’s chamber he looked somewhat pensive. She wondered if he’d really imagined that the blonde would accept the situation calmly, when he’d been embarrassed before the entire school.

The atmosphere was frosty within.  
Abraxas sat next to Septimus on the left hand sofa looking acidic. Septimus in contrast was cool and distant. Sorrenson, on Abraxas other side wore an expression of desperate hope.   
The place that Abraxas usually sat had been conspicuously left empty. Clemens was positioned next to it, looking bewildered.   
Although Palmer still seemed faintly smug, Roan and Benjamin were worried. Cygnus seemed to be watching Abraxas thoughtfully. She recalled that he had been present for her collapse last week.

Tom released her hand as soon as they passed the wall and stalked across the room, ignoring his chair and standing over Abraxas with a dark angry mien.

“Up. Now.” He hissed at the blonde, whose glare wobbled into uncertainty.   
“We will duel, Abraxas. You have forgotten yourself. We will resolve this matter immediately before we speak further”

The Malfoy ancestor went from righteously indignant to repentant in half a second.  
“My Lord.. that’s not necessary. I -.. she-.. I know you are superior in duelling. I..know you are stronger than I. We do not need to-“

Tom’s expression informed that it in fact was necessary and that he would not tolerate much more contradiction.

Abraxas stumbled miserably to the open space near the back of the room

Hermione, who had still been hovering next to the wall, realised that she would be in the firing line now. She reluctantly ventured further into the chamber, moving to the circle with the others.   
She didn’t want to sit next to Clemens.  
In truth, she kind of wanted to sit between Septimus and Sorrenson. It was clear from the look on Sorry’s face that he wanted her to also.   
She couldn’t sit there either, obviously.

She sat down in Tom’s chair and curled her legs up underneath her, receiving discomforted goggles from all the others.   
Cygnus tilted his head, narrowing his eyes speculatively.

 

Across the room, Tom gestured expansively, bowing slightly at the nervous Abraxas, who returned the formal etiquette hurriedly, applying himself to erecting high level shields.   
Unfortunately for him, Tom ..politely.. lowered his wand, implying that he should begin. Abraxas had to sacrifice the level of his shielding in order to select one that he could cast through. 

His purplish spell flashed across the intervening space between them ...before slowing and fizzling before it had reached Tom. It dissipated with a little crackle.

Abraxas’ still-raised wand shook slightly.

Tom smiled cruelly and gestured for Abraxas to proceed.   
He allowed the other boy to throw anything and everything at him without retaliation. Nothing even came remotely close to striking him. The spells didn’t even flash off his shields – those that came close were flicked away with curt little wand slashes..   
Hermione wondered whether he even had any shields up.

When Abraxas had exhausted his knowledge of light and dark hexes, he lowered his wand miserably and concentrated on raising stronger shields.   
It was of no use whatsoever.   
Tom’s first spell in the salvo of three shattered his shields with a sound like nails on blackboards. His second spell struck Abraxas in the middle of the chest, dropping him to his knees with wide terrified eyes and gasping mouth. The third, landing a half second later hit him in the abdomen and he screamed full throat, collapsing and writhing. 

Tom walked away, leaving the blonde shrieking and writhing on the floor. Seemingly as an afterthought he tossed a silencing spell back behind him.   
Hermione swallowed, feeling terrible for Abraxas. He had been so utterly outmatched. And really.. he had been justifiably upset. At least in some ways..maybe.  
She surreptitiously flexed and removed the hexes.  
It was pleasant to use the magic. And so easy now. It obviously got easier the more she did it.   
Abraxas stopped struggling and fighting and lay still, panting silently. Tom, turned toward them all, did not realise it.

“My chair, if you would, Maia” he said quietly, with the barest micron of disapproval.   
She gave up the wingback to him without demur. He sat down gracefully and, after a second of hesitation, captured her hand and drew her back down onto his lap.

Now he could see that Abraxas was slowly climbing to his feet in the back of the room. His eyes hardened a little and shifted to her suspiciously. She looked down sheepishly and curled into him more closely.   
After a moment he sighed irritatedly and brushed a gentle hand over her hair. “Sot.” He muttered next to her ear.

Abraxas joined them all. As he moved to sit again between Sorrenson and Septimus, Tom halted him and indicated that he should sit in his usual place at his right side. Abraxas obeyed but his eyes were fixed on the floor.

“As you will have all realised-” Tom began in a quiet measured voice “Maia is no longer to be publicly courted by Abraxas. I have decided that I am not prepared to tolerate her absence at my side any longer. It was perhaps unnecessary to be so concerned about the reactions of students and certain teachers.   
Abraxas.. it seems.. has taken exception to my portrayal of him before this irrelevant audience. Palmer – you will not provoke him further. You are in no position to judge the situation.

Palmer’s shifty gaze suggested that he thought he was very well positioned to judge the situation. Tom did not address it however. 

“To all extents and purposes nothing has changed. It is as I instructed you originally. Maia is mine.. I will tolerate neither foreign hands upon her nor aspersions regarding her character.   
Watch the other students. I wish to know if any student expresses particular ire toward or regard for her.”

The hand upon her head stroked slowly, soothingly. She felt yet again as if she were some kind of cat for Tom Riddle. Something from which he derived peace of mind in petting absently. 

“What exactly changed your mind?”   
Cygnus.  
Hermione considered the Black ancestor. She wasn’t sure at all whether she liked him. She realised she had actually not exchanged five words with him since first seeing him. He was constantly there.. laughing and joking.. with someone else. He never seemed interested in her. Sorrenson had said he liked guys only. Perhaps that was it.

Tom dismissed the question. “I had a lot of time to devote to quiet thought over the weekend.”

He seemed to consider something and then smirked somewhat darkly.  
“In addition.. I advise that those of you taking potions anticipate a new Potions Master”

Abraxas looked up now sharply, his eyes were wide and hopeful. Sorrenson sounded vicious when he spat “Prick’s dead, I hope..”   
Tom shook his head and explained that such an act would cause too much fuss. Slughorn had, it seemed, had some form of potions accident. He would not be returning to teaching before they had all completed NEWTs.  
Septimus looked thoughtful and nodded, seemingly filing this information away for later consideration.   
As did Cygnus, she observed.

When Tom asked whether there were any other matters for discussion, the same issue was introduced as had been brought up at the first meeting. Several of the knights wished a ‘celebration’ at the soonest possible convenience.   
Abraxas was among them. His eyes were hard and he refused to meet her gaze.

Tom considered the matter for a long time, his eyes resting heavily upon Abraxas.   
After several minutes he informed them that they might possibly visit the manor during the next weekend, but that this could be subject to change and should not be treated as a matter of course.   
Abraxas top lip twitched briefly as if struggling not to rise in a sneer.

Tom’s cool gaze hovered a moment longer over Septimus, Sorrenson and Abraxas than the others when he dismissed them. They showed no sign of having noticed anything but within ten minutes of the knights departing, the three had trailed back.   
Abraxas arrived last.  
It was clear that he was still in a rather irate state, and that it was merely a subdued one now.

Septimus was back first. He glided over calmly and returned to his place as if nothing at all was amis. He did not even spare her a glance as they sat in silence.   
Tom had rested his head back on the leather of the chair and was holding her with an expression of relaxed contentment. Every so often his fingertips would brush down her arm or scrunch her hair. Once he turned and pressed a light kiss to the corner of her mouth.  
The quiet illusion of peace was shattered when Sorrenson returned, clattered across the floor and threw himself down on his knees before Tom’s chair.

“PLEASE!!! PLEASE MY LORD – DON’T TAKE HER AWAY!! WHAT DID I DO WRONG?! I’M SORRY!!! I WON’T DO IT AGAIN. PLEASE.”

Tom opened his now mildly irritated eyes and frowned down at the boy almost prostrate before him.

“Pull yourself together. Get up” he spat.   
Sorry did not move to comply. If anything he wriggled closer.   
When he reached for the hem of Tom’s robes and pressed them to his lips, Tom, apparently having had enough of this, gave him a kick, sending him scuffing backward on the stone floor. 

It was in that moment that Abraxas happened to return. 

He paused in the doorway, seeming to take in everything that was going on. When he walked over to them, it was with a heavy step. Ignoring the earlier directive he dropped down onto the sofa next to Septimus.   
Quite close to Septimus, actually, she noticed.

“We’ll go mad..” was his only remark, expressed in a voice that was weary and resigned.

Tom rolled his eyes.   
“The others seem to be in perfect health. You will manage, Abraxas”

Septimus didn’t speak but his eyes narrowed upon his master.

“What does he mean?” came sorry’s plaintive voice from the ground. “Why will we go mad?! Brax? What’s going on?!”   
The blond sniffed humourlessly and looked away. Septimus too refused to meet his eyes.

“What do they know that I don’t?!” he said, turning to Tom now. “Why should we go mad?! I admit..the idea of ... of ...things going back to how they were before... I can’t..even think of it.. I.. can’t.. Don’t take her away again, my Lord..  
Will we really go mad?! What is going on?! WHY are you doing this?! Did one of us do something?!”

“No.” Tom said like the slamming of leaden doors.  
“You will not go mad. Abraxas is being his typical melodramatic self, Sorrenson. Pay him no mind. He is merely..sour.”

“I want to study the effect”   
Septimus looked deeply pensive.   
“I would like the opportunity to study whatever it is... this.. influence she exerts upon others. Perhaps if I can discover its medium, I can devise some form of block. Or a counteragent.”

Hermione shifted uneasily. She didn’t want.. couldn’t have any one studying her too closely.. at least not one who didn’t know what she was. And Abraxas had already proven dangerously curious before.

“No. Look.. Tom.. surely-”   
He interrupted her coldly. “No Maia. They will not touch you again. I do not wish to hear you attempt to persuade me to allow you to lie with other men again. You are mine. This little ..experiment.. is concluded.”

“Septimus..at present I am... disinclined... to allow you to study her for any phantom ‘effect’. I understand that you would use this as an excuse to be close to her. I think we shall simply allow things to subside naturally.   
You may examine your ‘effects’ upon yourself and your two..close friends.. if you would, but you will not approach her for any form of test. You will not question her-“ he yawned expansively, covering his mouth with the back of his hand “-you will, for the moment, not speak with her overmuch... and you will certainly not touch her.   
I warn you.. the punishment for disregarding my wishes in this matter will be immediate and painful.”

He turned to her and tilted his head, as if trying to understand yet again what it was about her that was so compelling.

“I am through discussing this. Abraxas.. I apologise for the public slight to your wooing abilities. Other matters forced me to pursue this course rather more abruptly than I had intended.”

Abraxas shrugged glumly.   
It appeared in light of the scope of the actual situation – (i.e that he would no longer be allowed to enjoy her privately.. that he would barely be permitted to interact with her at all) – that his concern for publicly losing her on his arm had dwindled.

“Very well. If this issue is now resolved I believe we shall leave you and depart for bed.”

If this caused the other three to startle and wonder, then it didn’t concern Tom sufficiently to delay their exit. He held her hand tightly and drew her down the dungeon corridors silently to the Slytherin shield.   
She sighed, disappointed. The way he had said it in the Knights chamber she had thought he meant..together. 

He led her in, eyes scanning the little snakes present in the common room, before turning and walking her down to the girls dormitories.   
“Wait here.” he commanded quietly and let himself into her dormroom, closing the door behind him.   
He was gone for quite a while.   
She wished she had a pair of the Weasley twins’ extendible ears.  
Just as she was weighing up the possible merit of creeping forward and placing her ear on the door, it opened and he returned, looking rather displeased. He spared her a glance, his hard gaze softening momentarily, before he stalked down the corridor pensively. She followed after.

He came to another door and, knocking briskly, slipped inside.

He was gone even longer this time. 

A girl emerged from the room. 

She looked...happy.   
She looked bloody delighted in fact. Hermione frowned uneasily. What exactly did Tom do to make this..rather pretty.. girl looks so deliriously pleased?!  
She felt a little shard of black angry fear twist deep inside

His face appeared at the door and her fears subsided.   
He was wearing that chilly triumphant smirk. Whatever he’d done to make the girl smile like that, he had probably used his wand and not...anything else.

The girl walked past her with barely a curious glance and then let herself into Hermione’s dormroom.

“You can come in now” he smiled at her smugly.   
She raised an eyebrow.   
The room, as it turned out, was a single.   
Her trunk was sitting at the foot of the freshly made bed. There was nothing else in the room to suggest anyone else had ever resided within.

“Melissande experienced the sudden wish to dwell with others, it seems” he stated neutrally. “I am certain that the other students waiting on single rooms will be pleased to allow you to take hers, in light of your terrible nightmares about Grindelwald’s soldiers.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, torn between wanting to be excited and grateful and leap on him in thanks for saving her from her loathsome dormroom.. and demanding to know what exactly he just did and why the hell he hadn’t done it in the beginning.

She went with the second option.

He rolled his eyes and turned away.   
“I admit - I ..expected.. that you would be rather more appreciative, Maia.”

“In the beginning I did not realise that your flatmates would be quite this difficult.   
I also did not intend to have you in my room every night-“   
She gasped and now she did jump forward to wrap her arms around him. He stood stiffly, apparently still irritated at her previous sharp tone, but he allowed her to cling to him.   
“- however as I now do plan to keep you with me as much as possible.. it has become necessary to ensure that your absence will not be noticed too often. In addition... performing an advanced memory charm upon a student was a risk I was then less than eager to take lightly... However after..yesterday..I believe I am prepared to risk it.”   
He finally enfolded his arms around her in return.

“I will leave you here now to settle in. You will disillusion yourself and come to my room at eleven pm. I should be finished with my patrol by then.”

Hermione nodded against him.   
It was a worrying thing that Tom truly did seem to intend to have her with him each night as he’d said sometime in the small hours of the morning last night.   
This was.. foolish. 

But she would be able to sleep next to him again.   
She had gotten used to his warm strong body beside her.. the faint alluring scent of his skin around her.. his lips and his soft morning voice. The nights where she had to stay in her dormroom without him were horrible. And after the weekend.. when he had been there constantly.. after last night.. and today...

How could she possibly refuse?!


	69. Chapter 69

Warm lips grazed her own.   
She smiled, half asleep and shifted slightly against the body stretched alongside her in bed.   
“Wake up...” the soft voice murmured against her and kissed her gently.

Her smile faltered slightly with the voice, as her memory of last night’s events filtered back.

She cracked her eyes open slightly, only to startle. The shapes.. and shadows were all wrong!

“Where am I?!”   
She glanced up at the figure leaning over her, peering at him in the dark.

“Shh shhhh.. you’re fine. Calm down. You’re okay.”

“Draco, where the hell are we?! How did I get here!? I was in my room. Where’s Tom?!!”  
Her hand went to her neck, finding only the familiar loathsome bead.   
Had it worked? Perhaps Tom had taken the emerald pendant with him – but why was she here?! Where was here, anyway?!

“You’re at the Manor..   
...In the master bedroom. You.. you’ve been a bit ill and it was decided that you’d be better off here for the moment.” 

She felt uneasy suspicion flicker. That was a rather Slytherin phrasing. Who had decided?! Tom? Draco!?.. Why? Tom had insisted she make a blasted horcrux and she’d, like an idiot, gone along with it with hardly a murmur of protest. She’d swallowed whatever was in the potion.. What had happened then?! What had happened between then and now to put her in the master bedroom of Malfoy Manor – a place from which Tom had removed her practically as soon as he was certain that doing so wouldn’t shatter her fragile emotional balance in the wake of Lucius’ death.

That thought caused a pang again. Regret.. guilt. 

“The Dark Lord had you make a horcrux..” Draco started. She nodded impatiently. He hesitated, looking at her for a long moment.   
“The potion he used had only been tested on males. It didn’t agree with your physiology. You’ve been ill for a long time. You haven’t woken in.. well..”  
He turned away and lit a tall candelabra. The soft golden light illuminated the room.  
Draco looked visibly older. She gaped up at him in horror.  
“You’ve been sleeping for a long time, Hermione. We couldn’t wake you. It was only recently that I found a potion that would bring you back.”

She furrowed her brows, confused.   
“Where’s Tom?! Shouldn’t he be here, if there was a chance I might wake up?! Why isn’t he here?! Or.. Severus..?!”

Draco bit the inside of his cheek and looked indecisive.

“Well.. You’ve.. been gone for a ..long time. Some things have happened while you were sleeping. Its.. all somewhat complicated and probably better discussed after you’ve had some time to recover and adjust.   
The reticence and concern on his face cracked and transformed into almost painful relief and care.  
Hermione.. I’m so glad it worked.. I’m so glad you’re back.. You have no idea how it was...after it happened. It was like you were gone...And no one could do anything.   
I...  
I missed you so much!!”   
He swooped down suddenly and kissed her cheek, wrapping his arms around her and holding her as if she might fly away at any moment.   
“I missed you, Hermione. I love you – you remember right?! You.. know I love you?!”

She smiled slightly and hugged him back. She felt a bit tired.. Her arms were heavy.  
“It’s ok, Draco. I’m not going anywhere. I..love you too.”  
A little quiver of discontent made itself known in her belly. It was true, she supposed. She cared for Draco.. there was just the silent comment inside ‘I love you...but I love Tom more.’  
“I..need to know where Tom is though.. I don’t want to hear about it later.. I want to know now.”  
“Draco?...”

She could feel him sigh and clutch her tighter. “It’s better we talk about it later. You shouldn’t get too excited right now. You need to rest!”

Now she was worried.

“DRACO! I don’t care if I need rest – I don’t care about whatever it is that you’re worried might happen to me if I get ‘excited’ – I want to know where Tom is NOW. Tell me or I..”

“Alright! Alright! Merlin, Granger – you’ve been awake for five minutes and it’s like you’ve reverted to the horror of Hogwarts again. Calm down. I’ll tell you alright!?”

She attempted to scale back her worry and relax the tense way her muscles were tightening. “Yes. Sorry. It’s just.. important.. to me. Please Draco..”  
His eyes seemed to both soften and heat when she pleaded with him. It made her very slightly uncomfortable, she realised.

“Look.. there’s no easy way to say this, Gr.. Hermione.. He’s... dead.”

She blinked at him, not understanding.  
“What do you mean?! Why?! How?! Draco!!! You’re kidding.. or .. or lying.. Don’t joke about this – it’s not funny – where is he?!”

Draco turned away slightly even as he moved closer and held her tightly., his fingertips stroking over her arms.  
“It’s not a joke. I’m sorry.. He...He is dead. For good this time. There weren’t any horcruxes hidden away anywhere. He is actually dead”

She tried to struggle against his arms and he held her even tighter. “NO!!! NO – HE’S NOT!! He’d never let himself be killed. He’d never not have at least one horcrux.. HE’S NOT DEAD, DRACO!! I.. I CAN BRING HIM BACK!!! I’ll BRING HIM BACK!!” She hyperventilated, trying to pull away from the blond boy clamping her down in place.

“He is dead. There’s nothing you can do. He didn’t take the binding necklace off you so you can’t use your ability to do anything...   
...it...It will be ok, Hermione”  
He was drowned out in her wail of horror as she understood exactly what he was saying.   
She was a squib forever.  
And Tom was gone. Forever.   
“NO!! NO!! He CAN’T... HOW?!-“ she sobbed hysterically.

Draco took a deep breath and sighed.

“It was Potter-“   
He gripped her and shhhed her over and over as this new information loosed howls of pain.   
“Shhhh.. stop.. it’s ok.. Potter’s gone too. I killed him, alright?! I .. avenged.. them both..”  
she froze.

Them both?!

The horror must have been visible on her face even through the contortion of the emotion that was already overpowering her  
“Wh..” she couldn’t quite manage to get enough breath around her gaspy sobs to get the words out.   
He understood even so.

“Severus.... I don’t know what happened to Lestrange.. He might have escaped.. but I’ve never heard from him. I’ve been giving you a potion that I found in a book in the library”

Everyone.  
Really everyone. Severus was gone..  
and Rodolphus... who knew.. and ...and Lucius too..   
...and Harry... but that was the only good part really..  
Maybe they weren’t.. maybe it was just.. There had to be some way for it not to be true. There had to be!!

“H-..” She sucked in her sobs for a moment, holding her breath and choking out the question she needed answered.   
“How”

Draco released her a little and got up on his elbows again to look down at her. His face was tight and miserable.   
“Hermione.. You need to rest. We can talk about it when you wake up.. I’ll be able to give you a calming potion then. Please.. Please just let it go until you wake up!”  
“NO. NOW!” She screeched, aware of how she sounded and not caring about anything beyond the thought that there had to be some mistake somewhere. Something Draco hadn’t noticed.  
The blonde sighed and leaned down, pressing a tentative kiss to the corner of her mouth.  
“Alright.” 

I’ll tell you. Just.. stop-..” he petered out, as if unsure what he wanted her to stop doing. Stop panicking? Stop crying? Stop screaming? Stop mourning? 

“I’ll tell you – “ he snapped his fingers. There was a soft crack as a house elf apparated in. “Please get me one of the pale yellow potion phials on shelf two marked with an s” he instructed it quietly.   
It cracked away.   
“-I’ll tell you, but then you have to sleep for a while, ok? It’s... it’s important, Hermione. I’ve waited so long for you to come back.. You have to recover..”

The elf cracked back into the room and passed up a tiny bottle before bowing and popping away again.

He showed her the bottle. Or at least.. through the dim blur of her eyes she saw him lift it to show her. There was a vague line of his arm and she didn’t much care about the potion.  
“This is a very mild sleeping draught, ok? If I tell you.. you have to take it so that you can get some rest afterward. Alright?”

She nodded blindly, just anxious for the answers.

He looked at her for a long moment and then nodded decisively, turning and placing the bottle on the bedside table. 

“Ok then..  
So... the last thing you can remember is the Dark Lord giving you the potion for the Horcrux, right. And before that he dissolved your binding with Potter..”

She nodded uncertainly.

“Well.. after you were sleeping he went to check on Potter apparently. I know this because the prat told me all about what happened later on.. but we’ll get to that shortly.   
The Dark Lord visited him and he was ..sorry... or he felt sorry for him or something. I don’t personally believe that but it’s what he said. And because he felt sorry for him, Potter managed to convince him to let him use his magic.   
Since.. he couldn’t use his magic against him anymore.. he thought it would be fine or something.” Draco rolled his eyes as if to call Tom an idiot. 

“He even gave him his wand.. can you imagine?!.. I think that he must have taken a knock to the head or something. I don’t understand at all why he did it..”  
As if realising that he was getting off the point he gathered himself again and continued. “So..after ..father.. Severus was quite upset..as you recall, I’m sure.”   
She nodded again slowly, trying not to think about Lucius right now..  
“Well.. when you wouldn’t wake up he went bloody spare!.. he was furious with the Dark Lord for having done it to you without even consulting him about the potion. He tried everything to get you to wake up. None of it worked.   
The Dark Lord was crazed.. He killed ten or twelve Death Eaters at the last meeting on a whim. He was spending more and more time with Potter.. Potter said that he cried.. ...and eventually The Dark Lord took off the wards around him.   
He just let him roam around free in the castle!   
It was terrible. I couldn’t stay at the manor and avoid him because you were there.. and I had to make sure you were safe.. I had to be sure that one of them wouldn’t suddenly take it into their head to Avada you or something, to put you out of your misery. I had to..be there.. all the time.”

“Potter..was...  
Well... lets just say that he was an opportunistic bastard and leave it at that...   
\- And he started visiting Severus a lot too. I wasn’t thinking too much about it at the time because I had my own worries and I was just happy if he wasn’t in the room with me.. but I should have thought of it.. I should have seen it coming.”   
He paused and chewed on his lip uneasily, seemingly inwardly focused. She had blinked away her tears somewhat and was listening as hard as she could.. looking for.. anything... something that might help.   
Draco looked worried.

“He used the imperius on Severus” he said finally and sighed.   
“I always thought that no one could master my godfather’s mind – after all, he fooled Dumbledore for years.. but I guess I was wrong.   
He imperiused him and then he made him poison the Dark Lord while he slept. He couldn’t do it himself you see. The binding prevented him from actually raising a hand against him.. prevented him from firing a spell.. but it seems it didn’t prevent him from controlling someone else to spill a few droplets in the right place at the right time.   
...and the Dark Lord died.”

She shook her head slightly.. no.. he couldn’t. She wanted to know how he knew.. where was the proof?! What was the potion.. how did he know there were no horcruxes?!   
He leaned down and kissed her forehead.  
“I’m sorry. It’s what happened. I can’t change it. I wasn’t even there. He boasted about it later on to me..   
At the time all I knew was that the Dark Lord hadn’t been seen in a while.. and then I found Severus in his potions lab. He was....dead.   
Uh.. very dead.   
I thought Potter was quite friendly with him before everything went to shit... but it seems he really wasn’t. Not ever. He was just an amazing actor. No one could do.. what. He...”   
The blonde swallowed and shook his head firmly. 

“So I know, ok? I’m absolutely certain that Severus is not alive. I know that neither of them had Horcruxes because Potter said so. He said he’d checked with some spell. He was pleased.. cocky.. it was obvious that he was sure he had nothing to worry about on that front.”

Hermione felt numb. It felt like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.   
She was certain that any second the black horror of panic and tears would wash over her again but for now everything felt preternaturally still. The way Draco scrutinised her registered dimly.   
She tried to tell him to go on but she had no voice, it seemed. Her lips moved but no sound came out.

“See.. this is why I wanted you to rest before we talked about it. You never listen to me! You always know bloody best, don’t you! I should have forced you to sleep first.”  
He stroked the hair away from her face before she shook her head, dismissing his concern and knocking his hand away.

“What happened next” she managed to spit out in a tiny voice.

He seemed to suppress a sudden flash of anger and closed his eyes, calming himself.   
“Hermione.. I care for you.. I love you!! ..you are making me hurt you and I swore I’d never do that. Please.. please..could you listen to me and sleep first?”

She shook her head again.”I’m fine.. I ..need to know.. Please Draco!”

He sighed again and looked down into her eyes, tilting his head slightly. “Damn it.. I can never say no when you do that. I’m sure it must be some affect of..of.. what you are.. When you say please.. every part of me just wants to give you the world.   
Hermione.. you know you’re safe now, right? None of them will ever hurt you again! You’re safe here with me. and... and if you ever want to leave... you can.. I’ll let you..   
I’ll never keep you locked away like they did. I love you... but I’ll always be yours...not the other way around.. you understand that?   
There’s nothing in the world I want more than to be with you... but if you don’t want me around.. I’ll... I’ll find a way to live.. I’ll let you have what you want. You are the most important thing in my life..”

He kissed her again..gently..lingering on her lips as if hoping she’d respond.

She wanted to.. she really did.. She wanted to kiss Draco and comfort him, like he was trying to comfort her – but she just..couldn’t..right now.   
It was Tom. She wanted Tom back. She wanted it to be not true. She didn’t want to be free with Draco Malfoy – she wanted to be caged with Tom. She didn’t care if she didn’t have her magic.. didn’t care if she wasn’t allowed to come and go or even walk around outside unguarded. She didn’t care if he could be a little cruel sometimes.. She loved him.   
Although there was a part of her that could feel happy.. relieved.. to be here with Draco rather than.. for example.. somewhere else with Harry.. She couldn’t work up the feeling to kiss Draco the way he obviously wanted her to.   
She passively let him kiss her and he eventually pulled away looking sad.

“Maybe..after you’ve gotten used to the way things are now..” he murmured as if trying to convince himself.   
He seemed to sigh and then looked up at her again with determination. “-After Severus.. Potter said he wanted to come here. He wanted me to take him to the Manor.. he wanted to bring you here so that you’d be safe while he looked for a way to bring you back.   
I... went along with that. He..wanted a...consort... in his bed.. wanted to have me bow and scrape and suck and fuck on command.. He let me live for that reason alone.   
And I...did everything he wanted...because I knew that eventually he’d figure out how to bring you back.. 

And he did.   
He was excited about it.. He told me all about how you were going to marry him, apparently he’d found a different binding spell that would be even better than the last one.. and then in time there’d be children and a family..   
Well.. there’d be his children. I was never to touch you again, of course. He’d probably have killed me after you woke anyway. I don’t think Potter would have been as forgiving of betrayal as the Dark Lord was..   
...and that sentence sounds so fucked up to my ears too.  
But that didn’t matter because I already had a plan in place by then. I’d had a long time to think about it. He never even saw it coming.   
Muggle snipers.   
They were miles away. Cloaked.. hidden.. I needed to use something that he couldn’t repel, you see. I needed to do it when he was unguarded. He was never unguarded with me around – but he did sometimes enjoy taking a swim in the pool.   
He’d set up wards like you wouldn’t believe.. but as it turns out – they don’t repel objects well. Tossing something at them, the object just moved slower – more inertia.   
Bullets move pretty fast. The dampening of the wards didn’t slow them much at all.” 

“He was probably dead on the first shot to the head, but I’d told them to keep shooting till they ran out of bullets and he was like..lace.. when the elves fished him out of the pool.”  
Draco narrowed his eyes spitefully and she had the feeling that there was something vengeful and righteous to it.

“And then obviously I tore the place up to find his solution to bringing you back.. I thought he’d hidden it in a warded room he kept but after I had the top wardbreakers working on it round the clock for a week and I finally got in – there was nothing there about it.   
It took me months of searching to figure out that he hadn’t written anything down at all – he’d kept it in his head. And then it took me even longer to locate every book he’d had his hands on within the last five years and go through them one by one till I found what he’d found. But I did find it in the end. It was a combination of a spell and a potion.   
And then after I found it.. well.. I carried it out earlier this evening and....here you are. Back.. still you.. Still Hermione...” He smiled, relieved and thankful.   
“I was afraid that it might work but you might not remember anything.. or you might be completely different or something. I was..concerned that using it might kill you somehow.. or.. make things worse. I’m-..”  
He broke off and curled down again, pressing his face to her neck – inhaling deeply and then kissing her lightly over and over again.   
“I’ll never let anything happen to you again..” he mumbled against her. “Please...please stay with me, Hermione.. I’ll make you happy. I know what you like.. I’ll give you anything.. anything you want.. Please.. say you’ll stay with me.. Just for a while. Just give me time to show you how it could be...”

She wasn’t sure exactly what else she could do.

“How long was I...sleeping..” she asked quietly.  
He stopped kissing her and rested his forehead against her skin pensively.

“Three years.”

She jumped slightly. Three years?! No wonder Draco looked older.   
She wondered whether she would too, but remembered the Dark Lord’s spell. No.. she would look the same as she did on the day he made her immortal through his own fear of death.   
Draco would get older and one day die while she remained perpetually seventeen.. perpetually exactly the same.  
“Oh..” she whispered softly.   
Her mind went back over everything that he had told her.

“And Rodolphus?”

Draco groaned softly as if the question bothered him.

“I don’t know where he is. I can have people looking for him if you want. I can’t promise anything though. I think he doesn’t want to be found. Maybe he’s worried that Potter will kill him.”

She nodded. “Please look for him.”  
He pulled a face and agreed with a nod against her.   
“You have to take the sleeping draught now, Hermione. It’s very mild. Trust me.. you’ll hardly notice it. It will help you rest. Please..” He retrieved it and held it out to her. 

She didn’t want to sleep.  
But the way he was looking at her, with such fearful uncertainty..made her feel like she was being maybe a little unreasonable. He seemed really worried and.. she could understand that.. 

Three years.. How much of that time had he spent being Harry’s slave?! All so that he could save her. 

She opened her mouth and allowed him to pour the little peppermint flavoured potion in.   
He seemed relieved afterward.   
He dimmed the candles, extinguishing all but two and slid down in bed again. One arm went under his pillow and the other slid over her to rest his palm over her shoulder, embracing her lightly.  
She sighed, feeling the mild tiredness and allowing herself to yawn. With very little difficulty she turned and slipped into her normal sleeping position. He moved immediately to spoon up against her and the hand that had been on her shoulder traced down lightly to rest on her abdomen.   
Behind her she felt him harden slightly, but he didn’t seem inclined to do anything about it and after a while she fell asleep.

 

Her dreams were full of dark shadows and holes.. She was lying in bed but where Tom should have been in bed, there was a hole down into blackness.. Where Severus should have lay there was another.. She inched about, trying not to fall down into either abyss.   
In the periphery dark figures moved about. Once she heard her name whispered in a tone of longing.   
There were no faces and she couldn’t make out the voices of anyone she knew.

She woke up once in a panic but Draco’s shhh shhhing and stroking and the little butterfly kisses he placed on her shoulder calmed her down enough to drift off again.  
The rest of her night was thankfully dream-free.

 

 

When she woke up slowly, eased back into her mind by the yellowish light through tall drawn curtains, Draco was already awake.   
He had obviously been so for some time as he lay on his side with his head resting on his arm, watching her with an avid expression.   
When she looked at him, he smiled slightly. It had a component of childlike wonder to it. After a while he reached out and traced a fingertip down the side of her face, brushing aside the long brown curl that was lying on her cheek. 

“you are so beautiful.” He said quietly. “and you don’t even know it.”

She blushed slightly at the compliment she just did not believe and his faint caught gasp and raised eyebrows in reaction reminded her of someone looking at a kitten that had just done something adorable.   
and then her memory returned of what had happened. Tom. Severus..   
and she didn’t feel like smiling any more.   
She wanted Tom back. She wanted to be lying in bed with him right now.. the glimmering red watching her with that quick, clever, dangerous mind behind it. She wanted to see the hunger in his eyes.

“Do you want some breakfast?” Draco asked.. although it was obvious he had been thinking about something else entirely.   
She supposed she wasn’t really vehemently opposed enough to breakfast to make a fuss about it and risk having a discussion about how concerned he was for her health.

They had croissants with melted butter and small bowls of freshly picked raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.   
It was wonderful. Even if she had no appetite and really preferred not to be pleased about anything right now.. she couldn’t really help it. It was nice..  
Draco glanced at her frequently and asked her several times if she wanted anything else.. if the croissant was warm enough or the fruit ripe enough.. If she wanted tea or juice.. if she wanted a twill biscuit with the berries. She felt slightly overwhelmed with the volume of his attention.. the amount of it. It was as if he was terrified that she might decide not to speak to him again because her tea was too sweet or her breakfast not prepared exactly to requirements.  
She tried to reassure him.. and he did calm slightly.. but she could tell that on an underlying level he was still incredibly tense.

She wondered what it would be like to wait for someone so long.. to miss them so much that you’d do anything at all to get them back. How horrifying might it be to finally see them again only to find that they no longer wanted to know you.

She wondered whether it might be possible to somehow bring Tom back.. and if she could.. how long it might take.. and whether he would still want her afterward.  
But..of course he would. He didn’t really have much choice, did he?!   
She felt guilty for that thought.   
Perhaps it was selfish of her to want him back so badly. Perhaps wherever he was, he was at peace?!   
She conceded that she was indeed entirely selfish because she wanted him back even if he was at peace somewhere. He was.. everything.  
...And there her thoughts returned to Draco. Because..it seemed that she was everything to him. It seemed very much as if he felt about her the way that she felt about Tom ...and really, how exactly would she feel if she brought Tom back and then he pined away over Severus and ignored her completely.   
No.. Worse.. How would she feel if he pined away over harry... Someone who had hurt her.. someone she hated.   
That was probably how Draco felt.

 

After breakfast he helped her up carefully. She really didn’t see why it was necessary. She felt quite strong enough to walk unassisted. Nevertheless he helped her into the bathroom and ran her a bath, then hovered at the side the entire time. She wondered whether it was mostly the wish to disrobe and climb in with her or the fear that she might somehow flake and drown while he wasn’t watching.   
Whatever the reason, it was quite distracting. Whenever she lay back and closed her eyes to relax, he would say something to her prompting her to respond, as if to make certain she was still alive.   
He insisted upon washing her hair for her. It was nice.. but weird. She had the feeling of being somehow almost like a possession that he was protective of – much like he’d cleaned and replaced the elfin crystal goblet after they’d drunk the gelfthornberry liqueur.   
Afterward, as he was helping her out and wrapping her in a towel, she took the opportunity to look at him more closely. 

His hair was shorter, for a start. It fell in a soft silvery white wave to just below his ears. It suited him, she supposed, although she had liked the longer silk he wore before.  
He was.. harder now. His face looked colder than it had looked when last she had seen him.   
He was still perfectly toned and immaculately groomed but there was something bitter that was closer to the surface now than it had been before.  
She supposed he was allowed to be bitter and angry now. Before.. Tom or Lucius would have likely punished him if he’d displayed anything other than the perfect mask they preferred.  
The silvery eyes flicked up to her own as he was tucking the towel in and narrowed almost imperceptibly in speculation. 

“Yes.. I’m sorry. The wizarding world hasn’t yet invented potions to prevent aging altogether. ...I’ve done what I could with the means at my disposal.”   
He said it quietly, ruefully, looking away from her; his brow furrowing ever so slightly.

She felt suddenly sad.   
The thought of Draco... after finally getting rid of an abusive psychopathic Harry.. then spending all of his time researching and shopping around for expensive potions and means by which to preserve his appearance so that she might still want him when he revived her..

“You’ve cut your hair. Other than that.. you haven’t aged a day” she said softly, shifting her head to catch his eye.  
“Draco... You have to understand.. I’m..” She drifted off and bit her lip. How did she say - I’m going to be 17 forever and one day I’ll end up burying you..”

“I considered approaching one of the vampire clans, you know..” he said quietly. “Lestrange seemed to manage being one well enough. But... I thought..” His eyes widened and then he shook his head. “Nothing. I thought nothing. It was ridiculous. Come on.. I’ve got clothing prepared for you. We’ll dress and then I’ll give you the grand tour.”

She wondered what he had been thinking. It seemed like he didn’t want to say though.   
If it was important – it would come up again, she was sure. And it was better not to discuss the idea of Draco becoming a vampire just yet. That wasn’t a good idea. Rodolphus... well.. She’d cared for him greatly.. but at times it had really been clear that he wasn’t human anymore. At times he hadn’t been able to think for the blood. She didn’t think that the generations of snooty Malfoy’s would quite appreciate their line coming to an end with a voluntary vampire.

Draco led her back out to the bedroom and then turned, taking her to a door on the same long wall. Within, she actually gasped. Had he bought up every clothing shop in Diagon Alley?! The room was vast and stocked with aisles of walls with tiny miniaturised outfits in rows. Like dolls clothes in a toy store. At the end of the room there was a tall mirror that stretched from floor to ceiling. It seemed to have a button on the side of it.   
He strolled through the room in the manner of one extremely familiar with their surrounds. They walked down the left side of the room, Draco looking at the tiny garments with a thoughtful eye. Finally he selected a tiny robe in pearl coloured silk.   
It reminded her a little of a wedding dress.   
Seeing the hesitation on her face he laid it back and moved along slightly, pulling out a simpler one in a deep Mediterranean blue. It was about as far away from the pearly wedding dress as could be imagined. It spoke of the oceans and white stone cliffs in Greece. He took it, enlarging it as a matter of course, and moved to the next row where...hundreds of tiny pairs of shoes were lined up in rows waiting for a Barbie doll to fit them. Chewing his lip slightly he pulled out a pair of tiny blue flat sandals with thongs that were intended to be tied around the calves.

She noticed that most of the shoes in the vicinity of the sandals had very low heels or no heels at all. A little further along, the heels were higher and toward the end they were intimidatingly high stilettos.   
Good grief. Was he thinking to train her?! Still?! After..everything?! What the hell for?! What was the point now?!   
She managed to cut off the thoughts that wanted to follow on and drag her into a black morass of misery at the thought of not seeing Tom again. She refused to allow that thought to seed. She would not deal with this. This was not something to adapt to – She would get him back.. eventually. Maybe she’d have to wait a while.. but eventually she’d see him again.

When Draco also selected a tiny set of matching silky blue underwear for her, as if she had somehow been lobotomised to the point of inability to dress herself, she began to get just a little bit annoyed.   
Had he been going out and hand picking clothing that he wanted to see her in?! That was more than a little creepy, no matter how much he had worried and missed her.

“Draco – I can walk, you know. I’m not actually injured” she snipped and confiscated the clothing from him. 

He blanched and looked very sorry, immediately surrendering them and stepping back.   
“I didn’t mean...   
I’m sorry Hermione. I.. just.. ..  
...I won’t do it again.” He looked at her hopefully.

Fine. She’d wear the bloody clothes he picked then. Good grief!   
“It’s ok, Draco. Just.. Please don’t treat me like this anymore. I can walk on my own. I can wash my own hair.. I can certainly pick my own clothes.” Guilt flooded her momentarily.  
“Thank you.. for buying all these things.. They are..all ..lovely. You really didn’t need to-“

“I wanted to..” he interrupted softly. “You can’t blame me for it.. He did the same thing.. I saw your wardrobe.   
I’ve just had a lot longer and a lot more time on my hands..  
If you don’t like..anything.. tell me.. please..and I’ll remove it.. or fix it or..” he swallowed. “I’m sorry. I’ll... I’ll leave you to dress, shall I?”

She smiled uneasily and nodded.   
He stepped away and paced out of the wardrobe looking troubled again, leaving her to her kingdom of dolls clothes

She dressed uneasily in front of the tall mirror.   
The dress fit as if it had been made for her. She wondered suddenly whether it had. She wouldn’t put it past Draco to order her tailormade clothing.   
When she had finished strapping and binding and fiddling with the sandals, a house elf popped in suddenly, making her jump. She’d had the sudden frightening feeling of someone who was in someone else’s house and had just been caught snooping rudely. It was unreasonable to feel that way, but she did. 

The elf was wearing a little uniform.

She hadn’t looked at the one that came in the dim candlelit room last night.. But here in the brightly lit dressing room it was impossible to ignore that the tiny creature was wearing a strangely dapper black uniform with silver trim and the Malfoy crest.   
Draco had given his elves clothes?   
Ok.. he’d been.. polite to them for her.. she’d seen in the past – but this was just a step further than polite. He’d said on the beach that Malfoy elves were blood bound. Was it even possible to free them!? After the fuss they’d made at Hogwarts, she couldn’t even imagine how difficult it might have been to persuade them all to accept clothes. But she supposed – he could probably order them to take them.. or something. Did that actually defeat the purpose of having freedom to choose? She frowned, unsure. It was probably a good thing either way, she reasoned. If they were still working here then they were choosing to do so. 

“Good morning Miss Hermione” the elf said with uncharacteristic eloquence.  
“Lord Malfoy sent me to ..a-assist ..you .with your hair” it’s ears dropped slightly as if embarrassed at its own momentary stutter. She blinked at it. When it had said Lord Malfoy, for a moment she had thought that Lucius was somehow here. It was ..strange.. to think of Draco as the Lord of a Manor.

“um.. Thank you. May I ask your name?” she managed, without tripping over herself too much.

“I’s.. My name is Tizzy.” The elf said. “I am to be your personal elf for morning dressings” The creature’s brow furrowed slightly as if it knew that its last words were not quite right but didn’t know why.  
“Lord Malfoy says that I ..am.. to always ask what you...would...like for your hair and no just doing.” It beamed, as if it had completed a difficult task. She smiled back.

“Thank you, Tizzy. I’m pleased to meet you! If you could dry my hair and put it into a braid, that would be very nice of you.”

The elf shifted from foot to foot uneasily but nodded and smiled again.   
“Yes Miss Hermione” it said and raised one hand, barely twitching the tiny fingers. She felt her hair dry, straighten, and twine itself into a complicated braided up-do on the back of her head. Several strands detached themselves and trailed down the side of her face, framing it.   
“Is ..ok, Miss?” the elf asked fearfully.   
Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. It wasn’t at all what she’d meant – but she did have to admit that it was better than what she would have asked for. The style was intricate and flattering.. it managed to look much more grown up than a simple plait.

“Yes Tizzy. Thank you” she praised. The elf beamed and cracked away looking overjoyed.

It was impossible to miss the way Draco’s eye moved over her when she slipped out of the dressing room. He was leaning back in a chair by the window, looking the very image of ‘master of all he surveys’. He jumped to his feet as soon as he could pull his eyes back in and tried for unaffected.   
“You look..breathtaking..” he said quietly. “I’ll ..try.. not to stare. I know you hate it. You make it difficult though.   
Come on.. We’ll start downstairs, so that you can develop an idea of where everything is in relation to the foyer and the four main staircases.”  
Her smile froze only slightly. It seemed that ‘the grand tour’ was possibly a bit more involved than she had imagined. 

“Don’t panic..” he said, smiling and there was, for a moment, a hint of that same smug arrogant ferret. “If you get lost, you only need to snap your fingers for a house elf.”   
He came closer and offered his arm.  
This was something that she’d only ever really faced at balls.. it was strange to be treated this way by Draco.. It reminded her of the peculiar little meal they’d shared before their bath.   
He accepted her tentatively ventured hand and placed it on his arm. His eyes shone for a moment, as if he was suddenly painfully happy. Then it was gone and he was leading her slowly out into the chilly polished halls of the Manor.

 

 

The Manor was...overwhelming.  
And tiring. It felt like it went on forever.   
there seemed to be endless broad corridors of seemingly superfluous rooms. Everything was decorated in a style that felt like a museum had collided with Coco Chanel. It was all so painfully, horrendously elegant and tasteful. She felt uncomfortable just being inside it. There was far too much marble and unnecessary excesses of ornamentation. 

She hadn’t even realised she was in the downstairs ballroom until Draco had described it as such. It seemed the very structure of the room had altered since she had last been in it. Nothing was the same..the floor.. the walls.. the light fixtures.. Draco had informed her that the ballroom had been moved to the east wing last year.   
As if one simply picked up a room and shuffled it in somewhere else.   
That was apparently exactly what had been done. While they walked through a large, overly decorative, carven-wood door, he was telling her about the foundation spells of the ancient structure which actually allowed its dimensions to be altered by the current Lord. It was a somewhat complex business to replot the entire structure, however, comparatively speaking, far simpler than other magical means of renovation on that scale. She listened to him talking about hiring wizarding architects and designers as they strolled down the short corridor and mused to herself on the fact that the entire place was apparently intentionally intimidating and ostentatious. There was no other explanation if it had so recently been redesigned and altered.  
Was this all Draco’s taste? She looked around herself with a more judicial eye.  
The long broad hall that they were walking through now was completely open on one side with huge towering glass windows that stretched from the floor to the delicately plastered ceiling ten metres above. The view outside was breathtaking, looking out over a vast rose garden that tapered down to a small lake on whose banks stood weeping willows. Beyond them, in the lake, an island was visible, upon which further willows stood, along with what appeared to be a small cottage. The gardens between the Manor house and the Lake were planted in avenues of Rose bushes that appeared to be different plants that had grown together and interwoven into almost hedges.. Blue roses blended into teal then yellow, through white, pink and past red into black. It was extraordinary! The entire scene seemed surreal, it was so peaceful and lovely.

The voice from behind them stopped her in her tracks.

“Ah there’s my favourite little mudblood..”

Draco’s expression darkened to murderous levels.  
“Father. We discussed this. At length!.. You will keep a civil tongue in your head or I shall not allow you to speak with her.”

All the tiny hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end.  
Lucius.  
Lucius was here.   
How did he.. She’d seen him die on the beach. Had Severus somehow.. was it a trick!? Had Severus only pretended to kill Lucius.. She’d come back and he was gone.. Even Tom hadn’t seen it. Severus had simply pointed to the ocean. That wasn’t an answer! He could have meant – he apparated away back to bloody Europe to hide out.   
Oh god. 

Immediately, Draco had his arms around her, stroking her back and pulling her close.   
“Hermione.. Hermione.. Calm down.. You are safe. I promise.”   
She clung to Draco and shook. Any second now Lucius would be behind her.. He’d-.. he’d start to do all those.. things again.. He’d threaten her.. make her do things..he’d..

“Oh come now.. You enjoyed our time together. I recall you tempting me to another round with Dolph. Draco.. release the girl. I wish to see her again.”

Draco held her more tightly when she started to whimper.

“Merlin.. It was a bad idea to bring you in here. I’m sorry Hermione.. I..wanted to introduce you to my family. I.. I spoke with him. I didn’t think he would be foolish or selfish enough to do this.  
Look!” He tried to turn her.   
She resisted. She didn’t want to see him. If she looked at him it would just provoke him.   
She didn’t know whether Draco could beat Lucius in an impromptu duel. He certainly hadn’t tried to face Harry.. it wasn’t really his way to be confrontational.   
“Hermione.. you must turn around and look.   
It’s fine. You’ll see.. He’s a portrait. Oil and Canvas, Hermione. He won’t ever hurt you again and if you ask it of me, I’ll take him off the wall and burn him.” 

She stiffened. Then she did turn and glance over her shoulder.

Lucius Malfoy sat comfortably in a leather wingback chair before a merrily blazing fire, a brandy snifter in his hand and a large window depicting green gardens at sunset behind him.   
There was a massive gold ornate frame around the portrait. He looked smug. 

“Oh allow me my sport, Draco. She is so very lovely when she is terrified like that, don’t you agree? That wide-eyed panting and trembling is most evocative of her coital bliss.. One further pleasure which I will never again have the opportunity to sample..tragically.. due to your shameful betrayal of your own blood.”

Hermione felt white hot righteous fury well up inside her. She wished she had her magic. She wished she had a bucket of paint! 

“Yes. Burn him.” She said quietly. 

Draco sighed heavily.  
“If it’s what you want.. I’ll have the elves prepare a bonfire at once” he muttered quietly..

Lucius leapt to his feet sputtering in shocked and indignant disbelief “DRACO! You wouldn’t!! Hermione!! It was..humour.. nothing more! For Merlin’s sake – have some perspective!”

Draco hissed at him venomously “Father.. sit down and be silent. I warned you not to force my hand.”   
While Lucius continued to alternately rant at his son and cajole her, Draco snapped his fingers and told a tiny uniformed house elf to prepare one of the fires in the lower dungeons.

“Do not be so ridiculous, boy -you will do no such thing!” This voice was new and came from the other direction. It sounded..familiar however. There was obviously something in the tone.. in the cadence that all Malfoy’s shared. A certain entitlement perhaps..   
“Lucius has always been a fop and an imbecile and while I know his brother and I would enjoy watching him burn, were the opportunity at hand – unfortunately you do not have the authority to burn any Malfoy family portrait - the foundation spells themselves will prevent it. Do you believe you are the first Malfoy to bear a grudge against a relative?! Kindly cease talking such stuff and nonsense.”

Hermione turned her head and found a man who looked younger than Lucius, perhaps in his late thirties or early forties. His pale blonde hair was tied back into a short queue and he was clean shaven. The dark blue ribbon band binding his hair matched his dark blue double breasted suit. He had eyes that were more blue than grey and a wider, more angular jaw than Lucius or Draco, who seemed to represent a progression toward narrow more pointed features. This man looked somehow more masculine. Although he did possess the same gravity.. he also seemed lighter, more friendly. She had the feeling that he probably had quite a sense of humour.. and almost certainly a pleasant deep laugh. 

“Grandfather – I am the Manor’s Lord now. If I choose to burn a portrait, I will.”  
Draco managed to sound petulant and childish without whining in the slightest. But the man didn’t respond because, since she had turned, his eyes had been fixed upon her with a slightly bewildered, faintly frustrated expression.  
“Don’t I know you?” he asked.. although his tone was so uncertain it seemed almost as if he spoke to himself.  
“I’m.. almost certain... I’ve seen your face before somewhere.. So...familiar.. But impossible, obviously. You cannot be more than... - why, I doubt you are even twenty... Have you perhaps been in the Manor before?.. perhaps I have seen you walking through the halls at some point..”  
He tapered off and walked closer till he was life size in the frame, standing as if before a window looking out. “Come closer...please.. I would like to see you” he asked with a tone that almost managed not to sound imperious. 

Hermione frowned at him slightly. “Well.. it’s possible I suppose. I’ve been here..twice before. I was here only a few days ago.”  
“-years, Hermione” Draco corrected. “It has been days for you..perhaps. but for myself.. and for my grandfather Abraxas, if he saw you at all while you were here with the Dark Lord – it has been a little more than three years.”

Lucius had now also moved to the very front of his frame and stood towering slightly, looking down at them both, disconcerted.  
“Hermione.. Please come here. I ...should not have frightened you, perhaps... but I would like, very much, to see you. Forgive me...Let me look at you..please.”  
She ignored him and walked closer to the other portrait, moving out of Lucius’ view as she walked further down the long hall. The frustrated psychopath gave a short growl of irritation behind her.

She stood directly below the elder Malfoy.   
She had the strangest feeling that he was somehow familiar too. It was obviously just the extreme similarity of all the Malfoys visually, but it was rather like the feeling of having seen someone in a film or on the street but not being able to place where you had seen them. And it wasn’t quite... right either.. As if she were looking at a child star who had grown up. Perhaps there was some picture of him at Hogwarts somewhere.  
“Did you play quidditch perhaps?” she asked, trying to put her finger on it..

The man brightened. His smile was radiant. Like the sun coming out from behind clouds. “Yes! I was the Slytherin Keeper for three years. 42 through 44.” His smile faltered. “I should undoubtedly have played in my final year but I found I had quite lost my enthusiasm for the sport.. It is as well. It’s a foolish game.”

Hermione could sense that Draco, who had stepped up behind her now, was bristling in offense. He had played quidditch.. and clearly had never considered it a foolish game.

“Perhaps I’ve seen a picture of you at Hogwarts at some point” she mused aloud. “although... I thought the team gallery only went back to the late sixties..”  
“it does. 1968 is the first year” Draco chipped in, sounding a bit impatient. “We really should introduce you to the others quickly.. or we’ll be here all day, Hermione and I would like to take lunch outside by the glen and-“  
Abraxas, ignoring him entirely, looked slightly confused. “My grandson called you Hermione.. Is that your name?”   
She nodded, feeling that strange not-quite-right-ness again. The elder Malfoy was feeling the same way it seemed.

“Are you perhaps called something else? A nickname or something of that kind? I had thought sure your name was something shorter than..Hermione – Although, it is a very beautiful name, of course.. and it certainly suits you.”

She smiled, pleased at the gentle flattery.   
“..well... I had some friends once who called me Mione..”

The man tried the name out a couple of times, his lips moving in a strangely appealing way. She shifted her eyes away from him. This was an oil painting of a dead ancestor, certainly not someone she should be considering attractive. Good grief!

“It is closer.. perhaps that is what I was thinking of.. but it still does not seem quite.. right..” the blue eyes danced over her as if drinking her in. “But.. I suppose it does not matter greatly. I am very pleased that you will be joining us here. I would like to welcome you on behalf of the entire family. I hope you will be very happy..” His gaze drifted to the boy behind her and hardened pointedly.   
She felt Draco place a somewhat possessive hand on her shoulder.

“I would do anything to make Hermione happy, Grandfather. I hope she will be happy here too.. If not.. we will go wherever she can be happy.” He squeezed her shoulder gently and placed his other hand lightly on her waist, guiding her subtly away from the portrait.   
“Come on.. there are a lot of other obnoxious works of art to meet. You can come back here another day and speak if you want..” 

Draco led her through what seemed like an endless progression of blonde attractive men and the occasional woman. “Only those who are Malfoy by blood gain a portrait place here after death” he explained. “The witches you see here are all unmarried sisters and daughters. Once a Malfoy witch marries, she forfeits her place within the family.”  
Hermione thought this was quite unfair but forbore to have what would no doubt amount to an argument about it. It certainly explained why the witches she had been introduced to had been.. for the most part a little plainer than the men.. and had had in most cases expressions of wistfulness if not outright loneliness. The prettier specimens seemed more wistful, than the plainer ones. One in particular tore at Hermione’s heartstrings. A little girl of no more than five or six who informed her with a tragically adult voice that her name was Caro Angelique, after her mother, who had been Angelique Sangsauvage before her arranged marriage.   
Draco tried to politely drag Hermione away but she shook him off and continued to speak with the strange little girl who it seemed was one hundred and ninety three years old. She still spoke with the high woodwind voice of a child but seemed so sad. Apparently she and her mother had been killed because of a dispute over allegiances between the great wizarding families of France in at the end of the 1700s. She had been dying to go and swim in the lake again for a hundred and fifty years.   
When she lamented that there was so little to do as a portrait - particularly in light of her childlike appearance, Hermione sighed and felt so sorry for her. Until she complained that due to it, she couldn’t even enjoy ..physical intimacy.. with any of her more distantly related family as some of the others did. At that Hermione blushed deeply and soon thereafter allowed herself to be dragged away by Draco.

“Good god.. You mean they..” She scrunched her face, unable to hide the disgust. They were related.. fathers, sons, brothers.. there were few – very few women.. did they seriously....?!

Draco smirked widely and laughed at her.   
“Well... they’re daubs on canvas, Hermione. They are hardly in danger of breeding. I suppose it’s one of the few things they can do. They cannot read.. cannot walk far.. although.. perhaps I might commission a painting of the lake.. Perhaps they might enjoy a swim or a punt after all.. and you seemed so touched by the tragic tale of my great great great great great great cousin who cannot shag due to the ..standards.. of the others.

She sputtered and struggled not to say what she was thinking – which was something along the lines of ‘you people are absolutely sick.. how can you even think about sleeping with your own family members. Sleeping with your great grandfather is an even more repulsive idea than sleeping with your immediate family. That is all just.. just.. aargh. What is wrong with the bloody Malfoy family?!!’ Admittedly she had slept with both Father and Son.. but that hadn’t been her choice. She wouldn’t have had anything to do with Lucius if she had possibly been able to avoid it!

Draco seemed greatly amused and his buoyant mood persisted all the way through lunch, which they indeed took on a terrace overlooking a small glen. A mossy stream ran down through it and the forest on either side of the narrow valley looked both ancient and cultivated – it was somehow far too picturesque to be natural. While they sat and consumed small Italian toasted tomato crostinis, a deer came and drank at the stream.   
Hermione was hypnotised. This place was so..painfully..beautiful. ..So peaceful... How did the Malfoy’s end up being- or at least..how did Lucius end up being such a psychopath?!

The season seemed to be early Spring. The world had become green once more but the deeper warmth was not yet in the air. Draco watched her quietly as she relaxed in the sun. He still had the slight nervousness about him, but it seemed to be slightly calmed by her admiration of the lovely countryside around them.. her enjoyment in meeting his family.   
She hoped he wouldn’t spoil everything by starting in again on how much he hoped she’d stay here.  
He didn’t. Instead he took her for a walk through the forest. 

It was even more lovely than the other views she had seen so far. Birds sang and she saw numerous small animals moving about, entirely uncowed by their presence, as if they had forgotten the fear of humans. After a while, he tentatively took her hand. His skin was warm and soft and dry. It was..nice..to walk like this, she decided.   
Of course.. thinking about that only reminded her of Tom again.   
Draco, somehow more aware than she ever gave him credit for, released her hand again and took them down another track where the trees were closer and climbing vines festooned and draped between them. As they walked he brought up the issue of current events, informing her of some of the changes in the wizarding world since last she’d heard. 

Apparently a man called Barker Rowan was now Minister of Magic and was doing a passable job of maintaining the British Wizarding world in a position where its allies and antagonists overseas did not collectively view it as an unstable liability.   
The damage of the last war was being rebuilt and although there had been no overt pursuit of former Death Eaters for their crimes, there was also no continuation of meetings and activity by those who had previously served the Dark Lord. They, just like everyone else, seemed to prefer to move on with their lives without making waves.   
She wasn’t sure what she thought of hundreds of murderers getting off scot free, but before she could really work up an opinion to venture on it, Draco had steered the topic to the rebuilding of Hogwarts. Hermione found herself interested and was easily led to discuss the changes that were being made to the building. Skillfully, Draco guided their conversation through the many charities and organisations that had sprung up to care for the families of those hurt by the war, and the lasting beneficial changes in the policies of the current administration toward Muggleborns and halfbloods. It seemed that these were to be contacted at a much younger age and introduced to the wizarding world gradually by means of summer camps. As they talked, she forgot about the darker matters that had been weighing on her mind and eventually, when they were enmired in an amicable debate on the parents of muggleborns’ rights, Draco gently took her hand again and this time, her mind didn’t flow immediately to Tom. This time it stayed on the blonde boy who, she found, she really did enjoy being with. 

When they reached a grassy clearing in the forest and he pulled out a miniaturised blanket and restored it to full size, spreading it over the grass and gesturing for her to make herself comfortable, she felt actually quite happy. It was..wrong to feel happy.. and the guilt for her happiness was hot on her heels..but nevertheless she couldn’t help a certain peaceful tentative hope that ..even if things were not how they should be – they were a lot better than they might be.   
She sat down and Draco joined her and after a while they both lay back and watched the clouds. 

it was..strange. To feel both sad and happy at the same time was strange. 

This place wasn’t normal.. obviously being here wasn’t normal.. but to watch the clouds drift by overhead – to hear the wind rustle through the trees gently.. to feel the warm woolly cushion of the blanket over the long grass.. It all felt somehow so much more normal than Tom’s strange extreme world. 

Draco captured her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a light kiss to each of her fingertips in turn and releasing her again.   
She sighed softly.

It really could be a lot worse.


	70. Chapter 70

“Get up. Now.”

Hermione growled under her breath and turned over, putting the pillow over her head. It felt like she had only been sleeping for a few minutes.   
“What time is it” she griped into the mattress.

“Five fifteen. Start moving. I do not want to have to tell you again. Move now or forgo a shower!” 

She whined in frustration. “This is your fault for keeping me up half the night. If you keep waking me up like this every morning I’m going to start sleeping in my room.”

A stinging hex propelled her up with a yelp. She glared in the general direction of the bathroom door. There was the sound of the shower being turned on.

“If you hurry, you may shower with me..” he called, an audible smirk in his voice.

She grumbled under her breath as she dragged herself to a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Bloody stupid morning person.. hex me because you insist on stupid, stupid, morning exercise before breakfast. What do I care if you want to risk random parrot attacks and run for no good reason, not to mention waste water by having two morning showers.. git.. why do I even have to know about this.. can’t you just go and then come back and wake me up after you shower.. this is just ridiculous.. I don’t know why-“

“I take it you are not coming?!” the voice called tauntingly

She stood and stomped toward the bathroom, eyes narrowed in full strop.   
Irritatingly, as so often, - when she had entered the room and was actually face to face with the breathtaking creature turning and glistening under the water, her foul mood just dissipated like snow in the sun. It was annoying how wretchedly easily he reduced her to drooling.   
It didn’t matter how often she got to see him.. how many times he took her.. Seeing him like that with the droplets pearling off his black hair.. the streams running down his pale body... god.. it was like pavlovs bloody dog. In about half a second she was in the shower and pressing him up against the wall, kissing him. Calling it a kiss was a misnomer – she was devouring him ravenously. He smirked against her lips through the consuming kiss and allowed the minor violent attack upon his person. That was relatively rare. Usually when she leapt on him and tried to exert any form of dominance, he would gently.. or sometimes not so gently.. take control once again and reverse their positions. 

It should be ministry controlled, the way he used his tongue! As always, he effortlessly sucked and nipped her into a mindless hungry thing, desperate to climb him like a tree. She ran her hands over his deliciously corrugated abdomen. There was this place.. right here.. on his side.. above his pelvic bones.. just ..there.. For some completely anomalous reason – it was her favourite place to touch on his entire body. It was so..velvety soft.. and concave.. and it felt somehow so good to grip there. And when she licked and sucked it he sometimes made pleasant gasp sounds and bucked..   
His lips released her and mouthed her jaw, trailing to her neck and nibbling at her earlobe teasingly. She felt his arms around her shift and the one on her upper back moved to press on her shoulder.. urge her downward  
Apparently she was not to have a climax this morning. 

She sighed inwardly even as she slid down the slippery warm body to her knees.   
It explained why he had allowed her to push him up against the wall like that, she thought cynically. And she didn’t mind this.. it was somehow satisfying in a different way to the satisfaction he gave her when he penetrated her. It was somehow.. more emotionally satisfying when he wanted her mouth. It felt sometimes as if he lost himself more.. let go more completely.. when she was bobbing at his groin, swallowing him for all she was worth.   
Most times he would hold her head and guide her gently ...she had learned with experience that it was unrelated to how well she performed - he simply enjoyed control. The way he watched her with a dark, hungry gaze as she sucked him was painfully exciting and when he got close to his climax he’d almost always close his eyes, lips parted and panting softly, tense focus in every line of his face..he usually let his head fall back against the wall as he thrust against her, his hand dragging her up and down more roughly..   
Whenever he wanted her mouth, she’d spend the whole bloody morning run frustrated and horny.   
And he knew.   
And she was almost certain that he was much brighter and more ‘chipper’ on those dratted days.   
Like today. 

He tasted of clean water..fresh.. warm.. but as she slowly teased and licked the hard shaft before her, she was able to coax a slightly bitter and salty tear from the head of his cock. She sprang upon it, licking it up thirstily. She loved the taste of that tiny initial offering. It was probably irrational but whenever she persuaded his cock to weep before she began to suck it, she felt as if it were somehow a physical demonstration of his need.. of his desire for her. She had come to appreciate the taste that, objectively seen, was not particularly pleasant. It was among her favourite flavours now.

“Hermione..” he murmured softly.. it was a gentle hint to her to stop teasing him and begin. She knew it was not through frustration at this point, merely that he liked to be outside by quarter to six and felt that she was unnecessarily wasting time. He used her name more and more now in private. She had worried about that at first.. he wasn’t supposed to know, surely. Everything he’d said in her time had not suggested that he had known her before.   
He was a brilliant actor though.. He really could sell freezers to Eskimos. It was irritating at times. Like this whole ‘morning run’ business.   
Ok.. Lucius might have said that she needed to work on her fitness.. and.. alright.. perhaps Severus had said something about it too at some point but Tom had actually tricked her into suggesting it herself and then had held her to it as a matter of principle. If she refused now she was conceding that she lacked all discipline and expected others to protect her.. to carry her.  
And that grated against her.  
She had been the one protecting him from Grindelwald, for Merlin’s sake.   
So .. she had to do it. Morning runs on the freezing cold dark quidditch pitch.   
He loved it. She was sure he viewed it as some kind of cross discipline sport – like the skiers in the winter Olympics who then pull out a rifle and shoot after trekking across frozen slopes. Mencius had appeared on two separate occasions, trying to reach her as she jogged slowly around the grassy circle and he, running at a much faster pace and frequently lapping her, had managed to hex the poor thing again both times, once from the other side of the pitch!   
She couldn’t even really complain about it because - what did she want?! Should he have allowed the parrot to possibly latch onto her and drag her back to goldilocks?!   
Bloody Goldilocks.. she thought distractedly, as she worked his length deeper, feeling her throat stretching around him.. that almost choking feeling of having Tom buried to the root in her. She was so glad he’d gotten rid of the wretched blonde curls. Dumbledore certainly wasn’t bothered enough by it to justify reminding her of that bloody German every time she looked at him. That had been what persuaded him, too! Tom was not easily coerced to do something he had not independently decided to do – but she promised him that if he didn’t get rid of the hairdo, she’d scream ‘Gellert’ next time she came. He’d threatened her and warned her not to dare, so she’d done it the very next time he took her to bed..   
He’d cursed her soundly and then he’d changed his hair back.   
It had been worth the pain, she felt.

“Touch yourself”

Her mind derailed slightly from its absent meandering line of thought. What?!   
She looked up at him, frowning slightly as she suckled on the head of his cock.

“Do you need an instruction manual?.. take your hand.. place it between your legs and bring yourself off!” His head lazed back against the white stone wall. His eyes were half lidded and examined her with amusement. They sharpened slightly when she moved to release his cock to respond.  
“I do not wish to hear debate or protest. Do as you are told. I would like to watch you come as you taste me..”

Hesitantly she obeyed. He’d never asked for this before.. He’d never..asked her to masturbate in front of him at all. The only one who had demanded that was Lucius. Now the thought of it was associated with shame and even a little fear. The ‘toy’ the Malfoy patriarch had made her use had frightened her.. and it had hurt. 

Tom’s hand slid into her wet hair and twined itself into a loose grip. “Yes.. exactly like that.. “ he purred as she started to spread the juices that had started to drip while she’d been kissing him, sliding her fingers through her folds tentatively. His hand pulled her closer again, reminding her of what she was on her knees for.   
She tried to divide her attention to please him. It was a bit more demanding. Eventually she managed to synchronize her fingers with the speed at which he dragged her up and down his cock. It was better that way. It felt as if the two things were connected.. as if in some way he was the one stroking her in tingling little circles.

“Beautiful...” he murmured, slipping the fingers of his other hand into her hair too and thrusting into her mouth just a little deeper.. moving a shade more roughly. She was so distracted with her own sensations that she actually gagged. He groaned low at her struggles and redoubled the force of his motion. 

When she felt her own climax approaching he hissed with difficulty “No.. not yet.... You..will....wait...” 

She whined around the cock in her throat and brought her other hand to his balls, stroking them lightly in impatience. Her mazed mind understood the arithmetic. She couldn’t come until he came. He needed to come now.   
Her efforts bore fruit.. He let slip what sounded like an expletive in parseltongue and shook, his head dropping forward as his eyes clenched. She felt his muscles tighten a moment before he spasmed and spilt his hot bitter seed on the back of her throat, groaning loudly and tossing his head back against the wall with a soft knock sound.   
Released from his command, she rode her fingers into her own pleasure eagerly, moaning joyfully while she sucked as if his milky release held the elixir of life itself. 

She felt his hand stroking her head weakly.   
“I will never let you go..” he whispered, leaning back against the stone, with eyes that were lazy and soft in the aftermath of euphoria.   
She loved him best when he looked this way. Soft... tousled... pleased with her.  
It never lasted long enough.

Indeed only a minute or two later, he peeled her off the thigh that she had wrapped her arms around and leaned her face against like a child.   
“Don’t take too long. I wish to be downstairs in ten minutes” he instructed her lightly, stepping around her and leaving her on the floor of the shower on her knees, as he summoned a towel and strolled out of the bathroom to dress for his morning exercise.   
‘Git’ she growled inwardly, climbing to her feet.

A few minutes later he marched back in and turned the water off, stalking out again without bothering to say a word. She knew that the shower wouldn’t work now if she tried to turn it back on. She’d been down this road before. True.. she had finished washing and had only been turning around in circles and enjoying the warm relaxing spray – and perhaps a small part of her purpose in remaining in the shower was because he’d told her not to take too long, while the other part was because she really hated the morning run.   
She got out and wrapped herself in a towel.   
Apparently he was more impatient than usual. He dragged the towel off her, dried her magically and flicked his wand, tossing her exercise clothes in her face.

“Hurry up. Must you perform so, every single day?! I had hoped you might appreciate my generosity this morning and not force me to herd you around like a first year..”

Indignant, she pulled on the track pants she used each morning. They had been transfigured from one of the winter sweaters in her Hogwarts-orphan provided trunk. “Well if you really don’t want to put up with me then I’ll gladly stay in bed on Monday morning when you go. I don’t even see why we-“

“Hermione!” he snapped. She looked at him quickly. Ok.. he looked a bit more irritated than usual. She decided she should probably stop now before he ended up cursing her.

“fine. Sorry. Almost ready.” She offered a tense smile, trying to communicate that everything was fine. We were all quite happy. No arguments here. It was always nicer to get to breakfast without being cursed. She could heal the effects but it usually still hurt like a bastard while he held it on her.   
And that was another thing!.. whether he was doing something differently.. or whether she just hadn’t been using raw magic as much as she used to... but it was harder to heal herself than it had been only a couple of weeks ago.   
But then it couldn’t be that she was using it less. If anything, despite her best intentions not to do so, she was using it more now than she had been.   
Perhaps that was it? Perhaps it ..ran out.. or..  
That made no sense though.   
She’d thought about the problem before. She’d started to notice it last week on Thursday. It had been that night, after classes when they’d retired to his room. She’d started to try to persuade Tom again to at least consider changing his mind about stopping her from seeing Abraxas, Septimus or Sorrenson.   
Abraxas in particular seemed to be in a bad way. Getting worse. He had a slightly crazed look in his eyes all the time now and he stared at her as if he was starving and she was chocolate cake under glass.   
Tom had gotten quite angry. She’d, stupidly, gone on about it then, instead of reading his body language and leaving the topic alone as she had every other time. It had ended with him cursing her until he made her scream and beg and then storming out and leaving her on the floor in his room.  
He hadn’t used the Cruciatus. He only used that in the Knight’s room and the Room of Requirement, but he had a very broad knowledge of dark curses and the range of, pummelling, pressure, twisting and lesser known pain curses he’d used was not only as horrible as the level of pain Lucius gave her but also entirely free of residual marks or evidence

She should have just been able to concentrate and throw off the painful bruising, cramps and aching. It didn’t work out that way. 

By the time Tom got back she had healed herself enough to limp to the bed, but she was still sore as he pulled her into the position he wanted and fucked her without mercy. She was quite certain that his intent in doing so had been to further punish her for daring to continue to question his supreme edict.   
It wasn’t so much the sex.. she liked it when he was hard and rough too - she’d come in the end. But she’d been much sorer when she’d tried to sleep afterward and it taken her a long time to drop off. 

The whole getting up-and-dressed thing the next morning had been awful too. Moving hurt.   
She’d had no opportunity to sneak off by herself again to try to heal herself either since on Fridays they had Dada and Transfiguration together and then were both free for the rest of the day. 

He’d been satisfied, watching her difficulty walking, sitting and standing. He made a point of partnering with her in DADA and forcing her to strain to dodge his curses.  
She’d found it a lot harder to duel him than it had been only a week before. 

Her three.. no four most avid fans had also been quite attentive to her struggles unfortunately and this had culminated in yet another attempt by Alex Potter to “rescue” her from the Slytherin’s who were obviously blackmailing and abusing her.   
Said Slytherins then had a fight after class that had nearly turned into an all out three on one duel (well.. three on two. If they’d raised their wand against Tom, she’d have stood with him.)

In transfiguration, Dumbledore had looked at her with a very troubled, sorrowful expression and had, before she left, reminded her that his door was always open.  
Which was a blatant lie, obviously – his door was perpetually closed and warded tighter than Gringotts. But she understood the implication.

And then when she’d finally had some time to heal herself when Tom went out to do his late patrol, she’d found it quite hard to summon enough magic to heal herself. It had taken a while.  
She was beginning to wonder whether there was something wrong with her. She couldn’t think of anything she’d done that could justify becoming magically weaker. And really... it wasn’t as if she could go to the infirmary and say – Hi.. I’m a conduit.. I’ve noticed my ability to threaten the natural world has dropped off a bit – do you known whether there are any illnesses or problems specific to my ..er.. condition?!   
Tom had been quite clear. Every single instance of a conduit being detected by the wizarding world had ended in said witch or wizard being killed ‘for the greater good’. 

And there was a supreme proponent of the greater good right in her face here all the time! At the moment he was just making annoying little double sided comments implying she should do the right thing but if he knew she was potentially all-powerful – even if she technically wasn’t right now somehow – he’d stop trying to persuade her to go to Grindelwald and start thinking of her as the primary threat and Grindelwald the secondary.   
He’d called her back into his office and asked once or twice whether she’d heard any more from Grindelwald. She’d answered honestly that she hadn’t and hoped he’d found something else to spend his time on.   
She was sure Dumbledore probably knew she spent her nights with Tom.. He’d probably even watched them on the quidditch pitch running. But he hadn’t said anything since about the wisdom (or lack thereof) in ‘dating’ Tom, so she tried her best to put him out of her mind. That was the last thing she wanted - the spectre of Dumbledore leaning over her shoulder when she was in bed with Tom.

 

“Pick your feet up” he panted smugly as he ran past her puffing, struggling form. She scowled after the gorgeous utter bastard as he receded into the distance in the dim morning light. She wasn’t made for running like this. She was more designed for sitting in a room with a lot of books and...  
Well.. ok... admittedly she was still one of the best students but she wasn’t really particularly enthused about sitting for hours on end reading anymore either.   
So.. what was she really made for now then?   
The realisation wasn’t particularly good for her self-image that the thing she seemed to feel most enthusiastic about doing these days was leaping upon Tom whenever she could.   
Really. She’d been insatiable this week. It was getting ridiculous.   
And it seemed like he was only too willing to match her appetite. She wondered if she wasn’t influencing him to do so subconsciously.

When Lucius had said a long time ago that she’d changed and was now better suited for working in his department than Severus’ – she had been insulted and had disagreed fundamentally. But now.. She was beginning to worry about herself. It seemed like she was walking around in heat all the time.

Worse.. She’d thought that really – the only one she wanted was Tom.. When she’d been with Abraxas, Septimus and Sorrenson she truly had only wished she could be alone with Tom more.. But now.. when she was alone with him.. she found herself thinking about them quite often.. 

She’d caught herself daydreaming about Abraxas in languages. He sat on the other side of the room now – Tom had insisted that none of the three were to sit any closer than two seats apart – but he looked over at her all the time. If Tom wasn’t there at the door after class to collect her and take her to potions, then Abraxas would immediately appear beside her and start trying to persuade her to run away with him and ditch potions. She always refused. He knew he couldn’t touch her.   
Literally.   
He couldn’t touch her.   
One of the first things Tom had done in the wake of his midnight realisation that he had no intention of sharing her was to cast a nasty little fidelity spell on her. Anyone who touched her with amorous intent got a painful sting and it got worse the longer they kept hold of her. He’d placed it before he’d even informed Abraxas that he was no longer courting her.

Abraxas had been the first of the three to work it out as he’d been the first to try to drag her into an alcove for a secret kiss. He was also the most persistent. 

Septimus had stopped trying when he’d been stung on the finger for touching her hand in class.. Sorrenson had required four stings to give up on trying to touch her.. 26 stings and counting and Abraxas would still touch her if she gave him half a chance.   
It had been almost three weeks and he really wasn’t doing so good.   
Well.. none of them were, really.   
Septimus was quite withdrawn. Amalthea looked exhausted and no longer glowing with joy, so Hermione presumed he’d been trying to slake his desire by shagging her to death. 

Sorry didn’t have an Amalthea and it seemed that neither Septimus nor Abraxas were currently entertaining his advances..   
He’d gotten into fights with other students several times. He spent a lot of time in detention now. 

Abraxas didn’t shag and he didn’t fight. He just mooned around looking miserable and staring at her.   
She kept thinking about Lucius. ..and to a lesser extent about Draco.   
Lucius hadn’t been content with the possibility of seeing her when he was allowed by Tom.. he’d been irrational.. unreasonable.. he’d needed to possess her.. Malfoys always get what they want and so on.   
Draco had been cleverer about it but he too had consistently chosen whatever path would allow him to be around her for the maximum length of time. 

Abraxas would not just..cope with this and find another outlet. 

She was certain that while he was staring and pining unhappily, that sharp little mind was searching for a way to get what he wanted.   
The real danger was that... as with his descendents – when he decided upon his plan and chose to act, it was likely that no one would even see it coming. 

She almost tripped over Mencius.

With a little jump that left her stumbling she managed to avoid stepping on the dark red and blue shadow huddled on the grass. How had Tom missed it?! Had the little bird only appeared after he’d run past?   
She scuffed to a halt and turned back. 

Mencius walked forward gingerly, clinking very faintly. It seemed to be limping. This explained itself when it released whatever it was holding in one claw and hopped back.   
A red flash of light spooked him suddenly, narrowly missing him and he beat its wings fluttering clumsily into the air to vanish in a flash of white light. 

She looked down to the ground immediately. She could hear fast beating across the grass. Tom was obviously running over.   
Crouching down she could make out that the object was an ornate blue bottle which looked very familiar. Did the man have a collection of them for sending pensieve memories or something? 

She reached out to grab it and caught a stinging hex on the back of her hand.

“Stupid –“ the rest of his statement was a hiss. She was glad she couldn’t tell what he’d called her. “Are you mad?! Have you lost the sense you were born with?!” He cast a faintly yellow spell on it and the object glowed red. Tom growled in righteous anger. “Exactly.. It’s a damn portkey! Don’t touch things that strange birds bring you Maia. Must I watch you every second?!”

She stood up feeling stupid. She really should have thought of that. Tom levitated the bottle cautiously and she didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that the run for this morning was over. 

 

 

He generously allowed her to accompany him to the room of requirement, although it was clear that it was against his better judgement and that he had been considering refusing.   
She tried to keep quiet and not direct his attention toward herself too much. 

They had to wait a while for the two students they ran into in the otherwise empty corridors to reach the end and turn down toward the stairs before they themselves could pace and open the room of requirement. 

Within, Tom’s viewing room awaited. The comfortable and laid back room in deep blue and black tones evoked an appreciative glint in Tom’s eye   
“I will watch first and you will wait. I may or may not allow you to watch afterward” he informed her. She protested at once.   
“No WAY! Don’t be so ..so..”  
“Cautious?” he enquired with a hard set to his lips. “Protective? Considerate? I do not need to allow you to see it at all. You will sit down and you will not disturb me while I determine whether it is safe for you to sample this memory. Do you understand?!”

“mean was the word I was looking for.” She muttered sulkily. “I want to watch it with you. You’ll watch it and then you’ll make up something about how it’s too dangerous for me to view it. I want to watch it now. It is to me after all. It is MY message.”

“It wasn’t labelled” he said shortly. “and you have already proven your irresponsibility once this morning. You could be chained to the wizard’s bedpost by now if it were not for me.   
...Yet again.”

“That’s your fault TOO” she snapped back, trying not to whine and knowing she was failing. “I don’t want to go for a morning run. I hate mornings and I hate running. The two are worse when you combine them. You want to go for a morning run and I think you only want me to go in the hopes that Mencius will turn up and you can try to kill him.”

“You know that it bothers me that you refer to Grindelwald’s buzzard by name. Do you do it intentionally to provoke me, I wonder..” He narrowed his eyes at her speculatively.   
“I forbid you to have affection for that creature! When you realised it was there, you stood and stared at it. You did not so much as draw your wand.   
Have you any idea how much you infuriate me?!”   
Tom ran a hand through his hair in a way that should have conveyed exasperation but instead only made her lick her lips in sudden incongruently flaring want.  
He sighed expansively “I have no time for that either unfortunately. I want to watch this memory now, quickly, so that we can return to my room and ready ourselves for breakfast and classes.   
..Do stop being a pest now, Hermione.” He turned on a weary entreating half smile.

“I want to watch it with you” she insisted in her calmest voice.   
“We’ll both watch it and then we’ll go and shower and get ready. I promise I’ll be really quick in the shower and getting dressed if you let me watch it.”   
She tried her best entreating half smile. 

He snorted softly in resignation. “You really are irritating, you know. Sometimes I ask myself why I tolerate this much inconvenience for you”

At that she smiled and moved close, wrapping her arms around him.   
“It’s because I love you and you like it” she told him matter of factly. “And also because the sex is really very good.”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose  
“Perhaps.”

He unscrewed the tiny bottle magically and levitated it over the viewing pan, tipping the silvery snot onto the mother of pearl surface that seemed somehow far deeper than the few inches the outside of the pan displayed.   
Frowning mildly he took her hand in his own and placed them into the liquid.   
Hermione felt the disorientating tumbling feeling catch her and pull her down into a world that was populating itself around her in smoky lines and wavy dreamlike contours.

When it cleared they were in a somewhat oppressive sitting room. The tall windows in the background were covered by thick black curtains that fell in shadowy folds and billows.   
A large fire crackled in the grate to their left. They stood on a plush oriental rug in deep purples, burgundies and blacks. 

Before them, Grindelwald lounged in an overstuffed armchair. The rest of the suite of furniture was unoccupied. It was black.. some kind of velour she thought. It had a blood red pattern on it in the shape of complex interweaving circles. They wavered slightly when the eye landed on them in a manner that had to be magically enhanced. It was a very disorientating feeling, much like being intoxicated.   
Grindelwald himself was wearing a dark purple set of robes that faded into black, the cloak he had draped across his shoulders was black with a dark violent red lining.   
His shining blond curls seemed to almost glow in the firelight, cascading down to his shoulders in perfectly coiffed disarray. 

He matched his environment and he, along with everything here, felt dark and reminiscent of blood and curses and threat. 

He appeared to be staring right at them and his pale blue ice-chip eyes were hard.

“I have waited long enough, Maia..” he said in a low thickly accented growl.   
“It seems you are not so persuasive. I have heard nothing from your Master. A rude, arrogant little boy...  
She felt Tom bristle at her side and his hand holding hers tightened painfully.

“Yes.. I hear he thinks himself a Lord... A little dirty blooded thing without family.. without a name. Pitiful whelp. I even know the name he likes to hear others call him...   
I know many names - I know the names.. the families of each of his little schoolfriends and where they may be found, though I doubt one such as he would have much care for the pain of others.   
You though.. You do not like to see others suffer.” The wizard gave a wan smile.   
At her side Tom looked ready to kill.

“I will..help.. you to find the grounds to be more persuasive.. or more inventive.. with your little halfblood master.”  
Tom tensed again and she could almost taste his desperate desire to curse the man who was no more than a memory before them.

Grindelwald snapped his fingers and the door that they had not noticed in the wall beyond the fireplace opened. 

A tall broad man dressed in sturdy brown battle robes strode in, leading behind him..children. Pretty children, actually. Each one was adorable. The first, a little girl with long straight blonde hair and enormous blue eyes. The next a brunette with lovely ribboned braids. The third was a little boy with sandy blonde hair and a cheeky face.   
Ten children were led into the room in a line. The oldest among them couldn’t have even been eight.   
A second brown robed man with a face like a pit bull followed them in and closed the door quietly.

“I think you already know what I am going to tell you, Maia. You did not seem stupid when I met you. Frightened perhaps.. overwhelmed.. but not stupid.   
Whether these wonderful little children will live is in your hands. Know that for each day you continue to try my patience there will be one less sweet little child at my table.” 

Hermione, who had already realised what he was going to do, was shaking. She looked at Tom desperately. “He can’t! We.. can’t let him just..-“  
“Shh.” He whispered. “This has already happened. You cannot change it. I cannot save the child, as much as you might wish me to.”

Grindelwald rose from his chair and walked around it to stand looking at the long row of children thoughtfully. After a while he pointed to a tiny little girl with a pointed elflike face and wavy black hair.   
She was perhaps five and wore an adorable little marigold yellow satin dress, like a little princess. She was sucking her thumb and looking overawed by everything around her. 

“That one.. I think.. will do for today” he indicated to his men, waving them off again. They took the other children back out of the room, closing the door after them.   
After they had left, Grindelwald walked over to the timid little girl slowly and gently picked her up, sitting her on his hip and holding her with one arm as he carried her back to his chair.   
When he was seated with the little girl on his lap he sighed and took a long look at her. 

“She is a pretty little one, isn’t she?!   
It is a waste.. an unfortunate waste that you are forcing me to these lengths, Maia. No doubt she could have a wonderful life, if not for you. She would go to school.. grow up.. become a beauty..all the boys would look and wink and one would catch her eye.. She would court.. and marry and perhaps someday...”

“- but she will not.. Because you refuse to come to me.”

Hermione wanted to find reasons why this relation of cause and effect was wrong – but she could find none. If she had gone to Grindelwald last week.. or three weeks ago... or five.. then this little girl would be somewhere else right now, probably already in bed sleeping. 

“Come to me Maia and I will find ways to dispel the mark he has placed upon you. I have already men working upon the problem. “

This information seemed to upset Tom and he growled under his breath “If I think for one minute that you are entertaining the idea of actually going to him – I promise you Hermione, no matter what he is threatening to do to that little girl – what I shall do will be worse. Do not test me!  
She believed him. She had no doubt that he’d freely take a leaf from Grindelwald’s book and start killing innocent people by the truckload just to force her hand.

Grindelwald pulled the little girls thumb from her mouth and looked at her again sadly.  
“Mach die augen zu, Kindlein” he murmured softly.   
The little girl looked unsure of him but closed her big blue eyes. 

He had his wand in his hand. She hadn’t noticed him draw it. There was a green flash and the little girl fell down lip on his lap limply. 

Hermione felt her knees wobble. Her stomach revolved at the ease with which the man had just murdered a child.   
She would have crumpled down to the rug had Tom not gripped her upper arm tightly, holding her in place.   
“This is why I did not wish to bring you with me for the first viewing, Hermione. I strongly suspected he would attempt something along these lines...  
..and yes.. I would have prevented you watching this. I am sure you would have slept better at night. But you always know better, it seems.

She looked at him with a trembling bottom lip. It was her fault this little girl had just been killed and now Tom was angry with her again too.

Seeing her face hovering close to bursting into tears he frowned and pulled her into his arms. She went more than willingly, clinging to him and breathing in little gaspy suffocating bursts, trying to control her emotions. Tom hated it when she cried. 

“Es tut mir leid, mein Kind” Grindelwald said and gathered the little girl up, cuddling her for a moment before rising and laying her gently down upon the sofa.   
She looked like she was sleeping.   
Hermione, her head resting on tom’s shoulder, couldn’t take her eyes off her. She was so sweet. Her dress shimmered in the light from the fire and her formerly worried little face was peaceful now.

“Do not think that that was pleasant for me, Maia” Grindelwald said quietly. “But there is nothing that I will not do to bring you to me. ...nothing!   
\- You will see another innocent little child die for your foolish stubbornness each day. I will have Mencius bring you the memories, to be certain that you can watch what you are causing to happen. I shall use a different curse each day that you make me wait. I warn you the next child will not be as lucky as poor little Ameline. I will not use the killing curse tomorrow night..

The man seemed to pause to allow this to sink in, his eyes narrowing on the space where they happened to be standing. 

“If you have not come to me when there are no more little children left.. I will march on Britain.   
I will start at Hogwarts but I will not finish there. Tens of thousands will suffer because of your weakness.   
You will be mine whether you wish it or not, irrespective what the muggle tainted boy who would be a wizarding Lord might do to try to prevent it.” 

“My battle forces are massing already, Maia – I have set them to prepare since for some reason I have the feeling your master will force you to be heartless and ignore the children’s suffering.   
But that is no matter. I know of others who are not as easily swayed to ignore children’s screams.” He smiled cruelly and flicked a hand at them as if dismissing them. 

The memory started to dissolve immediately and Hermione found herself standing, slightly dizzily on the ground in the room of requirement.

She looked up at Tom in horror. “He’s going to..kill.. children.. Ten of them... He’s going to come here. Tom we have to stop this.. we have to do something – he never came to Britain! It’s going to change history! We can’t let this happen! And the children!! We have to..”  
Tom looked white with fury, ...but she had the feeling that they were upset about different things.   
This was only confirmed when he raised the wand that was suddenly in his hand to her head and muttered “obliviate.”   
She only barely knocked it aside in time. The spell splashed harmlessly against the wall.   
He growled at her and moved to try again. 

“NO!!Don’t!!Please!!” she begged quickly, holding his wand arm. “I’m calm! I won’t tell! You don’t need to.. I promise! Please!!”

Dark blue eyes flickered angrily and he twisted his wrist to aim at her again.   
She pulled all her frayed focus together and tried to divert enough raw magic to put up a shield to deflect the spell.   
She only barely managed it, and her shield was a wavering thing that crashed down on the impact of the obliviate. There was definitely something wrong.

“Wandless magic..” Tom said thoughtfully and, to her surprise, moved to lower his wand, pointing it away.   
“Have you used it before?” he asked, as if considering something that, at least for the moment, constituted a stay of his hand.

“Only when I’ve been in a panic” she lied. “Please Tom. You don’t need to do it. I’ll do what you want. You know I do what you command me to do. It’s part of the binding in the mark. I haven’t tried to seek out any of the others, have I?!

This was the wrong example to pick, obviously. The handsome face tightened and took on even crueller lines.   
“And you shall not. I thank you for reminding me of your sworn duty to obey. Do not try to evade the spell this time!” he commanded blithely.  
She grimaced, dismayed. “why?! You don’t have to.. Why, Tom?!”

The obliviate struck her half a second later. He did not hesitate. It had seemed he was merely thinking about the question. Before her solid grasp on the morning’s events wavered.. before the room around them changed.. she heard him mutter “Because it is the only mercy I can offer....I do not wish to see you in pain. I ache each time I must punish you.”

 

 

She blinked. 

“I said – do you not want to take a shower?! It is almost time for breakfast and you have been wandering about in your sweaty clothes wasting time now for at least ten minutes.   
You will make us late!”

She turned to Tom. He was already half dressed, standing in front of the mirror buttoning his shirt.  
A surreal sense of unreality swam over her for a second.

“Have I? Oh. I’m sorry..Yes.. I’ll have a really quick shower.” she mumbled, turning away toward the bathroom.   
She had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind. It was like.. the feeling when you were about to do something but forgot what it was at the last minute.. Like walking into a room and suddenly not being sure what you came in for. Had she been doing something when she was ‘wandering about’ as Tom put it.

Oh but the water was wonderful. She laid the question aside as she washed her hair, sighing happily.   
If she hadn’t been wasting time she could have showered with Tom again. Which would have been slightly better.. but it was still lovely. 

Tom must have been in a good mood while he was showering. He’d changed the shampoo somehow. It reminded her a lot of the intoxicating herby one that Draco had used at the Manor way back..then.   
After Lucius.   
The scent had been so good she wanted to bite into him.   
She wondered how Tom had thought of it and whether he had done it for himself or for her. She hoped it was the latter.. but she’d never know. If he had and she asked then he’d only say he hadn’t anyway.

“Hurry, Hermione..” Tom said quietly from the doorway. She nodded, rinsing the last of the suds from her hair.

 

She didn’t ever take long to actually dress. They were down the corridor and walking through the tall doors of the Great Hall in minutes.

Most of the school was seated. They must have been running late this morning she realised. Tom usually preferred to eat when the Hall wasn’t so full.   
He held her hand and walked them both down to the end of the Slytherin table.   
A number of faces watched their progress like vultures, while for others, this event had become uninteresting through daily repetition. 

As always, Abraxas stood as they approached. He only sat after she had seated herself beside Tom for breakfast and then he would invariably spend the entire span of breakfast staring at her..drinking her in with his eyes. Tom ignored it and, although it bothered her a little, she had learned to put it out of her mind too.   
She pulled a slice of toast with melted butter and drizzled some honey over it. 

“Tom..”   
Septimus. These days he no longer sat at her left side. That place was occupied by the ever oblivious Clemens.   
Septimus sat next to Abraxas on the opposite side of the table, Sorrenson was on his other side. The latter two didn’t spend all of breakfast staring at her. Tom had reprimanded Abraxas many times for doing so, but it seemed to have little effect. The blond simply could not help himself.  
“I would speak with you after breakfast, if I might. It is a matter of...some..importance.”

She watched as Tom looked consideringly at the sable haired aristocrat who was only marginally less polished these days.   
She had decided that it was something around his eyes. A certain tightness. He looked more like Professor Snape had looked in his youth. There was a certain..bitterness..and restraint which had not been there before.

“Very well, Septimus. I take it you wish to speak in the dungeons..”   
The boy nodded seriously.

She stretched and rolled her shoulders slightly, trying to wake up. Her head still felt groggy. Perhaps she had overdone it this morning somehow. Or she was getting a cold.   
Tom reached out absently and massaged her shoulder with one hand.   
She leaned into it, smiling. He was so..skilled.. in everything imaginable. She wondered whether he had actually made the effort to learn the art of massage at some point. He unwound her knots with so little effort.   
She half turned on the bench to allow him to reach the other side. Which he did, quite automatically, using both hands in a way that was sinfully relaxing.   
He released her and pushed her away lightly when she was on the verge of purring her satisfaction out loud.

When she turned back to the table, three pairs of eyes were watching with expressions of pained need. 

But worse.. Behind them, scattered throughout the hall a number of others were watching with similar avid, if marginally less tortured interest.  
No massages at the table, she made the mental note to herself.

Tom smirked at her.   
“I think perhaps it might be best if I did not leave you alone this morning to speak with Septimus. You will accompany us, Maia.” His eyes softened slightly for a moment and he reached out to brush the backs of his curled fingers down her cheek. “Hurry and finish your breakfast. I do not wish you to be hungry in class.”

 

 

“This is becoming dangerous.”

Tom looked back at the Prince heir with a disinterested, mildly irritated mien.   
“It was always dangerous. Is that all?”

“No, of course it isn’t all. Have you seen Abraxas?! He is very nearly deranged! Sorrenson is growing less stable also. I...can not speak of myself..   
I have been testing them both. Their magical potency is increasing. And while that should be wonderful news, after all what wizard does not wish to become more powerful – They are using less of their magic – it is accumulating.   
Moreover - they are both quite fixated upon her! Abraxas will certainly act soon. I cannot imagine that he will endure much more.   
...And that is where we come to the next minor difficulty, my Lord.” 

Septimus hesitated and wet his lips nervously.   
“If ever you are tempted to doubt my loyalty, you need think only of this moment.   
You will never know how diabolically tempted I have been not to reveal to you what I have observed over the last seventeen days.”  
Tom looked slightly perturbed now, his gaze sharpening upon Septimus. 

“Your magical potency is decreasing, my Lord.”

Tom snarled and his wand was already in his hand

“I have been measuring it surreptitiously for... well.. almost from the beginning of our second year. It was among my reasons for agreeing to join you.. to...serve.. you.”

Septimus was pinned to the wall with a low thud that knocked some of the wind out of him.

“You have been...testing.. me.. for four years..Septimus?! As if I were some kind of ..experiment?!” Hermione worried for a moment that Tom was really going to hurt him.   
“Crucio!”  
Of course he was really going to hurt him, she reminded herself dully. Tom was not naturally disinclined to hold back on physically disciplining others for things that displeased him.   
In this instance he held the curse on Septimus for only ten seconds before switching to another curse that she didn’t recognise. Whatever it did, Septimus was screaming in panic almost immediately.

“Don’t you even want to hear the rest of what he had to say” she asked quietly.

As if shaken from a disturbing reverie, Tom’s wide eyes shifted to her. They carried something of deep seated concern within them. She hoped that she was reading them wrong.   
Septimus had apparently just placed Tom before the perceived choice between magical strength and possessing her. 

He dispelled the curse on the struggling, panicking boy and they waited for a couple of minutes while Septimus’ eyes gradually lost the bright terror that had filled them.

“Continue!” Tom demanded with a thumbscrew undertone.

“I’m.. that is.. “ Septimus tried to scrape together the aplomb with which he usually conversed and could not.   
“You have always been powerful. Very Powerful. My Lord. When.. when She came.. you were much more powerful. Vastly so. It was..frightening.   
And.. it seemed to increase. With time.   
...For the last ten days it has been decreasing. Your loss has been slower than the other’s gain but your magical potency is decreasing steadily.”  
Tom looked at her accusingly. She blanched. She hadn’t been doing anything!!

“There is more.”

Septimus sounded grim. Tom swallowed and steeled himself. Whatever this ‘more’ was, it was obviously worse than the bad news that came before.

“Her magical reserves are decreasing much faster than your own. She was..” He paused and swallowed “She was, at the last measurement before all of.. this, almost as powerful as yourself, my Lord.   
...Now she is barely half as potent. She is weaker than Clemens, my Lord.”

Tom’s jaw dropped. He immediately cast a spell upon himself and then upon her. There was no visible reaction that she could see but he apparently derived information from his efforts even so. He looked horrified.  
“That is... impossible. WHY?! What has happened?! Why is it affecting us both in this manner?!..   
if she were somehow..absorbing my... but.. Her levels are..  
Septimus – What are your thoughts on the cause of all of this?! You have watched the changes.. what is at root?! Clearly.. it is something to do with her. All of this began with her.”

Not waiting for the answer he turned to her with eyes wavering between beseeching and threatening.  
“Maia – if there is something further that you have not been telling me – Now is the time!!”

She shook her head. She hadn’t omitted anything other than the fact that she was a conduit. This was all news to her too. 

However.. it did add new information to something that had been troubling her too.   
She had known that she was growing weaker.. but Tom too?! Why?! If the others were becoming stronger.. – but then Septimus had also said that they were not using their magic much. Perhaps that could account for..at least some of their increase.  
But what about the rest?! Why were they getting stronger just from not being.....with.........her... Oh.

She could feel the shape of the solution in her mind.

Why were conduits only capable of using their ability at the onset of sexual maturity?! Why did they draw others to them like bees to a flower?!   
It wasn’t just an adaptation to ensure that those around them were less likely to want to kill them. 

Obviously it couldn’t be. 

If she considered the amount of argument, violence and strife that her universally attractive state had caused.. the amount of danger it had brought her personally – it was a pretty lousy adaptation, really.

So what if that wasn’t the purpose of it..   
What if she was somehow drawing others to her because in some way she needed them.   
She needed to go away and think about this. 

From the look on Tom’s face, he was thinking the same thing.

“We’re going to be late for DADA if we don’t get moving now” she mumbled, avoiding his eyes. He nodded, equally distracted.

“No.. wait! My Lord. I - there’s more.. I wasn’t quite finished.”

Tom looked almost queasy.   
“Still more, Septimus? What else could there possibly be?!”

The other boy hesitated as if trying to find the right words.

“The others... That is – other boys, not merely in Gryffindor – all of the houses are affected.. They are becoming more dangerous.” 

“Benjamin heard several Ravenclaws speaking on the sixth floor in an empty corridor. He would have turned the corner and disturbed them if he had not heard her name and stopped.   
It seems that there are..a number – I do not know how many – of boys who are..interested.. in forcing an-“ he swallowed. “an – encounter – with Maia.   
Some of them have apparently chosen to band together recently. I imagine that this little alliance was forged by Ravenclaws in some manner..or perhaps Huffelpuffs.” 

“I do not know who is involved..” he said quickly, forestalling Tom’s next question “however Alex Potter is evidently not a member of the group.   
The Ravenclaws were discussing him.. and.. yourself.. as obstacles.   
It seems that Potter has been stabilising the other Gryffindors around him as far as possible – warning them against attempting to move in on the girl he likes.”

They mentioned....   
...Well.. it seems that possibly some of the Ravenclaws have been monitoring your magical strength too.”

The effect of this information on Tom’s demeanour was predictable. He turned and stalked away, one hand sweeping through his hair as was his habit in moments of exasperation. 

“I considered whether they might be behind your ..weakening”   
He flinched as Tom spun and glared   
“I have entertained the thought that you might have somehow been poisoned.. Thus far I have not found any evidence of it.”

No. Hermione suspected also that this wasn’t anything as simple as a potion or a spell. She was sure that Tom..and probably Septimus – even if he hadn’t said it outright yet – were thinking the same thing.   
This was something to do with her and the strange effect she was having on everyone.   
It had been more stable..if not necessarily ‘fine’.. when she had been with Abraxas, Septimus and Sorry. That much was obvious.   
All of this trouble had only started when Tom suddenly decided that he wasn’t prepared to share any longer.

“You are truly my most loyal Septimus..” Tom said quietly, although there was something very slightly sardonic to his words. She assumed she was missing the context to interpret what it was.  
“I should...perhaps...not have cursed you as harshly.”  
He released the spell and Septimus dropped to his feet on the stone, recovering his balance.

“Thank you, my Lord” he said quietly, his eyes wary and fixed on Tom.

“Well.. We will have to discuss this later” Tom stated, although it was more like a command, in as far as she interpreted it. There was zero possibility of this not being discussed later.  
“I have no intention of losing points in DADA for lateness. Come now.” He turned and marched immediately in the direction of the wall that led to the corridor.   
She trailed after, feeling more than a little uneasy.

 

She could feel Septimus eyes on her constantly as they all walked up to the DADA classroom in silence, and acknowledged to herself quietly, with only a small flicker of guilt, that she hoped Tom would be reasonable enough about this to allow her to be with the other boy again.  
And Abraxas. Poor Abraxas too.. And Sorrenson. 

For all she might have wished to only have Tom; for all that she had been certain that he was all she would ever want - and for all her blinding joy in being with him; her adoration of him - she admitted inwardly that she really hoped that things could go back to the way they were before the night that she and Tom had dealt with Slughorn.

She couldn’t help it. She missed them. 

All of them.

If she was going to be painfully honest – she missed more than just Abraxas, Septimus and Sorry.   
She missed Rodolphus... and Draco...   
And ok.. Severus – even if she most wanted to hex him into a sobbing ball of mush. She missed him even so.   
even...  
even Lucius.. She had thought about him more than once or twice over the last weeks.   
She..couldn’t quite manage to extend her wistful longing to Harry.. although.. admittedly – when she thought about the feeling she’d had when Tom had dissolved their bond.. and the look on her former best friend’s face, she did feel something - a sharp pain of something unidentifiable.

She missed them all. They were somehow all hers and she couldn’t have them.   
It was ...confusing... how much that was beginning to bother her.

 

 

56 years and a handful of months in the future she was waking gently, in a warm, dim, palacial bedchamber.  
Something was brushing her lip.  
She blinked a few times and managed to fixate on the object – which revealed itself to be a white rose. It was barely beginning to bloom, its petals still loosely furled. It felt like cool velvet.

Draco lay by her side in bed. He was smiling and withdrew the long stemmed rose, bringing it to his nose and inhaling with an air of utter contentment..   
She quirked and smiled back. She had to admit – she had been woken in more unpleasant circumstances before.   
It was...peaceful..and..comforting, to wake next to Draco in bed.   
If someone had told her in school that being in bed with the Slytherin menace could be calming.. – something to be thankful for, she’d have laughed and asked them what potion they had consumed.

“I have a gift for you” Draco said softly. 

She smiled uncertainly. She had always been a bit shy about receiving things from others, although she’d tried not to show it.   
He seemed to understand and offered her the rose, clicking his fingers when she took it. 

A little house elf popped into the room at the side of the bed. She could only see the tops of its ears.   
Draco sat up and turned toward it lithely.   
She found herself admiring the contours of his back and shoulders.   
He had slept beside her since she first woke, but had not moved to touch her, more than to occasionally take her hand or brush a kiss to her cheek. 

She was relieved. Although in principle she found him attractive.. she really wasn’t that comfortable with..   
well.. with everything. It all felt wrong and she wanted Tom and...  
..it was just hard to deal with the idea that he was gone. She wasn’t ready to deal with it. And she wasn’t ready to be...intimate.. with Draco either. 

She wasn’t saying that she wouldn’t be again. Even in her current state of emotional disarray, she wasn’t that unrealistic. She just.. wasn’t ready right now.

And..perceptive, considerate and almost heartbreakingly wonderful as he apparently was, Draco seemed to understand that instinctively. He hadn’t even tried to persuade her to more.   
He simply stayed with her.. talked for hours and hours about the most diverse and distracting things.. fed her delicacies and showed her amazing places and objects.   
He was..seemingly infinitely patient with her little moods.   
She barely started to feel overwhelmed and he had shown her to the library and left her in peace.. or brought her to a room with paints and easel and informed her that he needed to take care of some other chores.

It was getting a lot better.

He turned around, something cradled carefully in front of him. She watched, fascinated.

The soft mewl announced the little creature before she’d even seen it.

“I thought.. you might like a pet again..” he said quietly as he gently placed the little kitten on the blankets on top of her abdomen. 

It was a kneazle. A full kneazle. Tiny..but unrecognisably magical.  
Its tawny spotted fur stuck out in all directions and its ears looked far too big for its head. A long tail with a reckless puff on the end swished from side to side.   
It had enormous golden eyes and a little black nose. While she watched, it cleaned said nose with a pink tongue and looked at her consideringly.

“Oh my God Draco! Kneazles are protected!! You can’t keep them as pets – it’s cruel!!”

Draco’s face fell and he looked uncertain.  
“I’m...sorry. I thought.. You had a half kneazle at school... I thought..  
I’ll take him away if you don’t like him. I’m sure I can find a..a...kneazle sanctuary or something.. I just thought.. and there’s so much space here anyway.. I thought you’d be happy..”

Her heart literally broke at how disappointed he looked. He moved to pick up the little kitten. 

She was about to stop him and tell him how much it meant to her that he’d cared enough to realise that she might miss Crookshanks, when the kitten, which obviously had other plans than a life in a kneazle sanctuary, pre-empted her. It hissed at his approaching hand and leapt forward, making her flinch away in surprise as it landed on her shoulder and immediately delved to burrow under the blankets at her side.  
She had apparently been adopted.

She sighed, trying to look long-suffering, but really she was dancing and holding parades inside. She had a pet. A kneazle liked her.   
They were notoriously picky creatures and could be extremely dangerous when they didn’t like something, or, as was more often the case, someone.   
They made wonderful familiars when they did choose a witch or wizard, and so, at one time, many affluent individuals had purchased them and then ended up in some strife when their new ‘pet’ that was in most cases probably more intelligent than the witch or wizard in question, put them firmly into St Mungo’s and headed for the hills. The ministry had made them a protected species in the end rather than waste time and effort chasing down rogue kneazles.

“Alright. Maybe.. he can stay for a while and if he seems unhappy then he can go to a sanctuary.. “ she allowed with her sternest expression.   
Draco fought his smirk and managed to give her a serious nod back. “Of course” he agreed.  
“And you’re going to register him!!” she insisted. Her mind was already leaping ahead barely noting Draco’s eager nod and the soft devoted way he was looking down at her now.

“What shall we call him?!” she wondered slightly dreamily.

“He is an intelligent being..” Draco offered. “Perhaps he already calls himself something. We can find a feline animagus and have them ask, perhaps..”

It was at that moment that she realised that she would stay with him.

Even if everyone else was gone..   
and she would find a way to fix that eventually..she told herself  
...Even if they were all gone.. Draco was here. It was in moments like this that she felt almost that he was the best of them all.   
She believed that he loved her and she knew..without any doubt..that she could be happy here with him. It would only take time.

And they seemed to have that.. 

She reached down under the covers and drew out her little velvety ball of fur. The kneazle tolerated it all with little mewls and adorable golden eyed blinks. It curled around her hand and knawed on a finger gently.

“Thank you, Draco” she whispered, unable to drag her eyes away as the tiny little life played.

The blonde wizard smiled, leaning down and pressing a tender kiss to the corner of her lips.   
“It was my pleasure, Love” he said softly.   
“Now.. breakfast? And perhaps kippers and milk for little as-yet-nameless, here?”

She smiled and shook her head.   
“They eat Raia in their natural environment. Perhaps he might like..beef or lamb.. something of that sort. With water.. He can’t eat on the bed. I won’t assist him to develop bad habits. “

Draco nodded tolerantly and snapped his fingers for the elf, granting all her wishes yet again.


	71. Chapter 71

Hermione scowled at the fire. 

Tom was treating her as if she carried some kind of infectious plague. 

Since they had left the knights chamber he had worn, at least in classes, an absolutely bland and neutral expression, not even taking the trouble to raise his hand for questions. He was called twice nevertheless and answered absently. She had had the feeling that he had not wanted to sit next to her but had not been willing to allow her to sit next to anyone else. Outside of class he was very quiet.. He kept looking at her with a dark pensive mien as if debating the relative benefits of her continued existence.   
She was here now because Tom had ordered her to stay in his room while he went down to eat in the great hall to have dinner with the others. He had phrased it in such a way as were this somehow an enviable fate and he himself extremely generous. 

Where was this generosity when she had actually wanted to avoid the great hall, she wondered cynically.

He’d warded her in, for Pete’s sake! Some gift!

And so she sat here..   
Waiting.  
She could open her charms text or work on the exercises for languages, but that would only be a foil for the basic inescapable reality that she was waiting for him to return. Anxiously waiting for him to return and she wasn’t sure whether she hoped he’d reached the end of his internal deliberations or not.   
If she had been able to sneak away then she might have been able to go to the library and look for a charm like the one Septimus had apparently been using.   
She hadn’t had the chance to talk to him alone either..   
She rarely talked to anyone alone these days, least of all one of those three.   
If she’d been able to get the spell from Septimus, she’d feel a lot better now. There was nothing more unsettling than ignorance.

To reassure herself she had attempted to catch the flow of raw magic and use it to levitate her glass on the table. It was a simple ask. She could do it with her wand with no trouble at all..   
She hadn’t managed it for more than a second. The glass had clunked back down on the table loudly.   
This was really the main contributing influence on her black mood.   
WHY wasn’t it working.. Why was she getting weaker.. or losing this ability. Tom..-her Tom- hadn’t said anything about conduits being temporary. This Tom couldn’t help because he had no idea what was going on himself and, at this point, telling him would only make things worse.   
Well.. really.. at any point, telling him would be bad. He could order her to do things and she was magically compelled to obey due to her own promises at the marking ceremony.   
That had been a stupid thing to do! And all because she couldn’t refuse in the face of her own imposed impotence and the thought of what Tom might do to Rodolphus..and after killing Ron and everything.. after that.. the thought of having to do more and then still having to agree probably... and also, she conceded, maybe in part because of the watching silent pressure of the death eaters (who she didn’t know and didn’t care about!) Stupid stupid stupid.

The Door opened quietly. Tom. She looked around, trying to keep the hope out of her eyes.   
He looked...calculating.  
“Did you not eat?!” He sounded vaguely concerned.  
“You must eat, Hermione. Particularly in light of your current..circumstances.”

He summoned the elf and ordered her a portion of the cottage pie that he had had for dinner. She picked at it uneasily, watching him surreptitiously from the corner of her eye. He sat at the end of the sofa. He was not even making an effort not to appear to be examining her like a slide under a microscope.

After she had finished about a quarter of the plate, she laid it on the table and turned to him expectantly.   
He looked...mildly confused. Although she didn’t have the feeling that it was anything in particular she’d done.

“Come here..” he murmured.

She couldn’t help but notice that he held his wand in hand.   
Her mind flashed unwillingly to Lucius on the beach in Australia.

“Kiss me..”

Every nerve in her body twinged in sudden terror and she glanced at the door. Could she make it?   
He wouldn’t kill her in his room.. surely..   
There must be some kind of alarm or magical warding against the unforgiveables.. surely.  
.. but then there were a lot of spells that were not unforgiveable that would kill you just as surely as that spell.  
If the room wasn’t warded against.. harm in general.. and it clearly wasn’t, since he was so often able to punish her for this or that minor indiscretion... then there was nothing stopping him killing her and transfiguring her into a stone.. taking her somewhere and dropping her.   
He could leave her in the forbidden forest... in the chamber of secrets... he could take her up to the room of requirement and toss her out a door that opened over the middle of the pacific ocean. 

There were any number of ways to get rid of a transfigured corpse.

Her magic didn’t work against him since he’d marked her. She physically could not prevent him from doing whatever he wanted right now.

She couldn’t make it to the door, if killing her what he was going to do.  
...But he wouldn’t do that..

...Probably.

Maybe it would be better to tell him what she was rather than take the risk, she debated internally.

“Hermione.. Come here, I said! I wish to kiss you. What is wrong with you now?!”

She shifted anxiously and then crawled over the sofa to him, entreating him with her eyes not to do anything horrible.

He didn’t.   
He did give her a soft lingering kiss before he pulled away and hesitated for a moment as if attending to something else. His slight frown deepened..

“Undress..” he instructed quietly.

She blinked, tilting her head slightly. Ok.. that was a bit abrupt. She was used to him taking her quite insistently at times, with little foreplay, when he was impatient to be inside her.. but this was really another level of abruptness.

Apparently she wasn’t reacting with the appropriate alacrity. He flicked his wand and divestoed their clothes, shifting about to ease the removal of his own pants and shirt. She was tossed more roughly as her own uniform was yanked off her at speed.   
She was barely unclothed before he was dragging her forward with a hand on the back of her neck. He was only half hard. That was unusual.   
His hand at her neck pressed her down, obviously wanting her to suck him. 

Not.. principally opposed to this, and now almost able to banish that image of Lucius kissing Severus before the Avada freed him from the mortal coil, she applied herself avidly to moistening his length with her tongue quickly and sucking him into her mouth.   
He was as rock hard as ever after only a few seconds. She swallowed his length with practiced ease, feeling the hand alight gently on the back of her head, urging her just a little deeper. 

He made a languid sound that was half sigh, half groan. 

“You really are.. very..good at that..precious one..” he muttered. 

Her own worry flared again. He sounded regretful. As if he were considering a course of action he didn’t much like.   
She redoubled her efforts to please him, humming softly around his length and hearing his caught breath and moan.

“Stop” he ordered after a minute.

She complied at once, sucking hard as she withdrew and looked up at him, afraid.   
He saw the fear in her eyes and tilted his head, a small smile on his face. He stroked her cheek with a fingertip but, ominously, did not move to reassure her. 

“I wish to be inside you. Straddle me” 

She obeyed hurriedly, crawling up and climbing over him. He placed himself without ceremony and she slid down smoothly.   
It seemed she was, as she always seemed to be at the drop of a hat lately, soaking wet for him.   
Even her fear had not stopped the reaction. 

The warm firm body she loved so much to feel beneath her like this went almost unnoticed in her desperation to do everything she could remember him liking in the past. He lay back slightly on the sofa, watching her as she rolled and circled her hips, rising and falling slowly on him..  
His half lidded eyes and slack, smiling lips, told her that she was performing more than adequately.   
She picked up the speed somewhat, clenching her inner muscles as she lifted herself over and over again, milking him. This always wrung a groan from him.. as tonight also. He moaned low and his hands stroked up her thighs to grip her hips, assisting her to move exactly as he wished, pushing her down harder onto him, evoking little slapping sounds when their bodies met.   
She rushed to drop herself down harder upon him, feeling the painful stab against her cervix and ignoring it completely.   
He thrust up into her in counterpoint, She could feel his thigh muscles, hard and straining, against the cheeks of her ass when she came down, as he braced himself against the sofa for leverage. 

Watching him like a hawk, completely ignoring the sensations of her own body, she noticed the faraway look in his eyes change slightly. It didn’t become less distant.. it seemed merely that his focus changed. She became aware of his hand missing from her hip and located it at the side of the sofa on his wand.   
He was doing something with..

She realised that she knew what he was doing now.

He was checking their respective magical potencies.   
He probably had been over and over since the knights chamber.   
Apparently he suspected that the problem was something to do with sex. 

Her rhythm slipped as she became distracted by the idea too.

The first time she had used her ability had been in the aftermath of sex with Voldemort..that is.. with Tom.. well- but he was Voldemort to her then. He’d collapsed after giving her an amazing climax.. He’d overexerted himself with his glamour spell.. and then she’d performed fellatio for the first time ever..  
And then he’d been so magically depleted that he’d fallen unconscious. From one moment to the next.

And when she’d tried to heal him, the first thing he’d done was check some kind of spell she had at the time assumed was related to magical potency. He’d been completely restored. He’d said something to that effect to Severus, hadn’t he? Something about magic.. She couldn’t remember. It was frustrating.

So was that the point?!

When she had sex with people she was draining them magically in some way?! 

She’d been having sex with Tom practically non stop over the last few weeks. More and more. This week it had been about three or even four times a day...   
She’d usually had him one way or another in the morning before the run.. or if not then, then afterward. Sometimes both. Once or twice he’d dragged her into a passage between classes or pulled her up to his room during lunch..  
Then before dinner.. after dinner.. sometimes they’d woken up in the middle of the night again and done it again.

But if that was the answer it didn’t explain anything.   
Septimus had said that she was severely depleted.. and that he was weakening much slower than she was.   
If she was somehow draining him during sex then surely he’d be much weaker than her by now. 

But the others were getting stronger, Septimus had said.

They weren’t having sex with her anymore and they were somehow, inexplicably getting much stronger.   
All three of them.   
While she got rapidly weaker.. and Tom got slowly weaker.

She understood.

Finally that slotted into place in her mind and made sense.

Probably someone else would have worked this out if at any time in recorded history a conduit had been allowed to live for any significant length of time.  
It seemed that the list of ethivoric creatures just increased by one.   
Although she supposed.. she might not be actually consuming the energy, in the sense that dementors or succubi consumed the energy of her victims.  
What seemed to be occurring was some kind of near constant energy transfer via magical connection, she realised. 

With those who she drew too close into her ‘allure’, to borrow the vampire term, assuming it was something like that – with those individuals, it seemed she was forming some kind of magical connection - which.. probably.. was unidirectional before she had slept with the individual in question..   
They were drawing energy from her.. constantly.. passively.. at distance.   
Or.. perhaps she was giving them energy.   
Did the semantics really matter. They were increasingly desperately drawn to her, and the process cost her magical potency.

But it seemed like maybe during the act of sex, this relationship reversed polarity sharply, allowing her to draw off their magical reserves somehow. 

She expended her magical reserves making them want her and then when she had them, she drew that, and, she surmised, probably more magical energy back from them.

And this was somehow connected to her ability to use raw magic. Apparently.   
It seemed she needed a high native magical reserve before she could do it. The sudden boost to her natural level after that first time must have just pushed her

It made sense.   
Well.. it didn’t make sense. But it added up with what seemed to be happening.  
It explained why she was losing her magic rapidly – she was feeding..well.. obviously Abraxas, Septimus and Sorrenson..  
..And probably Palmer, she considered darkly.   
But more than those. What about Alex Potter?!.. what about that other Diggory fellow? Those two Slytherins Tom had introduced her to?..  
What about the ‘association’ that the Ravenclaws belonged to - which Septimus had mentioned?  
And Grindelwald.. Not to forget Grindelwald. He’d touched her..   
And of course not to forget the repugnant letch currently snoozing the next few years of his life away.

God.. How many wizards were currently leeching her magic away?! 

And Tom..  
Tom was too. That was why his magic was decreasing much slower than hers.   
He was the only one she was able to draw from right now. 

Coming to Hogwarts had been the worst idea ever.

She became faintly aware of Tom’s attention on her..   
His eyes were not focused but there was something in them that suggested to her that her moment of realisation had not gone unnoticed

He pulled her down to kiss him.. She was hesitant. His lips were hard and unforgiving. He took what he wanted.   
How come the mark was allowing this, she wondered. Wasn’t she harming him?!   
But then.. he was allowing it.. he had told her to. He-..   
..He was doing the most amazing thing with his abdominal muscles. She found herself grinding on him, despite herself.   
He smirked and pulled her hips up uncaring, dragging her off him and positioning his cock at her ass. 

She barely had time to yelp at the pain, as he forced himself into her unprepared channel, before he murmured “shhh.. no pain.. let yourself feel the pleasure...”  
As ever.. her body responded to his command. This configuration made it impossible to retain clear perspective.   
Her mind fuzzed and hummed helplessly in the grip of the binding. 

He rocked her and moved slowly, sliding in and out of her hot tight grip with closed eyes and a face twisted in a guilty kind of rapture.   
“so.. perfect.. mine.. only mine, Hermione.. Precious witch.. This will only ever be mine.. Kill them.. him.. them all..if need be.. I won’t.. ..won’t... let you go..”

She mouthed his jaw mindlessly.. nuzzled and then sucked on his neck. She felt his groans against her ear.   
Barely audible he breathed. “come.. now..” and her soft, delicious world of sensation shattered into a rich wave of ecstasy flooding her brain.. Her body spasmed and clenched around the hard hot one below.. 

Love.. love. She was whimpering her love in his ear.. Only him.. forever.. always only him.   
And he held her just as tightly. She felt him sigh against her neck, resting his head against her.  
His hand stroked her damp, sweat-slicked back gently.

“I take it you have understood what is happening too now” he said quietly next to her ear.

She hesitated and then nodded. “I think so.. Its.. when we have sex, isn’t it.”

He was quiet for a while.   
“No..  
A touch is sufficient to reverse the flow..   
It merely..increases significantly.. during any sexual act, it seems.”

She swallowed.   
Then she’d already consumed energy from Alex Potter.. Grindelwald..Slughorn even...  
But not Palmer. Thank god for that!  
Had Dumbledore ever touched her?! She couldn’t remember.   
the idea of donating her magic to him was somehow almost as annoying as giving it to Slughorn or Alex Potter.

“I didn’t know.. I’m sorry, Tom.” She whispered quickly. 

He stroked her again.  
“I know.   
I was suspicious at first that you might have... but you appeared truly surprised when Septimus informed us..   
Your fear when I returned after dinner made me wonder again whether you might not know more than you said, however.. it was actually visible on your face the moment you realised what I was doing and..why...   
...I would like to see your memories of this.. potions accident..”

She hadn’t any idea of the energy her body apparently possessed because she was up and on her feet and at her wand in under a second. Course.. there wasn’t anything she could do with it but she held it uncertainly pointed in his direction.

“No! You said you wouldn’t! No.. you’ll see too much.. you’ll see yourself.. and..everyone.. and.. NO!”

Tom glided smoothly to his feet and approached her slowly.   
“Hermione.. I must understand what exactly I am to deal with here.. I wish to know how this came about.   
This is far more than an amortentia-like attraction.. You see that too, I am sure.” 

He held his hands out as if to pacify her.. His face was too caring.. too comforting.. His eyes flicked to her wand momentarily and she caught a flicker of worry on his face. 

But he knew she couldn’t repel him with it!

Her hand trembling slightly, she turned the wand upon her own head  
“Stop!” she demanded

He stopped and the comforting look dissolved into infuriation.   
“Hermione – stop being so melodramatic. There is no need for this.. You may use a pensieve to remove the memory in question. We do not have to have a bloodbath over it!”

She snorted humourlessly. She didn’t anticipate a bloodbath and neither, she was sure, did he. 

She found a memory. The time between Voldemort’s sitting room and the mortuary on the day she first woke was sufficient.   
“Obliviate”

“NO!!” Tom cried and leapt upon her, bearing them both naked and struggling to the hard stone floor. She cracked her head on the stone painfully and oofed at his weight crushing her with the impact.

“Stupid little Slattern!” He hissed into her face, his hand at her throat, choking her.   
He had summoned his wand and had it already at her temple.   
She had achieved nothing. Pretended to obliviate a memory that had never existed in the first place.   
He would see everything. He would see the truth.. he would KNOW!..

“Legilimens” he spat, his face a rictus of fury and spite.

His penetration was like razors in her head. It hurt immediately .. it was even worse than Harry. He fumbled around at first as if unsure where to look first.

She hadn’t the slightest idea how to get him out..  
But.. the music.. the music worked on Rodolphus.. ..and Tom was still fairly new at this..maybe maybe she could choose the memories.

She concentrated.

Despair.  
The ground rushing up toward her in the dim night. Large pointed stones  
The impact stunned her.. so much pain.. wet.. warm.. tired..

 

She felt Tom’s panic in her head. He struggled in shock and nearly pulled out before he recovered. A burn of anger replaced the panic. She fumbled for something else to push forward

 

She hung from her wrists. Excruciating pain..The barbed wire cooking her flesh.. croaking her screams as Lucius looked on, delighted.

 

Toms anger flared to panic momentarily but it became apparent that it was merely the surprise of the scene. She felt not only anger from him now but also jealousy and a faint flare of lust and fascination.. It reminded her of Harry suddenly.   
Probably not best to show him any more of what Lucius did then..   
She struggled with her last energy. He was fighting against her, trying to wrest control of the direction. She felt a faint shimmer of red eyes flash through her mind.. He was looking for memories of himself.   
Straining, as if pushing a boulder uphill she managed to concentrate on her last hope..

 

The quiet stillness in the dark cell. The insular safety in her own mind.. Deep deep inside.   
Where Severus.. Lucius..where no one could find her. Peace.   
Time outside time. No time here.. no day.. no night.. No people. Just quiet.   
Sleep.. no thought.. mazed mind..and quiet.. Lying in the dark

 

At this his panic was excited to incredible levels. He thrashed in her mind, as if trying to fight his way out of a cloying swamp.  
She gasped as her awareness shifted to the outside world and to his horrified furious expression, glaring down at her.   
He had given up!! He’d pulled out! She had actually beaten him! She resolved to kiss Lucius and Severus if she ever saw them again.   
After she’d hexed them to begging screaming piles of mush of course.

She felt exhausted.  
“Don’t do that again please” she whispered up at him. 

His ire increased if anything.

“Your memories belong to me, Hermione. As you are mine, so are they. Do not resist this time.”

She felt her triumph die inside her chest.  
He seemed barely affected and the effort of repelling him had physically drained her.

“Please Tom..” she whimpered. “Please don’t .. Please... I can’t.... If you do it again I’ll..”   
She paused. What would she do.   
“You saw the memory.. I’ll do that again.. I won’t come back this time.. Please.. It won’t be resistance.. it’ll happen without my even trying”   
She wasn’t sure whether she was lying or not.  
And, it appeared from his slight wavering expression, neither was he.

He dropped his head, closing his eyes   
“Hermione... You are-..” He shook his head.   
“You are..making it difficult for me to think of valid reasons not to punish you harshly. Come.. you are being..foolish.. What difference does it make whether I know now or later?! Stop making such a terrible fuss over nothing..”

A little hope flickered.   
He was afraid she might be telling the truth. He was afraid of...breaking her...He’d told the truth.. he didn’t have any intention of losing her.. wasn’t going to kill her.   
She wrapped her arms around his neck tiredly, feeling the warm rush of happiness again.   
Tom ..cared.. in his way. 

“I love you..” she mumbled, sighing. 

“So you keep saying..” he growled before looking up at her with a frustrated expression.   
“Damn you..” He glared.   
“Which one.. Which one shall I call?! I want you again and you are too weak..”

“Abraxas” she answered without hesitation.  
It wasn’t even a matter of who she wanted.  
She wanted Sorry, she realised incongruously.  
But Abraxas was in the worst way of the three. He needed her more. 

Tom’s face tightened slightly with a hint of bitterness. “Fine. He is on his way. ...I need to patrol tonight anyway.   
Finish before I return and send him away again.”

He rose to his hands and knees and looked down at her searchingly, his eyes hard.   
“Does it bother you at all-...” he started but broke off and looked away angrily, shaking his head slightly.   
He climbed to his feet and paced away toward the couch and his clothes. 

She watched his perfect arse.. his beautifully formed thighs... back... hell.. his entirely lovely body – walking away from her. 

She was tired.   
It appeared that tired wasn’t really an option however.   
Perhaps after Abraxas, she’d have enough energy to access the raw magic and give herself a boost..

Tom was almost dressed as she sat up on the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees lightly. She looked up at him and felt the sudden pang of wistful sadness. She’d..never.. just have Tom.   
She’d never just have anyone.. Apparently she wasn’t made for monogamy. Physiologically.. magically..   
And it bothered Tom.  
A lot, it seemed.   
He had said that he didn’t intend to share her.. and now he was faced with the choice of doing so or risking the loss of his magic.

She decided she would give him all of his power back when she was..charged.. enough - or whatever it was that happened to her that made it easier to access the raw magic.. She’d heal him again..

Tom tightened his tie, still looking away from her. When he spoke, his voice sounded distant and vaguely repulsed.  
“...Shower when you are finished. I do not want to be reminded of him when I touch you.” 

Then without a backward glance he stalked to the door and let himself out, closing it perhaps a tad firmly after him. 

 

She stared at the door for a minute or so, feeling a dull ache in the vicinity of her heart.  
Not even Lucius had made her feel as cheap as she felt right now.

It didn’t take very long until there was a knock on the door. 

She sighed deeply and stared until it repeated.   
Not bothering to go for her clothes, she got to her feet to answer it. What point would there be in dressing?! She’d only be undressed again in a moment anyway.   
She did however make sure that she kept herself behind the door when she peered around the edge.

Sure enough, Abraxas stood there nervously.

Nervous was an inadequate word to describe him. She had seen some junkies in Muggle London in the subway before. He looked like that. Wide, darting eyes.. Trembling hands.. His hair was lank and looked like it hadn’t been washed.   
She hadn’t really noticed how he’d lost weight until she saw him standing there like a heroin junkie desperate for a fix.   
She felt terrible suddenly. She’d done this to him.

He was wasting away.. even as he became gorged with magic.. His mind was fraying. 

When he recognised her face peering around the door he leapt forward, throwing the door open and knocking her flying. She heard the slam of the door and was looking up, picking herself up slightly from where she’d landed.   
She didn’t get far. He was on her like a ravenous animal immediately.   
With a roar he’d pinned her arms down and was freeing himself from his robes, too impatient even to undress. 

It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t enjoyable. He simply fucked her, holding her in place to prevent her from moving.. escaping.. his face pressed against her throat, kissing, sniffing and sucking, in a way that almost reminded her of Rodolphus.   
“Maia..” he groaned against her ear. “So long.. I needed you..”

He didn’t last very long.   
She realised when he’d grunted and pressed deep into her, spilling warmly inside, that she actually felt less tired than she had.   
She probed lightly.. there was a thin stream of magic there if she felt like twisting it..   
She didn’t for the moment.   
It was clear that Abraxas was far from finished with her. He refused to allow her to move, wouldn’t release her wrists, ignoring her when she tried to reassure him that she wasn’t going anywhere. He simply stared at her in a way she was starting to find creepy.   
The second time was less violent and selfish. He seemed to realise, on some level, what he’d done. His eyes begged her for forgiveness as he hardened within her and started to move slowly again.

She felt, guiltily, that what had happened to him was essentially her fault anyway.   
Irrespective what countless rapists protested – Abraxas truly couldn’t help himself.   
And she would have slept with him anyway. It hardly mattered. 

She tugged at her wrists lightly and, with an expression of guilty terror he released one tentatively. She wrapped it around his neck and pulled him down to kiss him.   
He whimpered.. kissing her desperately, and released her other wrist, which she raised to join the first, holding him.   
“Maia.. please..” he sobbed against her lips. 

She didn’t know what he wanted.. didn’t know what to tell him. 

She murmured “Tom’s changed his mind. He won’t take me away again. It’s not good for any of us.”

Abraxas burst into tears and buried his face in her neck, his arms delving beneath her to crush her to him tightly.   
“I need you” he slurred almost incomprehensively. “It hurts.. I.. need you again..”

She kissed his ear gently.   
“It’s ok Abraxas. It’ll be ok now. I won’t go away...”   
He looked up, red eyed and tear streaked. He looked a mess. His son would be appalled, she thought.   
She had a feeling that Draco would be more understanding regarding his current condition.

“Undress.. There’s time for that..” she whispered. 

As if she’d pressed a button Abraxas shifted to full panic mode again.   
“There’s time?! What are you talking about?! How much time is there?! You’re going to make me leave!!..   
NO!!   
I won’t give you up again.. he’ll take you away from me! I won’t let him. You’re mine! You were mine first. He stole you!  
The distressed blonde seized her hands from around his neck and brought them together, holding them with one hand tightly. He’d drawn his wand and bound them together before she had time to react. He started to climb to his feet, dragging her up after him.

“WAIT!! STOP ABRAXAS!! STOP!!! YOU HAVE TO CALM DOWN!!” she screamed, starting to panic, herself.

“No.. No!.. I’ll hide you. I’ll take you home. Father will change the wards if I ask.. I’ll leave Hogwarts.. I’ll get a tutor.. You can stay with me. I’ll persuade Father to let me keep you.. He’ll be difficult at first perhaps.. but you’re impossible to hate, Maia.. He’ll let me have you in the end.. We’ll be safe from him..From Them....”

She thought she’d had just about enough of this now. The completely batpoo crazy fool was about to heft her onto his shoulder and drag her naked and bound through the corridors.

Hell no!

She reached for the little trickle and diverted it to capture control of his mind.   
It wasn’t the imperius.. It didn’t require an incantation at all. She simply knew how she wanted him to be, and he was so.   
It was mildly taxing to access the magic. At least ten times easier than it had been this time yesterday though, she realised. Much, much, easier.   
It seemed that being with Abraxas, however unsatisfying it may have been, was far more beneficial at the moment than being with Tom.

Abraxas froze in place, leaning down over her. His expression smoothed into peace that bordered on blankness.   
She shouldered her way back out from under him and got to her feet, walking across the room and retrieving her wand, unbinding her wrists with it. She then summoned his wand.

“Come here Abraxas. Lie down in front of the fire please” she instructed quietly. 

He straightened slightly stiffly. His walk toward her was somehow not quite natural. He looked puppetlike. But he lay down. She divestoed his clothing quickly.   
Naked, the full extent of his wasting was exposed. He was..weaker.. She tried to think of the last time she had seen him eat something.   
Damn it.   
This was dangerous. How many students were fading away right now even as they became daily more powerful

Oh no...   
Had anyone else made the connection?! The Ravenclaws had been monitoring Tom’s magic.. Was it too much to ask that they hadn’t been monitoring hers!?   
What if there were someone who knew what this information meant?! What if someone had access to books that Tom hadn’t ever read?! What if someone knew what she was?!

What if Dumbledore worked it out somehow?!

She had to assume that he hadn’t or else she wouldn’t be here looking down at Abraxas right now. 

She lowered herself lightly to her knees and used the wand to bind Abraxas with sticking charms in place. Then she dropped her grip on his mind cautiously.   
He started struggling the moment his eyes cleared. 

“Maia.. Maia.. Please!! ... Let me go! I don’t want to hurt you.. I promise.”

She noted the phrasing. He didn’t want to... not ‘he wouldn’t.’  
“Shhhh.. Abraxas.. calm down.. You’re fine. I’m here. Not going away. Okay?”

He didn’t calm in the slightest, but struggled harder. 

When she crawled closer and started to stroke his skin gently he finally began to calm.   
It felt.. strange.. almost like static electricity.   
It felt good, she realised.   
Apparently this was the sensation of consuming the magic of another. 

She shifted her attentions to his thighs straining, and then his groin, watching as he hardened again in seconds and stared at her with pleading eyes.   
Obligingly, she bent and licked the head of his cock. She could taste herself on him. It didn’t bother her.   
She sucked the head of his prick into her mouth and swirled her tongue around it.   
Abraxas moaned loudly and bucked up against her mouth.   
“More.. deeper... please.. please Maia.. I need you..” he begged.   
She dipped deeper, feeling strangely energised at the tiny rush of bitter precum. 

She sucked him quickly to a gasping, bucking, groaning finish, swallowing his bitter milk quickly.   
Abraxas barely sank into the pleasure for half a minute before his eyes were wide in fear again that she might leave. 

“No.. I’m not leaving yet. But Tom will be back soon.”  
His horror and dread at this was like a physical cloud around him. “No!! Don’t make me leave, Maia.. We’ll go together. We’ll go to the Manor! You must listen!”

She sighed.   
“No Abraxas. I will never leave Tom. I love him”

His distress at this was painful to watch.

“I will not leave with you. If you take me from Tom.. he will retrieve me and then he will kill you.”

This information seemed to make no impression on Abraxas at all. She tried again. 

“If you take me, and you somehow manage to keep me from him – I will die there, Abraxas. Do you understand?!”

This struck him, in contrast to the threat to his own life.   
“No! No – you’ll be safe there.. I’ll protect you, Maia!”

She shook her head.   
“I’ll die. I’ll fade away.. I can’t be taken away from Tom. I will literally die Abraxas. The same thing would happen if Grindelwald got his hands on me. 

Abraxas face turned rabid.   
“NO!! HE CAN’T HAVE YOU!! NEVER!!” 

She smiled faintly.   
In the back of her mind she wondered how Grindelwald would react to the idea that she would die without access to the wizards who were connected to her.   
Knowing him, he’d probably just scour her memory to find anyone who might have had contact to her and then kill them all.   
...she wondered for a moment.  
Something Tom had said earlier.. The thought drifted off again. She couldn’t quite remember it..  
Was it something about Grindelwald? Or killing? She had a distinctly tip of the tongue feeling.

“But...I need you..” the plaintive voice whined  
She sighed.  
“Don’t worry, Abraxas. I need you too.”

At that she crawled over him to lie on him, She rested her head on his shoulder.   
She needed to sleep with him and seeing him this broken and desperate was definitely not doing it for her.   
Drawing her resolve she reached for the thin stream of magic again. 

 

 

She didn’t hear the door close as she stood under the shower. She had no idea that Tom had returned until she turned under the shower and found him standing on the other side of the door, glowering.

“What is he still doing here?!” he snarled.

She swallowed and turned back, washing the rest of the lather from her hair.  
“You need to stop this now..” she said, as lightly as she could manage. “He’s here because he was exhausted after I.. I..

“Fucked him” Tom finished sourly.

She grimaced.   
“I was going to say.. drained him.. but.. if you insist. Yes. After I finished taking from him..  
I feel..a lot better now.”   
She closed her eyes, tilting her head under the water and stroking her fingers through her hair to get the last soapy rests out.

She heard the shower door open and close again a few moments later. The cool draft chilled her skin. Then his hands were on her. It felt as if he was examining her.. as if he were going through a thorough proof of the continuing quality of his possession.. ensuring she was unchanged. Stroking.. squeezing..fondling...   
“Hermione..” he sighed discontentedly. “Look at me..”  
She opened her eyes and took in his gorgeous naked form and the pile of clothes discarded uncaring on the floor outside the shower stall.   
Tom tended to be quite careful with his clothing, as with all his possessions.  
She let her gaze drift up his pale chest..collarbone.. his throat with slight adams apple...his chin.. the lips she adored kissing..eventually she reached his dark blue eyes..   
they were the colour of the deep ocean, she had decided a while back.   
Right now they were frustrated and unhappy.

“I do not ...want... him...any of them touching you!.. This entire situation is..unacceptable. I will find a means of counteracting this condition you apparently suffer from..”

She moved closer till they touched. He seemed to half sigh..enfolding her in his arms and relaxing somewhat, as if a physical pressure had been relieved.

“No..” she said quietly, her arms slung about his hips, her cheek resting against his shoulder.   
He stiffened.

“No?!” he questioned with a dark undertone.

“No.” she confirmed.  
“You have to stop now.. You have to let it go. This is the way it is.   
I am yours.. yes.. I will always..only ever.. be yours...   
...but if you don’t allow what you know has to happen, then you’ll not only destroy your three most loyal knights... you’ll weaken both of us.. and..we can’t afford that right now.   
\- After the things Septimus said.. and.. and we haven’t heard from Grindelwald in a while either.   
You have to find a way to accept this, Tom!”

She could feel him struggling with a lot of different thoughts.

“No! I will find a way..”

“Have you checked my magical levels, since you returned, Tom? Have you been watching your own? I bet you have!  
You must have seen the improvement! Stop being so pig headed!”

“valu keele“ he hissed furiously, his eyes spitefully narrowed. 

Her tongue burst into a flare of sharp pain. It felt as if it were flayed and dipped in salt. She yelped and struggled against his tight embrace, tears springing to her eyes, unable to speak for the horrible sensation. She blinked up at him pleadingly. If he didn’t take it off soon she was just going to have to do it herself.. this feeling was intolerable.. she couldnt’s stand it!!.

Thankfully he did relent and remove the curse a few moments later, looking down at her with a dark glower of righteous indignation.  
“You will curb your tongue, Hermione...”

She nodded, chastened. Perhaps it was slightly unwise to take.. that tone with him. He was just being so infuriatingly stubborn. 

He walked her forward slowly till her back met the wall..

“Tell me what you did with him... Did you enjoy it?   
You...desire.. him.. I have seen you watching him in the Great Hall...and in classes..   
Was it not sufficient?!! Is that why you left him on my sofa.. did you intend to have him again?!”   
His voice was soft but his eyes were chilly sapphires and his hands slid down her arms till they held her wrists tightly.   
She passively allowed him to press her hands to the shower wall, sliding them up until they were parallel with her head...  
till he was holding her against the wall oppressively, leaning against her with an expression that promised the likelihood of further curses in her immediate future.

She remained silent and steeled herself for whatever he might decide to do.   
He slid his hands down her forearms and she was unsurprised to note that she could no longer move her hands from the wall. His hands smoothed down her slick cooling skin and over her body.

“Did he touch you like this?!..” he murmured angrily. 

She shook her head mutely.   
He hadn’t. At first he had been too overwrought and later he had been restrained the entire time. She hadn’t taken any further chances, even when he had appeared restored to his former glossy appearance..   
...not even when he had started to speak more rationally...

Tom’s hands glided down, over her hips, around to her ass.   
“Did he take you..here..” he demanded in a soft hiss..

“No..” she answered this time, seriously – leaving no room for doubt.   
“No one ever has.. Only you. I promise. Only ever you.”

He leaned in and bowed his head against her own.. brushing his cheek against her and dipping lower to lick the moisture from her neck.   
“No one ever will” he muttered, sounding somewhat reassured as his hands slipped lower.. low enough to grip and lift her. She wrapped her legs about him willingly.   
“I could kill them”   
His voice was contemplative.. she wasn’t certain whether he meant that he could kill them for the irritating trouble he was going through.. or whether he really meant.. he could kill them.. and then there would be no more problem.

“Tom.. I am yours. I will always be yours.. please... You know Abraxas isn’t the one I want.. You’ve seen... I’ve already told you how he is.. ..stop going on about him and damn well fuck me!.. 

He snorted against her ear and nipped her lightly as he moved his pelvis, sliding himself against her tantalisingly. She pulled at her hands and tried to wriggle into place. 

“Why is he still here?” he whispered next to her ear. She growled in growing frustration as his hands released her arse and traced back up her body till he was caressing her breasts.   
“Tom!!..” she whined..  
He nuzzled at her neck, sucking gently on that exact place that always made her melt into a puddle of helpless need.

“please.. ..I need you..” she sighed, giving up on trying to maneuver herself into a position where she could skewer herself upon his hard length. 

“Why?” he insisted, swiping his tongue up the length of her throat, one hand sliding behind her to the small of her back and pressing her harder against him.   
She groaned and turned her face till she could capture his lips. He kissed her roughly, knocking her head back against the wall and releasing her immediately.   
“Answer the question. He is..recovered.. why is he still in my room, Hermione?!” Tom needled.

She huffed in frustration.  
“Because you need to do what the others did.. You need to join with them too!..” she growled.

He pulled away immediately, his face wore a closed, slightly shocked, expression.   
She assumed he had thought that she had kept Abraxas here for her own use later.. or perhaps tomorrow morning.   
This, it seemed was not what he had expected.

“No.” he said without hesitation, dismissive.   
“You may as well have sent him away if you imagined that I would touch him. I haven’t the slightest intention of ever allowing that kind of familiarity between myself and any of my servants.. And particularly not Abraxas.”

She wondered at that, vaguely. Why particularly not Abraxas?!   
Her mind flicked to Lucius.. Tom.. or at least.. Voldemort.. had always seemed rather dismissive of him.. he had quite a low opinion of him..   
On the other hand.. Draco... Draco, he had been quite keen on.. What was the difference?! Why was Abraxas particularly unsuitable.

“Ok then... forget it” she tried, trying to pull him back with her legs, which were slipping down his slick body. He caught her before she slipped off but did not move forward again. She noticed that his erection had flagged somewhat. Apparently the idea really did not appeal to him at all.

“Why do you believe this is necessary” he questioned curiously.

She sighed.   
“I don’t know. It just felt.. important.” She responded somewhat lamely. “I.. I think.. it increases the effect. I can’t explain.. I felt..good after Sorry was with Abraxas.. Even though I wasn’t actually.. involved.. Or.. wasn’t involved much I guess..  
I... I think.. I felt the same way when Septimus and Abraxas.. that time.. the night Sorry joined us. And I wasn’t even touching them. When we’re all together.. it feels...good.. it feels more..”

Tom looked at her thoughtfully.  
“How can this possibly be the effect of a potion?! I cannot imagine a potion that could cause this manner of peculiar bond..purely based upon a single skin contact. It’s preposterous.

She tried to drag him closer with her legs again.

“It doesn’t matter.. You don’t want to do it.. I won’t mention it again. Please.. come back now.. Don’t leave me like this..”

His lips twisted into a wry smirk, although the thoughtful expression never quite left his eyes.  
Stepping closer he pulled her tighter against him again. His cock, half hard as it was, hung lower.. it prodded against her temptingly   
She whined and tried to pull him even closer..

He reached down for his length and gripped it, rubbing his head up and down her dripping folds..   
“Impatient little witch..” he murmured, sounding pleased.   
She tugged at her arms and tried hard to be patient.

Her patience was rewarded when he pressed himself to her entrance and slid into her slowly.   
She watched, transfixed by his beauty, as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, as if basking in sunlight. His lips were slightly parted. He looked like he was caught in some private rapture as he sank himself inch by inch into her, pulling her tight against him with his hands cupping her ass. As he was pressed as deeply into her as this position allowed, he dropped his head, bowing it and remaining still for a moment. She felt him throbbing within her.. a swift tact that was no doubt synchronised with his heart beat.

When he looked up, there was something unguarded in his eyes.. Something soft and bright. He leaned in and kissed her gently, teasing her lips with the tip of his tongue, drawing her forward to chase him.   
As she strained and wriggled he drew out slowly and plunged back into her. She gasped, losing interest in the game of catching his lips, in light of the other sensations on offer. She tightened her muscles around him and rocked her hips, urging him to continue.   
He required no incentive. He was already pulling back and beginning a slow easy tempo. He knew so well exactly what she liked..  
He took his time...

 

When they walked out of the bathroom, both slow and sated, Tom glanced pensively over toward Abraxas, sleeping on the sofa, naked under the transfigured blanket she’d given him before she put him to sleep.   
It was Friday.. there was no pressing reason to force the other wizard to wake and go down to the Slytherin dorms but she could tell that Tom was considering doing so anyway

“Leave him to sleep” she mumbled, already moving toward the bed. “He’s not doing any harm there. Come to bed, Tom..”

The deep blue gaze sharpened fiercely for a moment as the wizard, who would one day freely accept Abraxas murderer into his fold, debated.

She sighed and slipped under the covers naked.   
The bed was warm on her side.. She felt across and found the side that he preferred to sleep on cooler, as he liked it.   
He’d placed a warming charm for her before he came into the bathroom? After he’d seen Abraxas was still here?!   
Her heart clenched for a moment.   
She had no doubt that Tom would never.. ever.. say that he loved her. The closest he would ever come would be to assert that she was his.. alone.. forever..  
But just occasionally.. when he would do something small and unnecessary like this, she felt..cared for. It felt like almost the same thing.

The candles extinguished themselves as Tom moved to get into the bed. His every gesture betrayed mild irritation. He had left Abraxas on the Sofa.   
Possibly he had simply not wished to have to deal with the irritation of waking and waiting for him to dress. 

She inched over in the bed until she could reach him. The faint sigh he expressed was almost inaudible as he pulled her the rest of the way, wrapping his arms around her and turning her, easing them into the spooned position that they had both come to sleep in habitually.   
He held her somewhat tighter tonight than usual and she felt him press a weary kiss to the skin below her ear.   
She placed her hand over his on her abdomen and relaxed into the feeling of his warm breath on the back of her neck.

This was the place she felt best in the world. This was the place she’d stay forever if she could. 

And maybe.. she’d enjoyed Abraxas. Maybe she’d needed him. Maybe she still needed the others too...   
But she loved Tom.

She worried for a moment about what would happen with the other students that Septimus had warned them about.  
She needed to get back to full strength.. He needed to get back to full strength.

“Sleep, Hermione” The mumble at her neck told her that her ruminations did not go unnoticed.

“I love you, Tom” she breathed inaudibly.   
It seemed almost that he heard her even so, as he pressed a soft lingering kiss to the back of her neck again before he shifted slightly, making himself more comfortable.

She sighed and tried to let go of everything. It could all wait. She would deal with it all in the morning. They would come up with a plan in the morning. It would be fine.   
At least she understood now..  
If she could just.. get enough control back .. maybe she could use the magic to do...something.. Fix things.. somehow.

She yawned.   
Tom would see reason, she was sure. He valued power. He’d never willingly accept weakness, just to make sure that no one else touched her.

She let it go and allowed the soft rhythm of Tom’s breathing to lull her to sleep.


	72. Chapter 72

She barely drifted to a half wake state when Tom whispered in her ear that she might like to sleep in while he went running.   
The gratitude was vast and she scrabbled to wrap her arms around him, eyes still closed, kissing blindly at any skin she made contact with before falling back onto her pillow and snuggling down deeper in the bed.   
She heard his soft amused snort.  
“Don’t imagine that you have come to the end of morning exercise, Hermione” he murmured, leaning over her again. “This is temporary.”

She nodded against the pillow and dragged the blankets higher. 

Some time later she half woke when the bed dipped and a warm body climbed in behind her. She grumbled mildly when she was pulled gently against his chest and soft kisses were pressed to her shoulder. A gentle hand stroked her body, teasing at her breast; fingers plucking lightly at her nipple. She brushed it away irritably, trying to go back to sleep. It withdrew slightly and wrapped around her.   
She drifted off again, warm and comfortable.

The next time she woke, the covers were being pulled down in front of her and someone was climbing into bed.   
She opened her eyes at this – there was already an arm around her abdomen. Was Abraxas climbing into bed with them?!..   
She blinked up at the intruder, finding herself looking into Tom’s blue eyes. He wore a tight strange expression on his face.   
She startled. If Tom was in front of her...

“Abraxas?!” she queried uncertainly. The arm around her tightened slightly for a moment and she felt the face behind her nuzzle her in a manner that felt unconscious. “Mmm?” the familiar voice mumbled sleepily.

Tom had climbed into bed in front of her now and slid down, delving one arm under her pillow and wrapping the other around her, pulling her against his chest and away from the boy lying behind her. She noted he looked somewhat relieved suddenly.   
“I take it you believed him to be me.”   
She nodded, frowning slightly. “I was asleep. Nothing happened.”  
He kissed her forehead above one eyebrow, a pensive expression on his face.

Abraxas shifted behind her in his sleep and pressed closer again, closing the gap. 

Tom sighed. There was an element of irritation to it.   
“We will have to rise soon. I wish to go down for breakfast.  
Abraxas – you can stop pretending to sleep now. I have decided that I will give you your revel. If you can arrange it by tomorrow... Maia will attend. If you cannot...

“I can have it prepared by this evening.”   
The voice was collected and perfectly awake behind her.   
Hermione scowled. Bloody deceptive Slytherins. She wondered whether Abraxas had been asleep at all. She felt the warm hand on her abdomen stroke over her skin slowly.   
“Maia..will.. participate.. when she attends.. won’t she?!” the conniving jerk asked quietly.

Tom’s dark blue eyes examined her.   
“Yes.” he said finally. 

 

 

The Great Hall was only half full that morning, which wasn’t all too surprising. On Saturdays and Sundays breakfast tended to be an under-attended occasion as students opted to catch a few more hours sleep and have a larger lunch instead.   
At the end of the Slytherin table, the atmosphere was subdued as she lowered herself to the seat between Tom and Septimus, who it seemed had today returned to his previous preferential seat beside her. Clemens was banished to the end of the table once again. Opposite her Abraxas smiled placidly and reached for a slice of toast.   
“You are looking..well..this morning.” Septimus observed pointedly to him. 

The blonde flashed a brighter smile and helped himself to bacon.  
“You know.. I feel so much better this morning, Sep” he smirked. “I believe it was the excellent night’s sleep I had.”

The black eyes narrowed and Septimus stabbed his fork into a piece of papaya with just slightly more force than was absolutely necessary. He didn’t dart a glance at her but in that peculiar way that Severus had always had too, she could feel his attention shift to her even so.   
Hermione noticed Sorrenson’s apparent delighted fascination with the mandarin he was peeling over his porridge. It seemed that it was an extraordinarily inspiring mandarin – he looked quite optimistically at it.

“Seppy.. Do you think we might go to Hogsmeade today?”

The voice was like nails over a blackboard to Hermione this morning, she realised. God.. why was she less and less capable of tolerating Amalthea these days?! It wasn’t as if the girl had become more annoying. She virtually ignored Hermione now that Septimus was thought to be no longer at risk. Yet over the last weeks she had just wanted to tear Amalthea’s hair out on a daily basis. Not having to see her in the dorm room anymore was a relief.   
In her mind, Hermione imagined throwing Amalthea down a very deep well. A well that flushed.   
Antonia on the other hand didn’t seem to bother her much, she’d found. She always sat down the end of the table next to Palmer. At some point the two had seemingly begun to see one another more officially. It had been vaguely registered but she’d thought little about it. Palmer Avery was distasteful in the extreme. If dating Antonia Parkinson kept both nasty little irritants away at the end of the table – more power to them both!

“I have other things to do today, Amalthea.” Septimus gravelled politely enough. “Perhaps you could go with Toni or Carmen.. Or..” he looked up hopefully, scanning the rest of the table.  
“I am certain Benjamin will be visiting Hogsmeade. You might go with him.”

Benjamin did not look immediately opposed to this. He seemed to mull the idea over and was about to nod when Amalthea responded snippily. “I don’t want to go with anyone else.. I want to go with you... The Yule ball is coming up.. we need to-..”  
Septimus’ groan and eye roll said it all, Hermione thought. The red haired vixen at his side either didn’t notice or didn’t care as she went on with her explanation for why it was imperative that she shop for her gown today, with Septimus present, while she sliced a grapefruit in half carefully.

Hermione barely registered the nasty little wish that flitted through her head before Amalthea’s hand slipped and there was a bang as she dropped the knife and yelped.

“OH!! Damn it! Ow!!!” Amalthea was fussing, wrapping her finger in a napkin to staunch the blood; Septimus already turning to her to heal the wound that the other girl obviously lacked the presence of mind or common sense to deal to.

Hermione replaced her toast on the plate, swallowing the mouthful that had suddenly turned to ash in her mouth.  
What the hell was wrong with her?! God.. she’d just..bloody attacked.. Amalthea.. over nothing! Over a minor irritation that was more amusing than annoying really.. She’d just.. lashed out at her without even thinking about it.   
Crap.. crap crap crap – what was she becoming?! She glanced up surreptitiously to see if anyone else had noticed.   
Tom was watching Amalthea with mild disapproval on his face. Abraxas had barely blinked before he’d returned to breakfast.   
Sorrenson was looking at her with a thoughtful expression. Their eyes met for only a second and then he returned to his porridge. The thoughtful look remained however.

“Septimus.. I would like to speak with Abraxas and yourself after Breakfast.”

Amalthea’s face fell. Tom would not be contradicted. It seemed that Hogsmeade was out. She frowned prettily down at her bloodstained grapefruit. Her somewhat harried boyfriend looked relieved.   
“Certainly - I shall meet you downstairs directly..” Septimus responded agreeably, glancing at Hermione briefly and then back at their fearless leader. 

“Sorrenson..” Tom began pensively..

When it transpired that Sorry would be accompanying her to the library while the other three spoke, it seemed that no one except Tom was satisfied anymore.. with the possible exception of Sorrenson – although his pleased expression was marred by slight worried unease. 

Hermione was ticked off. She wanted to go with the other three. Whatever they were going to talk about, Tom had obviously decided that she wasn’t to hear. That was unacceptable. It would probably be something about her – or about the Ravenclaws who had been talking in the corridors.   
She had zero interest in going and studying bloody arithmancy or runes or transfig in the Library. It was unlikely that that was what she would end up doing, of course. If Tom was sending her off with Sorrenson – the message was implicitly clear to her. And that somehow made it even worse. 

“I want to come with you!” she stated, hating how she sounded like Amalthea and resolutely ignoring the way Sorry’s face dropped in hurt disappointment.

“No. You need to study.” Tom said with finality. “We will speak later, Maia. I have other things to do this morning.”  
At that, he laid his knife and fork down neatly and rose to leave the table.   
She glared up at him, annoyed at being so easily brushed off – the very slight tilt of his head at her convinced her to wipe that look off her face however.   
He nodded, stroking a hand over her hair in a way she couldn’t help but find mildly patronising, and then he stalked calmly out of the Great Hall without a backward look.

There was a snigger from Amalthea.

Hermione hated her.   
Hated.  
A little cut to her finger was FAR less than she deserved.   
She shut that thought down quickly before it could get out of hand and turned to her toast.

“Maia..” Sorrenson said hesitantly. She glanced up. He looked deeply worried now.   
Sighing she tried to push down the irritation she was feeling in order to offer him a thin smile. “Sorry, Sorry – it’s not you – You know that, right?!”   
He nodded after a moment but didn’t look greatly relieved.

 

Walking through the corridor toward the library she found herself again preoccupied with what Tom, Abraxas and Septimus might be discussing and why Tom had refused to allow her to listen to it. She was speculating that it might be something to do with the Ravenclaws.. or perhaps Grindelwald..   
...although Tom had allowed her to be present for every discussion about him so far.   
At least.. as far as she was aware..   
It was faintly possible that she might not have been aware that they were meeting. But then.. he’d have to have left while she was sleeping. Tom or one of them was with her for most of the rest of the time these days.  
Although.. when he went to patrol..perhaps.. 

She was far off in her head when Sorrenson spoke and only registered that he had asked something when he repeated her name impatiently. 

“What?! Uh.. that is.. pardon?”

The boy walking by her side looked resentful. “You don’t want to be with me” he stated softly, brushing the messy brown hair out of his eyes. He looked painfully Rodolphuslike again she realised and made a note to brew the blood bond satisfying potion later.   
She rolled her eyes.   
“Sorry.. its not that.. it’s just.. why aren’t we with them?! Why did he send-“

She got no further because someone walked into her. Hard.   
Bouncing back she looked up in shock at an entirely unfamiliar face. The boy in question was smiling apologetically and reached out to steady her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh.. I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you alright?” 

He was tall with short dark brown hair trimmed into a rather preppy cut and dark grey eyes.   
He was wearing a Ravenclaw uniform.  
She blinked, readjusting her perspective and trying to calm her frantically beating heart. She glanced to Sorry but suddenly didn’t see him anywhere.   
Frowning she turned around completely, looking for him and found another three boys approaching with polite concerned expressions. Her pulse sped.   
Shit. This was them. Three of the four were Ravenclaws. The fourth was a Gryffindor. She thought the Gryffindor might have been in Defense with them.. maybe. 

Stepping back to get some distance from the boy in front of her, she almost fell as she stumbled over something on the ground. The Ravenclaw who had walked into her caught her before she could fall and steadied her.   
She looked down.

Sorrenson. 

Only stunned, she hoped.. He was lying on his back with one arm stretched out. his wand gripped loosely in it.   
He looked peaceful. His dark messy hair was strewn across his eyes.   
She looked up again quickly. The polite concern on the Ravenclaw’s face had morphed into a predatory anticipation and he hadn’t let go of her yet. His splayed hand on her back, stroked her lightly as if touching something precious that had almost been damaged. 

“Just stay calm” he said quietly. “There are more of us here than you see. Lestrange has at least two wands on him right now. You don’t want anything..permanent.. to happen to him, I’m sure.

She realised she was gaping in horror and closed her mouth, trying to move to get him to take his hands off her. He didn’t comply. His grip, which probably looked nothing but comforting to an onlooker, tightened slightly. She flicked her wrist for her wand, only to have it plucked out of her hand the second it appeared. It disappeared into the Ravenclaw’s inner pocket.

“You should stop this now. I don’t know you. If you leave immediately.. I won’t tell Tom about it. Sorry probably didn’t see anything either. Just leave and no one will get hurt. 

The tall boy tilted his head slightly and smiled wider. “Don’t worry about him. All you need to do is what we tell you and everything will be just fine. Maia.. you’re an intelligent girl. I’ve seen you in classes. And you have demonstrated regard for Lestrange there. Tell me.. how do you plan to disarm two or more unseen assailants at once before one of the four that you do see stuns you.

Her mind did the math. She didn’t like the way he told her not to worry about Tom.  
She probed lightly for the raw magic. It was there. It was still strong enough to reach. She could perhaps just knock everything down in a ten metre radius.   
But that would be rather obvious. Questions would be asked.   
And while she could...possibly... use the magic to persuade all the Professors.. perhaps even aurors not to question her.. She couldn’t use magic offensively against Tom and he certainly would question, after she’d been so magically weakened lately. 

On the other hand.. if she gave them an inch.. if she went along with them wherever they were seeking to go, there was no way of knowing whether she might get another chance.. and after all – they’d almost certainly leave the two wizards there with their wands on Sorry – assuming of course that there truly were others there and the Ravenclaw wasn’t bluffing.   
THAT she could check.   
She used the raw magic to simulate the sensing spell they’d learned for invisible assailants in defense and gasped out loud. There were a lot of others in the corridor with them. Not just two. There had to be at least.. six other shadows with drawn wands.  
She heard the tall boy holding her chuckle.   
“Ah.. I see you’ve noticed now. Wandless magic – I’m impressed! Yes.. You are well and truly outnumbered. If you say you’ll walk along with me calmly, without making a fuss, nothing will happen to Lestrange – nothing will happen to you either, for that matter. I promise! None of us wish to harm you.. You can accompany us..somewhere..and spend some quality time.. and then we’ll make certain you’re cleaned up and comfortable. No one will be the wiser.”

Her blood ran cold. 

“Please don’t do this” she whispered.   
The Ravenclaw boy brushed aside her hair gently. “Oh don’t be like that. You’ll like it. Everyone knows you’ve been carrying on with half a dozen of the Slytherins.”  
“I haven’t!” she protested urgently. “You’re wrong. You’ve got your facts wrong. Someone’s been lying to you – I’m only seeing Tom. When he finds out-“  
The boy cut her off. “Last evening you were with Malfoy again. He stayed all night and the satisfied grin on his face this morning after he’s been mooning around like a lost lamb for weeks was indicative enough that you’re friendly with him again.. and with Riddle’s knowledge and permission one must assume.   
But this isn’t the time or place for a discussion. Come with me now or be stunned and carried”

She swallowed. They had been watching Tom’s door then. She should have considered that when Septimus told Tom and herself about it. They were Ravenclaws. If they were planning any action at all they’d collect as much information as they could before beginning.  
A tiny traitorous voice in the back of her mind piped up ‘if I let this happen it will probably recharge my magic.’ It was immediately followed by the voice of reason. ‘if however many of these complete bloody strangers touch me then I’ll be bleeding off magic to them too constantly unless I sleep with them regularly. I need to get the hell away from them and make sure that no one else touches me. Whoever this damn Ravenclaw is will already be affected. ...I should probably kill him.’   
She stumbled forward as she was nudged with the boy’s arm around her shoulders.  
Think! She had to do something. Something that wouldn’t look too suspicious. 

She reached for the raw magic and put up a shield around Sorry clumsily, then quickly erected another around herself, close to her skin. It took all of two seconds while they walked.   
The boy holding her felt the shield around her go up and lifted his wand to stun her but she’d already twisted the magic again and he dropped unconscious to the floor.   
She took off down the corridor running, dodging the two black shadows that were in her way, trying to grab her. The hexes from the others bounced off her shield harmlessly as her shoes slapped the stone floor and she careened around the corner. 

Tom! She had to get to Tom. 

She could hear the sound of pursuit. Glancing behind she saw three glowing blinding forms and a large group of shadows chasing. Red stunners sailed past her. One bounced off her shields.   
They were gaining on her. She needed to get to somewhere where there were other students. But she’d run in the wrong direction initially because there were less of them standing on that side, and there were no more classes in these corridors. Just the Gryffindor common room and further on the shifting staircases. They’d catch her there for sure! The stairs were almost certain not to be in a useful position. The bloody minded things were almost never where you wanted them to be when you were in a hurry. That would essentially be a dead end.   
As if they realised it too, her pursuers sped up further. She was suddenly painfully grateful to Tom for forcing her to jog in the last weeks. A month ago she’d have been on the ground struggling for breath by now. She pulled out a bit more strength she didn’t know she had and changed course, heading for the portrait of the fat lady.   
She’d be safe in Gryffindor! There’d be other students.. at worst she could hide up in the girls dorms. They’d never get up the stairs! 

She dropped the sensing vision that rendered everything visible nothing but bright silhouettes and puffed at the suspicious and disapproving looking portrait “Please – let me in.. chasing me.. need help.. please..” 

“You are a Slytherin” The fat lady responded with the same tone as she might have used to say ‘you are a plague carrier’ or ‘you a child molester’ “I cannot possibly allow you passage. Whatever you have done to cause them to chase you-“

Blessedly, the portrait opened in that moment. A small first year girl climbed out of the gap smiling back at her friend.   
Hermione glanced back over her shoulder briefly. The three visible pursuers – two Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor rounded the corner a few metres away at a flat run. She seized the portrait door, dragging it open against considerable resistance from the fat lady, and pushed in through the portrait hole past the two horrified first years. 

The entire room inside gaped at her and then erupted into furious chaos. 

She caught out of the corner of her eye the Gryffindor among her assailants grin widely and continue forward to the portrait hole while the Ravenclaws held back. 

“What are you DOING in here, Slytherin! GET OUT!! Get the HELL out! I’m summoning the head of house! You can’t just come into another House’s common room! Someone take her out into the corridor and hold her there! Milli – go and get Professor Dumbledore!”

She watched the oh-so-familiar pinched face rant at her. Of course it would be her. She looked away from Minerva McGonagall and darted out of reach of the blonde boy who had stepped through the portrait after her, racing around the edge of the chaotic room toward the dormitory stairs. She was intercepted en route. Another highly familiar face stepped into her path and caught her, pulling her close.   
“Let me go!” she demanded urgently – she didn’t want to be near him either!   
Worried brown eyes studied her own.   
“Not yet... What is going on, Maia? What are you doing here.. why are you running?!”

The Gryffindor who had been chasing her was at their side in the next second. He looked flushed from running. “Thanks Alex. I’ll take her outside.” He said hurriedly. 

Alex looked at him with deep suspicion.   
“No.. I think i’ll look after her, Edwin. I’m not sure what exactly is going on here.. but I mean to find out.

Minerva joined them. Hermione, who had ceased struggling in Alexander Potters grip now that her pursuer ‘Edwin’ whoever had turned up, took the opportunity to examine the girl in greater detail.   
Her future head of house and transfiguration teacher was a rather prim and straight laced looking girl even in her youth. Her uniform looked pressed, the folds sharp. Her face looked stretched and pinched due to the severe French plait that wound down the centre of her skull and ended at mid shoulder. Blue eyes glared at her as if her very existence was objectionable.   
“I know exactly who you are! What are you doing in here?!” she said bitingly.

Hermione hesitated. How much did she want to say?!  
She couldn’t really think of a reason to have rushed in. The only thing occurring to her was the truth. She never had been particularly good at lying to Professor McGonagall.

“I’m sorry! I know that it’s completely against the rules for me to be in here. I was being chased. Some boys.. They attacked Sorrenson Lestrange and I when we were on our way to the Library. I don’t know them. I was running. They would have caught me at the stairs..”

This seemed to render Minerva thoughtful. She glanced at ‘Edwin’ who had been attempting to drift back into the background now that it appeared that she wouldn’t be easily recovered into his custody.  
“Do you know anything about this, Ed?” she asked neutrally.   
The blonde ran his hand through his hair nervously. “No Min – I was just trying to take her out into the corridor – you said to take her out there to wait for Professor Dumbledore.” 

Minerva looked dubious but turned back to Hermione. “How many boys were chasing you? And why exactly?! What did you do?!”

Insulted, Hermione frowned – “I didn’t do anything. I was walking down the corridor with Sorrenson toward the library. A boy walked into me and then someone stunned Sorrenson and they tried to tell me to come with them and not make a fuss”  
Minerva’s eyebrows rose and she looked a lot more unsettled.

“Are you making this up?!” she asked and Hermione could detect the faintest hint of hope in her voice amid the suspicion.  
“NO!! And there were four visible and six I detected using the spell we learned in Defense. I couldn’t see any of their faces obviously.”  
This evoked a snorting scoff from the other girl, although she noticed that Alex looked concerned and was keeping very quiet. 

“TEN.. you’re trying to tell me that TEN students attacked you in an open corridor at midday and some of them were using invisibility potion?! Are you mad?!.. Do you need attention that badly?! I mean.. I had heard the rumors about you but I never imagined you were actually-“

“That boy was one of them” Hermione pointed at Edwin who had almost successfully slunk away. The others that I could see were Ravenclaws.” 

Minerva exchanged a quick troubled glance with Alex potter, who had still not released Hermione from his arms.  
He swallowed and said uncertainly “Maybe you didn’t get a good look at them, Maia... Are you sure this isn’t just a mix up. Perhaps you were just coming to visit me and I forgot.. Everyone overreacted when you came in..”  
Hermione forced her hands to her hips indignantly. “I am not going to lie just so that a horrible boy who deserves to be hexed into next week can get away with attempted abduction and probably attempted rape! I would be hexing him now if they hadn’t taken my wand!!..”  
Gasps went up around the room and a buzz of disturbed conversation among the other Gryffindors present. Minerva’s face paled and she looked to Alex in shock.   
The boy in question didn’t meet her eyes.   
The entire room was watching them with various expressions of shock and horror. 

“Perhaps.. we should call the Slytherin head of house too. This will have to go to Dippet” Minerva said, sounding a little sick.

She felt Alex’s arms tighten around her slightly.

“What is going on here?” the calm voice broke the stillness, echoing across the room from the portrait hole where Professor Dumbledore was standing, looking mildly concerned.   
The auburn haired wizard was wearing muted purple and grey robes today and his circular glasses hung low on his nose.   
Minerva seemed to have been placed on tenterhooks in the two second between his absence and his appearance. She shifted nervously from foot to foot and Hermione detected a high blush on her cheekbones. So the rumours there were probably true too then, she thought. Whether or not the Professor McGonagall in her own time was involved with Professor Dumbledore – it seemed the Minerva McGonagall in this time had a mammoth crush on him.

“Miss Schiller – I am informed you recently forced your way into the Gryffindor common room.” He frowned slightly, irritably. “Mr Potter – please release her.” 

“Yes Sir – I suppose I did.” she admitted readily as Alexander Potter reluctantly unwound his arms from around her. She stepped away from him quickly. “I was being chased by several students that seemed to want to harm me. I sought refuge.”

Dumbledore processed this and nodded wearily. “If you would come with me...I think it would be best if we discussed this in my office.”  
She felt herself tense.

“Professor – may I accompany you both” Alex’s polite voice enquired. “I can verify what she tells you from the time she entered the common room”  
Dumbledore shook his head.  
“No Mr Potter... I believe that will not be necessary. Miss McGonagall – if you would restore order here, I return the common room to your capable hands. Miss Schiller – come with me please”

Hermione followed.   
The intensely troubled expression on ‘Edwin’s’ face didn’t escape her. She realised suddenly that she was in great danger right now. She could expose her attackers. She wasn’t sure exactly what would happen to them if it was confirmed that they had tried to abduct and coerce a fellow student.   
She didn’t know what else she could do.

“I don’t remember any of their faces, Professor Dumbledore. I didn’t know them.” She said loudly – certain that Edwin would have heard it.

Professor Dumbledore frowned at her with concern and, she thought, a tinge of disapproval.  
“Yes.. well.. Come with me now Miss Schiller and we shall see what you remember.”

“I won’t remember who it was, Professor” she insisted sharply.

Minerva stepped forward, her mouth open to protest. Hermione..or Maia.. had already said that Edwin was among her attackers – But before she could speak, Alex had stepped in and placed a hand on the straight-laced girl’s shoulder, looking at her with a forbidding expression. Minerva blinked, shocked and wilted slightly as if unsure what to do now.   
Professor Dumbledore took all of this in and the look of disquiet about him deepened.

“Very well. Come along, Miss Schiller.” He said wearily and turned about, heading toward the portrait hole.

 

 

In the familiar cluttered office, Hermione shifted uncomfortably on the blue chintz armchair she had been given to sit in. Professor Dumbledore had asked her at least six times about who exactly had attacked her. She had recounted the circumstances and he had sent someone to check on the well being of Sorrenson, but she refused to admit that she remembered anything about the boys involved. She had recalled that several were Ravenclaw but omitted that at least one was Gryffindor – nevertheless she suspected that he had somehow guessed anyway from the reactions of the Gryffindors in the common room. He went over it again and again with her. 

And you say he took your wand...”

She nodded.

“And afterward you cast the locus animi detection spell? Wandlessly?!”

She froze, her eyes widening. She hadn’t thought that explanation through enough. Damn.   
“No.. I still had it when I cast it. He took it just after I’d cast it” she tried.

“If that is so – why would you use your wand, in the direst of circumstances, to cast that spell when a shield or perhaps even an offensive spell.. or a klaxon...would be far more useful?! After all – you are a most rational girl...usually” he queried, with his auburn brows raised.

She realised that it didn’t really matter what she answered – he had her bang to rights and she hadn’t even considered an alarm to draw attention!   
Any further lies now would only tangle her up further.  
“Look.. it doesn’t matter” she tried in frustration. “I’ll just... get a new wand.. or something.. and it’ll be fine..”  
A thought suddenly occurred to her and she leapt from the chair in horror “Oh my God.. Has anyone checked on Tom?! They said something about not worrying about him. He could be hurt! We need to find him!

Dumbledore looked a little concerned too. “You believe that something has happened to the head boy too now?” He frowned and then summoned a house elf.   
“Bell – if you could please find Tom Riddle and report back on his present state of well being.” He instructed it gently.  
The little elf nodded quickly and popped away again.

Hermione sat down again nervously but couldn’t stop fidgeting. Dumbledore studied her with a look that she interpreted as deep and abiding disappointment.

“Have you thought any further on the matter we last discussed, Miss Schiller?”   
His voice was soft and somehow reminded her of a clear and inviting pool which hid jagged rocks beneath the surface.   
She thought back quickly and nearly groaned.   
Of course. He’d suggested she should give herself to Grindelwald. She’d said she would think about it.   
She honestly hadn’t. At all. She’d put it from her mind entirely. The entire prospect was impossible. She was incapable of disobeying when Tom issued a direct order.

“um... I haven’t heard from him.. maybe he’s lost interest.” She said hopefully.

Dumbledore looked at her intently, his gaze was intimidating in its scrutiny. “Yes.. I believe that you are telling the truth.. which is somewhat troubling.   
Miss Schiller – Gellert Grindelwald has in fact sought to contact you, more than once I imagine – I cannot explain how you have failed to receive his messages, although I suspect our head boy may be able to throw some light on the matter.   
This morning I received a most disturbing communiqué from him. It was obviously directed at you. He has realised, it seems, that your.. or.. if he is the one who intercepted the messages intended for you – Mr Riddle’s conscience is not susceptible to the kind of emotional blackmail that most..decent..human beings cannot help but fall prey to. I assume he sent a copy of the message to me in order to encourage me to..hurry you along.. as it were. And I must admit..I am sorely inclined to do so. For all that I know the man is a monster – I cannot condone the present consequences of ignoring his demands.

Hermione reeled her jaw back in and kicked her mind to get it turning over again. Ok.... ok.. Grindelwald had done..something..Something horrible – probably along the lines of that other memory he’d sent last time.. and Tom had intercepted the message.   
How come she didn’t know anything about this? When did this happen? They were hardly ever outsi-...

...He hadn’t insisted she jog this morning.

She scowled inwardly cursing all Slytherins while outwardly her surprised and anxious face blinked like a rabbit in the headlights and waited for Dumbledore to elaborate on just what Grindelwald was threatening now.  
Tom had lied. He had kept it from her. Whatever it was. 

“Perhaps it would be best if you watched the memory for yourself” Dumbledore said quietly.

She had the feeling that he was again expecting her to have some sudden impulse toward selfless sacrifice and wondered whether Harry had ever felt this trapped.  
...of course he had.. He’d nearly had a mental breakdown toward the end with the weight of the obligation that Dumbledore had placed upon him. The guilt. As if the entire wizarding world rested solely on his shoulders.  
And now.. she was faced with something not that far from that. All of Hogwarts... all of Britain.. apparently depended upon her somehow breaking an unbreakable bond and becoming the plaything of a psychopathic, megalomaniac Dark Lord.   
Well.. another psychopathic, megalomaniac Dark Lord.. anyway.

Professor Dumbledore had risen while she was internally preoccupied and was fussing about with an object in the back of his office. She hadn’t even noticed it before and it was much too large to have escaped notice. It had to have had notice me not charms all over it. 

“My dear – have you ever heard of a ‘Pensieve’?”, Dumbledore asked kindly.

 

 

The memory was worse than she could possibly have imagined.   
It started off quite harmlessly in a bright sunlit courtyard surrounded by hedges and ornamental rose bushes. She turned around on the cobbled surface and located Grindelwald pruning at a rose bush with his wand. His back was turned and blonde curls cascaded down, shining in the sun, onto a light black cloak of a material that suggested the temperature in this bright place was considerably higher than it had been in Russia or wherever it was that Nurmengard had been located. 

He turned while she was inspecting the surroundings, unable to determine by any flora or by the architecture of the yellowish stone manor house in the distance where they might be.   
The rose he held in his hand was white as he took a step toward her, eyes turned in the right direction but unseeing.   
He couldn’t know exactly where the observer would be standing. 

“Ah Maia..again I must reach out to you. I confess I am unsure whether to be disappointed in your refusal or encouraged by the strength of your resolve that you would consider endangering..so very many..at the order of your current Master.”   
His accent was less strong and his grammar more perfect than in the last memory she had received, she noted, frowning. She wondered if he had actually been practicing.   
Had he engaged a tutor purely in order to come across as more eloquent?!

Grindelwald smiled and inspected the rose he held. She observed to herself that the man seemed strangely fascinated with herbology. The garden..or jungle.. or whatever area in the last memory he’d shown her .. was pretty elaborate and demanding to cultivate. It was a very different expression he wore then.. and now.. than when he was hurting the boy in the dungeon or when he was..um.. upstairs. 

“Do you see this?” he asked the empty space a mere half metre to her right, with subdued excitement. She suppressed the impulse to move into that space.   
“It is my own creation. I am..somewhat proud of it.” 

Curious she stepped forward and did take a careful look at the rose – it looked like a very nice but completely mundane white rose – just beginning to open; its petals still furled.

“I think many others are working on the same problem. A fellow in Greece is using stones i’m told. The English want to make a potion...”

Hermione’s mind made the leap and she frowned at the white rose with more intensity, daring it to do something extraordinary.

“It is a useful thing..” Grindelwald observed and raised the flower, brushing it lightly against his bottom lip as if in thought. “It can differentiate between what is true and what is deception.” His blue eyes flicked up again to the place just to the right of where she was standing. 

“Perhaps you do not believe.. I will show you.” 

He held the rose out as if offering it to her and his hand tightened around its stem. The barest flicker of his brows betrayed pain and she noticed, as if for the first time that the stem of the rose was covered in vicious looking thorns. A trickle of blood ran down the stem below his hand and dripped down onto the cobblestones.  
“Alas.. the truth hurts.. does it not?” he observed wryly.   
“Let’s see.. The moon is made of green cheese” he said with a slight smile. 

She gasped as black veins suddenly ran up the petals of the white rose, tainting it. The colour spread until the entire bloom was black.   
Grindelwald looked at it with satisfaction and brought it to his nose.

“Even its scent changes.. a blind man could use it.” He noted for her benefit. “It is..reminiscent of..tangerines.. now.. perhaps slightly sharper.”

She conceded unwillingly that it was quite clever.   
However veritaserum was even more useful and didn’t require any pain at all.  
Of course.. it could be easily overdosed. But then.. there were those little white truth stones that the ministry used as well. She’d never heard of truth roses so Grindelwald must not have told anyone about them. Or maybe no one else could grow them. Perhaps they would only grow in the soil wherever this place was. That was probably not so useful.

She was drawn back from her speculation on the possible reasons why she’d never heard of this invention before in any history books by Grindelwald’s low purr.   
“Almost every night I dream of you”

The black seeped slowly back out of the rose as if bleeding out. It faded lighter and lighter until it was white once more.   
She swallowed and felt a momentary guilt.   
But it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t want to plague the bloody man’s mind. She’d only met him once. It wasn’t fair!

“I will do whatever is necessary to have you with me” the man informed her with no uncertainty.  
The rose remained white. She swallowed, feeling an ominous heaviness descend upon the pretty courtyard.   
It was going to be like last time when he’d killed the boy polyjuiced to look like Tom, she was sure. First something nice.. something interesting.. then he’d start doing horrible things and threatening her if she didn’t come to him.   
Obviously that part was about to start now.

“If you do not come to me, Maia, I will tear the British Isles asunder. Hogwarts will be an ash pit.. a mass grave. I will salt the earth for miles around”

Perfect, pure, unblemished white.  
She shivered.

“And you will still come to me. I will find you in the end.. I will turn over every stone and burn every house until you are found.. and then you will be mine.”

He tossed the pristine white rose aside uncaring and displayed his bloodied hand. Deep red welled in several deep punctures. “And what good will your stubbornness be?! You will serve me so or so.. would you not rather all the thousands of innocent lives be spared?   
Perhaps.. I will even spare your Master. Perhaps I will allow him to continue breathing. If you ask it of me.. If you beg me for his life..”

Hermione thought to herself cynically that he had thrown the rose away before he made that little offer.

“Enough.. let us continue with the chore to which you are pressing me. I would get it over with sooner today, as it troubled my rest last night”

He used his wand to heal and scourgify his injured hand and then clicked his fingers impatiently.   
The sound wasn’t very loud and yet, a minute later, a large man dressed in a brown uniform emerged at an opening in the tall hedge that surrounded the courtyard.   
He paused only for a moment, but reading the expression on his Master’s face, nodded and retreated, returning a few moments later leading a line of small children dressed in adorable little outfits. Another soldier followed at the tail of the group.

Hermione felt the temperature drop to arctic levels around her as adrenalin raced through her veins. 

She wanted to leave the memory now. Whatever he was going to do, she didn’t want to watch it. She struggled, trying to will herself to leave the pensive, but apparently Dumbledore had done something to prevent it. She would be stuck here until he released her – which he would hopefully do at the end of the memory.

She turned away. Perhaps if she didn’t actually watch..   
She wished she didn’t have to hear either as the warm slightly accented voice introduced her to the children as if she should recognise them already and then proceeded to tell her little interesting facts about each. Where they were from.. how old they were.. what their interests were.. if they had brothers or sisters.. pets.. Finally he settled upon one.   
“I think I will choose Kaspar today” he said softly. 

The little sandy haired boy in black dungarees and bright white peasant shirt, Kaspar, was seven, Grindelwald had informed her, and missed his mother. He had come from a small village on the German border of Holland. He read well and preferred stories about war heroes. His parents still searched for him, although chances were bleak during this troubled time, obviously.   
If she were to relent and come to him.. the other children would be returned to their parents safe and sound.. All she had to do was step outside and call for Mencius.. all it would take was for her to raise her hand and invite him..and all of these beautiful little children would have a full life before them.   
...Alas not so for little Kaspar. He would pay the price for her stubbornness today.. Tomorrow.. perhaps Anja.. Piotr or little Katya. 

She felt sick as she listened.. realised what was going to happen.   
It was a memory.. it had already happened.   
He had killed the little boy Kaspar. She knew it. This memory was complete when he sent it. The seven year old Kaspar was already dead.

Grindelwald spoke, and it was clear from his tone, that he was not speaking to her but to the children. His voice had a faint reverberation and she could hear it echoed in several languages.  
A useful charm, she thought miserably. 

“Children – Far away.. a beautiful princess is held captive in a castle by an evil wizard. She is my love.. and might escape him if she tried.. but she refuses to try because she fears he will hurt her if he catches her. If she will not dare to try to return home to me, then I will sadly have to kill you one by one until her heart breaks and she cannot bear it any longer.”

Pitiful cries of fright and fear went up from the children and several burst into tears.

“So I ask you to speak.. She will hear you.. Please little ones.. I do not wish to do this either.. So beg! beg my love to return and save you. Tell her how you want to go home to your mothers and fathers.”

Hermione couldn’t prevent herself from turning when she heard the first winsome little voice start pleading. The boy spoke in a language she thought sounded a bit like Russian. His words were refracted into english a half second after he spoke them.   
“Please miss! Please I want to go home! Just try! You have to! I’m scared! Please don’t let him.. please.. please..”

She felt like she couldn’t breathe for the sick hollow feeling inside choking her. 

The call was taken up by several others and soon she had a cacophony of squeaky sobbing childrens’ voices begging her to save them. 

She couldn’t take it. It was too much. She ran to the break in the hedge thinking to get out of the courtyard but found that the limit of the memory ended there and she could not escape.  
She started to hyperventilate. “Professor Dumbledore” she whimpered, although she had been trying to scream. “Please.. let me out.. I can’t watch this.. I can’t.. I can’t do it ...just.. please let me go..”

Nothing happened to release her from the pensieve. But to her guilty relief, Grindelwald silenced the children with a soft word a few moments later and then instructed the soldiers to take them away again.   
She stepped aside for the staunch male face who barely displayed his own disturbance at the task he had been given. The single-file line of sobbing, frightened children followed.   
She was a terrible person for feeling relieved when they had disappeared around a bend and were no longer in view.

“Maia..Maia.. do not hate me for what I must do” Grindelwald sounded quite sad. “You have forced me to this.”  
Her eyes turned of their own accord toward the tall wizard who had stepped up behind the shaking tearful seven year old Kaspar, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder. 

She wanted to beg him not to do it. Wanted to drop to her knees and crawl to him, pleading for the little boy’s life. But she wasn’t really here.. he couldn’t see or hear her. 

Grindelwald spoke to the shaking boy who had his arms wrapped around himself and his eyes clenched shut as he cried in pitiful little gasps.  
“I regret.. that this will hurt, Child. But it will be over quickly.”  
His words, translated into Dutch, loosed a wail from the boy who wrenched his eyes open and tried to run. Grindelwald allowed it, raising his wand in a leisurely manner and hexing him when he had covered half the distance to the break in the hedge, where Hermione leaned weakly. 

The boy dropped like a stone, screaming in an unnaturally high voice and writhing, twisting in agony. She could see steam pouring off him as his skin reddened and developed blisters. His shrieks were piercing, she raised her hands to cover her ears.  
And then the screaming cut off.   
He stopped struggling, although his body still shook and his skin continued reddening and searing. Kaspar was dead. 

She knew exactly what had killed him. She recognised it - the blood boiling curse. It was truly horrific. It was small comfort that the victims didn’t suffer long and died as soon as their brainstem reached a critical temperature.. It was monstrous to boil someone alive from the inside out.   
Her mind was informing her, from the numerous dark texts she’d read, that inside Kaspar’s chest, all of his internal organs, particularly the heart, would be found to be cooked. That his lungs would be shrivelled like sponges.   
The victim of the curse didn’t suffer long.. but then.. time under the cruciatus seemed to lengthen. The pain that was only applied for seconds could feel like minutes.. Minutes.. like hours.. Who knew what the blood boiling curse’s victim experienced before their brain finally shut down?!

Grindelwald had walked over, his hands clasped behind his back. He stood opposite her, on the other side of the poor lobster red Kaspar and looked down at him with a sorrowful expression.

“Please Maia..” he murmured in a low voice. Hermione looked up at him, blinking away the saltwater blurring her vision. “Please..see reason and come to me. Do not make me kill them all.. I ..do not want to do it.”

Sick grief stabbed her in the chest. She HADN’T made him do anything. She hadn’t killed that boy. THIS wasn’t fair!!.. He was an evil monster and he’d chosen to kill people just to hurt her! What kind of person could do that?!  
A little voice in the back of her mind whispered ‘Tom could..’  
He probably would if he thought that it would stop her going to Grindelwald. How could she possibly ‘relent’ and go to him?! 

But Tom wouldn’t be able to destroy Britain if she denied him.

At least.. not yet.

“I hope that I will see you soon” Grindelwald said softly. “If I do not.. you will see me tomorrow.. Tomorrow I will use the spine twisting curse. I do not know if you have ever seen the effects.. I shudder to think of a child suffering in that way. Auf Wiedersehen, my Love..”

And she knew with painful certainty that he would curse a child in that manner tomorrow if she didn’t go to him before the end of the day.   
God.. what was she supposed to do?!   
She nearly sobbed in relief as the memory started to dissolve..the world around her becoming misty like hanging smoke and she finally felt herself drifting up and out of the pensieve.   
She had been terrified for a moment that Dumbledore would force her to watch the whole thing over and over.

Nearly collapsing to the floor when she was able to pull her face away from the pensieve, she clutched the rim of the thing with cramped fingers and managed to pull herself upright enough to balance.   
It was a struggle to compose herself. She swiped at her wet eyes, trying to clean her face before she turned around.

“You see then, what he is doing? What he will do?”   
Dumbledore’s voice was soft and sorrowful. She could hear his sympathy for her in it. 

“Where’s Tom” she managed to say almost without quavering at all.

Dumbledore sighed.   
“Mr Riddle is in the Infirmary. It seems your fears were well founded. Mr Prince had already called an alarm and summoned help when Bell arrived. The three boys are resting at present. There should be no lasting damage.” 

Hermione whirled in shock – or tried to. Sudden dizziness forced her to fall back against the pensieve and she tore her hands away in panic that she might accidentally dip them in and be thrown into the memory again.   
When she had recovered her balance she bit out “I want to see him!”

Dumbledore was sitting back in his chair looking more than weary. He looked like someone who had been debating matters of life and death for hours.   
“I do not think that would be best at present.. and I would like to finish speaking with you. Please Miss Schiller – Sit. There are other matters which we must discuss”

The blue chintz chair sat like a crouching spider ready to bite her. The very banality of the room felt like a dangerous trap. Dumbledore was going to try to talk her into going to Grindelwald and with the way she felt right now.. he might succeed. Her mind was struggling to find reasons why her feelings.. or Tom’s anger.. was more important than the whole of Britain. There really weren’t many.  
“Are you going to force me to stay here then?” she asked, deliberately provocatively. “Or maybe you’ll deliver me to Grindelwald if I don’t agree to go quietly?”

The Professor looked even more despondent and bowed his head.  
“I had rather hoped that I would not have to.. when you saw the pensieve memory.. But.. no.. For the moment I must speak with you about other things. Please Miss Schiller.. if you would sit..”

Hermione glanced at the closed door. She didn’t need to even probe it to know it would be locked and warded. She would be having a ‘friendly discussion’ with Dumbledore until he saw fit to release her.. and from his words.. he might be releasing her into Grindelwald’s custody if she wasn’t careful.  
She paced unsteadily to the chair and lowered herself, her wary gaze on Professor Dumbledore. 

He sat forward and rested his forearms on the desk before him.   
“Miss Schiller...I have been observing.. certain..irregularities.. in your behaviour and the behaviour of the students around you – or rather, the male students around you – from the first moment of your arrival here.” 

Hermione forced herself to remain calm against the panic that wanted to bubble up inside. Not that too?!! Dumbledore couldn’t have worked it out! He just couldn’t! She remained still and hoped to hell that she was wrong.. that it was something else.

“I have noticed...unusual interest in you... from the male population.”   
Dumbledore blushed.  
Hermione thought that her jaw might actually dislodge from her skull and fall to the floor.   
oh god.  
He seemed to realise it as his blue eyes hardened slightly before he went on. “I do not wish to say that you are not an attractive and gifted young witch.. but you will forgive me if I suggest that the attention you have received has been somewhat disproportionate to your..graces.   
To begin with – the wizards in Slytherin who have been noted to be pursuing you – and yes.. I use the plural intentionally Miss Schiller. Little that occurs within this castle is unknown to me. The wizards in question have all been rather cruel in the past to those of mixed blood, whether male or female. Yet they all embraced you unhesitatingly. Tolerance, in light of Tom Riddle’s demonstration of acceptance, might have been expected, however to attempt to woo you... that is rather odd..   
Furthermore - despite the fact that you are a student in the house of Slytherin – and that Slytherins tend to be generally avoided by the other houses, you have admirers across the full gamut of Hogwarts – indeed your assailants today, as you mentioned, were Ravenclaws! You surely cannot begin to imagine how unlikely that seems to those of us who have spent many years among the four houses here.”

Dumbledore paused and steepled his hands, fixating her over the top of them with a dark pensive expression. “In short, Miss Schiller – I cannot ignore the unexplained phenomena surrounding you any further. I have known that your tale of woe upon arriving was a lie, almost from the start – however until today I chose to give you the benefit of the doubt. Now that four students are in the infirmary and Aurors have been called to investigate their – and your attacks – I will require the truth from you.”

Hermione stared at him blankly.

The truth.

How the hell could she possibly tell him the truth?! Which truth?! All of it?! They’d be here all day and she’d end up dead or in Azkaban. There was no way. Her truth incorporated Tom’s truth.. it held Dumbledore’s future.. Grindelwald’s end.. Voldemort’s rise..

“It was a potions accident.” She said – repeating the old lie that Tom had accepted.   
Dumbledore frowned, confused.

“The effect I have on.. on males.. It was a potions accident a few years ago. Since then, it’s been this way. Its.. Its worse if they touch me. If they do.. then they aren’t satisfied until..” she swallowed and lowered her eyes nervously. Lying to Dumbledore was somehow harder than lying to Tom.   
Not as hard as lying to Voldemort however. 

Dumbledore seemed to be examining her, as if the tint of her skin, the lines of her face might reveal whether she was telling the truth.

“I am afraid... that I do not believe you.” He said finally.   
Her heart sank.  
“However I do recognise that there is something strange..which leads males to become obsessively attracted to you, to neglect their health and alter their habitual behaviours in favour of pursuing you. This matter has therefore become more complicated – and it was already unpleasant when it was an issue of sending a sixteen year old to a genocidal Dark Wizard – I need to know, Miss Schiller, what...exactly..will happen to the students who have become so obsessed with you if you are no longer here?” 

Her eyes widened. She had no idea, really – surely they weren’t as affected as Tom and the others. 

Dumbledore’s expression darkened further.   
“As I thought.  
And if I send them along with you to preserve their sanity.. no doubt I will be killing them as surely as by my own hand. Gellert will never allow them to live. His actions with those children demonstrate as much. He is a jealous man, Miss Schiller. He will never allow Tom – who I assume is meant when he referred to your Master – to live.”

She swallowed thickly. “You have to stop him. It’s you that has to – no one else. Please believe me Professor!! You’ll win if you fight him.. he’ll be locked up for life!!”

The transfigurations Professor looked at her as if she had gone mad before his expression changed to one of suspicion.   
“You sound so certain Miss Schiller.. Just as you did the last time you mentioned that I might intervene. Why is that?!”

This was really the key point, she thought, her mind operating in mild panic mode. He might almost believe her right now.. but how did she know?! She needed to make it explicable.   
She obviously didn’t have second sight. There was no way she could possibly carry that off. Just the thought of pretending to make a prophesy set her eyes to rolling sceptically.   
So how then?!   
Perhaps the truth?...   
But it was incredibly dangerous to let anyone know that she wasn’t in the right time. The ministry of magic locked up those who were from the future, on the basis that they could damage the time line!  
Would it be worse to risk Dumbledore turning her over to the ministry or risk him deciding he couldn’t trust her and finding some spell.. or something like Grindelwald’s truth rose to interrogate her with?! If he didn’t intervene with the Dark Wizard – that would change the time line.   
How the hell was she supposed to know what had convinced him to do it in her timeline. Maybe it was because she’d told him he already had. Who knew?!

“There wasn’t just a potions accident..” she said uneasily. “There was..I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.. a time turner – it’s used to travel back in time by a few hours or days usually. They’re very rare and ministry controlled. I had one. There was an accident and I ended up here. I ended up.. I ended up at the Orphanage with Tom. And then it was really already too late. He is very hard to say no to. He insisted I come back to school with him.”  
She praised herself that, with the exception of the potions accident part, everything she had said was absolutely true.

Dumbledore was nodding his head slowly, and although his eyes were wide, he wore the expression of a man who had located the jigsaw puzzle piece he had been searching for.  
“And your correct time would be?...” he asked softly.

She shook her head. “I can’t tell you. My name isn’t Schiller either, obviously. Professor.. are you going to turn me over to the ministry?!”

The time dragged on while the auburn haired man across the desk from her gazed at her, seemingly lost in thought.

“What have you told Tom Riddle about the future?” he asked finally, the slightly dreamy, thoughtful, expression on his face giving way to ominous foreboding again.   
She tried to think of everything she’d told Tom.

“I can’t tell you. Nothing important though. Nothing that would change the future from the way it was when I left.”

The brief snort from the other man startled her.   
“Foolish.. You have already changed your own future if you have told him anything at all. I do not see how I can possibly do anything other than alert the Ministry to your true origin.”

“Professor!!” she cried urgently, as he reached for his wand with an expression of almost reluctance.. almost a guilty temptation.. “Listen to me – You have to Listen!! I swear that I AM from the future.. many decades in the future and you have to know that you were the one who stopped Grindelwald. You duelled with him and won. He was locked away in Nurmengard – it became his prison.   
You have to see that the only way to stop this mess is to fight him!.. the only person who can save everyone without leaving a lot of students in St Mungo’s raving, is YOU.   
The future will be changed if you don’t.   
...Whether or not the ministry sends me to Azkaban for an accident that wasn’t my fault – it will come down to you and Grindelwald.”

Dumbledore looked alarmed and off kilter. He opened his mouth and she could see that he was going to make some excuse why he couldn’t rely on her judgement of what the situation called for.   
He didn’t get to however because the little house elf Bell popped in wide eyed and panicking.

“Profess profess – gone! Mr Tom Riddle is gone! Bell was watching him like you say but other student comes and asks bell for a cup of tea and when bell comes back, the mr Riddle is gone from the beds in the firmary. Bell has looked but he can’ts find him!! Mr Riddle isn’t being on the grounds now!”

Dumbledore’s face fell and she could almost hear him cursing. His face conveyed the words ‘Merlin’s saggy balls – that too?!’   
Eyes flicking to her on guard, he raised his wand, probably to prevent her doing anything ‘unwise’, but circumstances had changed and now TOM was in danger. He wouldn’t have been if bloody Dumbledore had let her go to him before. She was afraid and VERY ticked off and she didn’t even bother to speak. She simply gripped the wandless magic with everything she had and yanked, throwing it at the other man along with a stupefy. 

Dumbledore looked amusingly surprised in the fraction of a second before he dropped, stunned to the floor. 

She dissolved his wards a moment later and was out, running through the corridors.   
Somewhere she could hear people yelling. It seemed that somewhere in Hogwarts people were in chaos. She ran in the opposite direction to the sound, unwilling to risk ending up face to face with Aurors.   
Voices echoed as she approached the corridor she would have to turn down to reach the stairs, so she continued straight ahead instead, turning at the statue of Gerta Gable and pressing the block that opened the passage that would take her to the fourth floor. Hopefully the Aurors wouldn’t know about any of the passages.

The way to the Astronomy tower was blocked. Several unknown wizards were talking in the corridor in worried tones. She crept back around the corner and took a circuitous route up to the fifth floor.   
She would have to leave via the Room of Requirement then. 

Well.. that was probably best anyway, she decided. There were just two things she needed before she could go.

She walked back and forth in front of the wall impatiently and when she got inside she found that the room had provided just as it always did.   
There was the book with the spell to soothe the blood bond.. there were her ingredients..   
And there were the two doors she would need. The second, she knew, would open to the location of the damned german bastard. who she had no doubt whatsoever had Tom in his grasp.  
The other door.. opened to the location of wherever the blasted Ravenclaw had hidden her wand.

She opened it.

Wonderful.  
She looked at the Ravenclaw fireplace where a pile of ash lay beneath the unlit logs.

Bastard.

Slamming the door she required the book and ingredients into a bag and summoned it, stalking quickly to the second door before her resolve could waver.

The deafening Hogwarts-ward-breach alarms didn’t shock her this time when she opened the door and Grindelwald did not look all too surprised either as he glanced up at her from where he stood, smiling triumphantly, his wand trained on Tom, who lay, apparently unconscious, on a soft single bed.  
He was alone.  
Perfect!   
She might have been overly pessimistic about coming here. Perhaps there had been no need to worry about the blood bond at all - With luck she could knock Grindelwald out like she had Dumbledore and then grab Tom and get the hell out of here.  
Gritting her teeth and preparing to destroy him she stomped over the threshold, leaving the door open. 

The red flashes came out of empty space on both sides. She didn’t even have the presence of mind to dodge, but it would have been a waste of time anyway – there were at least eight racing toward her and most of them found their target, tossing her down hard as dark, silent, dreamless oblivion flooded up to drown her mind.

 

 

She awoke slowly. Something was wrong.

Unsure what it was, she opened her eyes.  
and screamed.

Scrabbling back from the man who lay close..so very close, she nearly fell off the bed.  
“Maia” he purred, his expression redolent of a cat that had gotten into the cream. “Finally.. you are here with me.”

“WHERE IS HE?!” she screeched, unable to stop herself with the violent panic assaulting her now that she remembered where she was and why.

“He is alive” Grindelwald answered reproachfully. Something in his eye suggested that this wouldn’t be the case for too much longer unless she started to play nicely.   
“He is sleeping..elsewhere.. I have even engaged healers to deal to his injuries”  
“Oh they are not from my wand” he added quickly, with a smile as fleeting as the sun shining through rainclouds. “As I understand – there was some problem at Hogwarts? Students fighting? My little mouse there seemed to think it might have something to do with you.”

“Who?” she breathed, her heartbeat moving out of the blinding panic range now that he’d said Tom was ok.

“You may find out later perhaps. If you are a good girl.”

She grimaced and swallowed, wondering what exactly being a good girl entailed.

“Now come here. Come back and lie as you were before. I will not harm you.”

She wanted to ask where Tom was. If she could get to him.. maybe she could still attack this blond prat, get Tom and get out of here.  
Reluctantly, she edged back on the bed until she could lie, perhaps a little bit further away than she had been when she had woken.  
Grindelwald moved forward, closing the distance again and smiled wanly.   
“You are still nervous of me, sweet girl, so I will forgive that mild disobedience.   
I would like you to remain calm. Your dirty blooded Master is here.. hidden.. protected. You will not find him.. But if you find him – you will still be unable to penetrate the room in which I have placed him. It is in every way imaginable warded specifically against you. I however can enter it at a thought. If you displease me.. I will, in most circumstances, not punish you.. I do not wish to damage you.. I will punish him. You will watch the memory of it afterward. Do you understand, little flower?”

Hermione nodded slowly. The sick feeling in the pit of her stomach she’d felt when she was watching Grindelwald killing the Dutch boy was returning tenfold.   
This was real. She was here. He had his claws in her.

“I will be a good Master to you” the deep voice purred again. “and in time.. when I feel I can trust you with it.. I will allow you the use of your magic once again.”

Her eyes flew to him, her mouth wide in horror as she suddenly realised just what had felt so wrong when she had awoken. Her entire body rebelled at the thought of being weak again.. being at another wizard’s mercy again. Involuntarily she threw herself to the edge of the bed and emptied her stomach violently, cramping and curling into a ball. Several more spasms rolled through her until she was dry heaving and sobbing, shaking her head.   
The wizard behind her was conspicuously silent and still. He made no move to assist her but did not berate her or punish her for soiling the floor and bedclothes either.   
When she turned back tearfully, her bottom lip trembling, she found him watching her with as much interest as he watched the plants in his garden.   
She struggled to find words that would make him undo whatever he’d done. She couldn’t take being without her magic again. 

“I do not know what you are feeling” he said softly, sounding almost compassionate. “I can not imagine the feeling of powerlessness it must evoke for one so strong.   
I regret that I must take this measure with you. You were breathtaking when you were duelling. In time.. when you have proven your loyalty.. you will possess it again.   
Until then.. I will protect you.. guide you.. and yes.. I will love you. You will see that it can be much better than it was with your little schoolboy.”

Hermione shook her head, tears tracking down her face again.   
“please.. let us go!..” she whispered, knowing it was futile.

Grindelwald sighed and lay back on the bed, his blue eyes turning and apparently inspecting the ceiling.   
“Do not ask me again, Maia. The next time.. I will show you that I mean what I say and you will watch the boy suffer.”

She felt a scourgify ripple over her, removing the taste of bile in her mouth and the damp tears on her cheeks. Then the blonde man turned back to her, his eyes softening as he looked up at her.  
Perhaps you might like to bathe.. I have clothing prepared. Then we will take the evening meal, if you are not too exhausted.”

It was disturbing how Grindelwald could be so cruel in one second and then incongruently gentle in the next. Being this near to him had her nerves jumping.   
She kept seeing in her mind the way they had all been sitting at the table on the balcony talking quite politely the second before Grindelwald had hexed Tom over the edge.   
He gave no warning between his good mood and his violence. At least Voldemort had displayed his anger or irritation before he’d done something horrible. Grindelwald could just shift like the wind.. kill or torture and then smile and go on with his conversation.. He’d killed the polyjuiced boy and then he’d gone upstairs and had sex with some young girl.. and then he’d sent her away in the next moment with just as little warning. Being in his presence was like walking out over a frozen lake in springtime and watching the icy water rushing below the clear layer, knowing that it could crack without warning at any second.

The words were sour in her mouth. “Yes Master.”

Grindelwald smiled and reached out to stroke her cheek with a finger. She remained still although she really wanted to turn her head and bloody well bite him.   
“Good girl, Maia.. You see.. you will adapt to your new home.” His finger brushed lightly over her bottom lip and she watched as his eyes darkened.   
“You do not need to call me Master” he said, sounding preoccupied. “I told you upon our first meeting that you may call me Gellert.”   
Her lip tickled. She strained not to wet it with her tongue. 

“Yes Gellert.” She said tonelessly and turned her head slightly. “Where is the bathroom please?”


	73. Chapter 73

The bathroom was very nice. Ridiculously, unnecessarily luxurious, but then what did she really expect in a castle that looked like it was made of gold and polished sugarcubes.. She had no idea how the shower worked – there were too many fixtures and buttons and things she couldn’t identify.   
Fiddling, she managed to persuade water to issue forth from the primary shower head (as opposed to the ten or twelve smaller heads that were ranged around the periphery of the shower) and determined that it was warm enough to wash beneath.   
She was washing her hair with the delicately scented shampoo that she had obtained from a porcelain and gold dispenser, and had her eyes closed as she massaged the lather in, when an unexpected touch upon her waist made her yelp and leap away, blinking painfully at the sharp sting of the shampoo in her eyes and almost falling over as she slipped on the floor. She was caught and pulled up to a stable upright position before the shampoo on her face was scourgified away. 

“GET OUT!! What the HELL are you doing in here?! I’m bloody showering.. You said I could-!” She tried to cover up her body with her arms. 

The psychopathic German dark wizard stood half under the spray, looking down at her with clear amusement. Naked. She refused to allow her eye to glance down at his body that was, even in her peripheral vision, unmistakeably that of a grown man, rather than a youth.   
Even restricting herself to above the shoulder perusal, being faced with him in such close, not to say intimate, proximity was a troubling prospect. The ends of his blond curls were damp and darker than the rest of his light hair, trailing over the tops of his shoulders. Unlike her own hair, she saw that his did not frizz in the damp.   
His blue eyes were sharp and clever, yet seemed to evince an intelligence that was quite different to the youthful Tom’s – closer to that of Voldemort perhaps. Although there was something calmer.. almost ponderous and inexorable in Grindelwald’s eyes; like the inevitable motion of continents or heavenly bodies. The blue orbs were warm, but it was not a kind warmth.. more a subtle merciless, yet genuine amusement with the world, as if it were a living, struggling, specimen on a table, that he were thoroughly enjoying dissecting, in order to determine how it was composed.   
He had strong masculine features that were squarer than Tom’s angelic perfection and Voldemort’s wild monochromatic extremes. Together with the small dark blonde moustache and goatee that he wore, he was unmistakeably a wizard in his prime – a man at the peak of his physical strength and capabilities. And those capabilities were intimidating. Not even Voldemort would control more of the world at the height of his power – Grindelwald was presently holding most of Europe in his palm and was poised to seize the British Isles too. 

“I asked whether you would like to bathe.. I did not say that I would not join you. You are mine now, Maia. I will see you.. I will..enjoy you..”

The self assured smile he wore had an element of challenge to it. He was waiting for her to fight him. She could sense it. If she tried to escape.. if she tried to attack him, he would have the opportunity to immediately assert his physical dominance. She would lose all control if that happened. If she had any control now.. it was the kind of control she had had around Lucius – a tenuous fragile control that was bestowed only through some ephemeral moral behavioural code the other was temporarily enjoying playing to.

Hermione wrapped her arms around herself more tightly and tried to think of something suitably diplomatic to say in order to get him to back off.   
“I’m not ..comfortable..with you being here ...yet” she tried. “Its.. so ..soon.. Please give me some time to adjust...”

The dark wizard tilted his head as if considering this.   
“No. I have waited long enough for you.”  
He reached for her and, surprisingly gently, placed his warm hands on her waist. Very much against her wishes, he pulled her forward until she stood inches away, under the spray.   
She shifted her eyes to the wall.   
Tom had recognised the importance of not using legilimency, in light of the fact that she came from a later point in his own time line, but there was no reason for Grindelwald to take the same care.   
He didn’t even know she wasn’t from this time and if she told him, he’d probably go through her mind with a fine tooth comb. Particularly if he discovered the memory that Professor Dumbledore would be defeating him in a duel sometime early next year and bringing to an end his reign of terror.   
If he was a legilimens then she would be in trouble.

“When in my presence, I wish you to look always at me, Maia.”

His voice was low and soft, but there was no mistaking that it was an order.   
She reluctantly slid her eyes back and focussed upon the adam’s apple that was level with her eyes.   
His left hand removed itself from her hip and a finger under her chin tilted her head backward to look up at him. Uneasy she kept her gaze focussed on the point just between his eyes. It seemed the safest place to look.   
His chuckle suggested that he knew what she was doing, but, surprisingly, he allowed it.   
She flinched a second later as the shower was suddenly filled with sprays of water coming from all directions. The hand that had touched her face had obviously moved to the panel of buttons and switches to alter their configuration.  
It was strange to be showered on all sides at once. The temperature and water pressure had increased; she felt she was buffeted by wonderfully hot massaging needles of water. The steam was fragrant too!.. it complimented the scent of the shampoo she was still wearing. 

“Much better” Grindelwald purred and drew her closer still. She squirmed as she felt hot wet skin pressed against her. Somehow.. this felt like a betrayal of Tom in a way that even sleeping with Abraxas had not. She allowed herself to be turned a few degrees to the left and then the older wizard was leaning her back further under the main spray. She didn’t take her arms away from where they were wrapped around her body protectively, but neither did she resist as his large hands carefully stroked and combed through her wet curls, rinsing them of the shampoo.   
Afterward however, he didn’t stop. He reached over her shoulder and then a moment later rubbed his hands together. She grasped why when he ran them over her shoulders and down her back, washing her with soapy lather. She blushed impotently, uncomfortable on a host of different levels with where this was going. 

He was very thorough.  
Peeling her arms away from around her body gently he washed first one arm, then the other, then her underarms.. her sides before moving to her abdomen, ribs and then her small breasts.   
She couldn’t help looking away again when he cupped them both and she felt her nipples react automatically pebbling against his palms.  
He didn’t tell her to look back this time, he simply devoted more attention to her breasts, teasing and plucking them lightly until she felt her breath growing shallower. Then, with an expression of satisfaction, he moved on, large hands stroking over her collarbone.

She wished she could say that what he was doing felt horrible.   
SHE felt horrible because what he was doing didn’t. She wanted to hate it.. to resist it.. but it was all so gentle and matter-of-fact and non-confrontational. And he’d already said that he’d hurt Tom if she disobeyed.  
Although perhaps Tom would prefer her to disobey right now, she wondered to herself.

When he started again on the bottom half of her body, beginning with her feet, he did not kneel before her, he simply stepped back a little, bent and picked up her foot, forcing her to wiggle unsteadily on the other to keep her balance. Her knee was bent up against her body uncomfortably. She wasn’t that flexible.   
Thankfully he kept his attentions there restricted to simply washing and not massaging. His fingers stroked up her calf, to the top of her thigh before he released her foot and held out a hand for the other one.  
The moment dragged on before she relented, lifting her other leg and placing her heel in his hand. His pleased smile made her feel terrible but at least he didn’t say anything. 

When he had finished her other leg he let her drop it and then stepped close again. She felt his hands stroke down the small of her back and then dip lower, over the cheeks of her ass. He didn’t delve between them but his hands did linger there as he moved closer still, obliging her to step back. This was repeated until she found herself against the shower wall. Then his hands moved from her ass, sliding over her slick skin back to her hips.   
She resisted when his foot tried to nudge her into a wider stance and at that his eyes darkened slightly.   
“You have been such a good girl up till now, Maia” he growled. “Don’t spoil it..”

She glowered up at him defiantly.   
“I don’t want this”

“That matters not” he responded, his accent stronger. “You belong to me now.”

She moved to wrap her arms around herself again and he caught her wrists easily. He did not hurt her at all, nor did he affix them anywhere, as Tom might have done – he simply looked at her with a low burning warning in his eyes. When she remained unrepentant he remarked lightly “I do not think you want me to punish the boy for this.. you do not wish him to learn of this at all, hm?”

At that she hesitated.

No. She didn’t want Tom to know she had showered with their enemy. She didn’t want him to know that she had allowed the dark wizard to touch her like he had.   
She didn’t want to even think of how he might react; how the man currently before her might enjoy provoking and then punishing a magically incapacitated Tom.   
The image of him taking apart that boy polyjuiced to look like Tom was still quite fresh enough in her memory. She didn’t want to give him any excuse at all to harm Tom. 

Perhaps if Tom were well.. he might be able to come up with a plan to free himself even if she couldn’t save him.

When the blond wizard again nudged her foot gently with his own, she reluctantly widened her stance to the desired degree.   
He smiled again, as if she were a dog that had performed a trick successfully. The hand on her hip moved and she gritted her teeth, knowing what would come next. 

Really.. after everything, she thought she should be used to a man simply taking liberties like this, uncaring whether she wanted it or not, but it grated against her.   
Things had been different recently. There was only Tom.. and she’d had magic..   
Now it felt like she was unarmed around a new version of Lucius Malfoy.   
True, Grindelwald hadn’t hurt her.. and he’d said he didn’t intend to.. but he did what he wanted, he was unpredictable and dangerous and he wanted to harm Tom.   
And at present, his fingertips were tracing her folds with the lightest of touches. As if she might break, he stroked, exploring her. Carefully his middle finger circled her channel and then dipped inside.  
The look on the other man’s face was one of delight. He was obviously very pleased with the findings of his exploration. His thumb stroked tentatively over her clit and she glared at the wall, trying to ignore the tugging thrum inside.  
It was difficult to remain unaffected, even as clinically and carefully as he was investigating her.   
Whatever it was that made others attracted to her.. well.. it made her attracted to others too, she’d noted. And it was worse, the more powerful the other wizard was.  
Grindelwald was probably the most powerful wizard in the world at this time.

Well.. except for Albus Dumbledore perhaps.

Curiously.. she mused again on how her ‘influence’ hadn’t seemed to include Albus Dumbledore. She hadn’t been at ALL attracted to him either.  
Was it simply because she’d known him as a rather elderly wizard and the thought was just ewwww?   
It wasn’t an impossible idea, she decided as she tried to ignore the way her hips wanted to rock slightly to get just a little bit more pressure on the tiny bud of nerves that the blonde wizard was teasing frustratingly lightly, with damnable patience and an expression of quiet scrutiny.  
On the other hand.. what if Dumbledore was just gay? He’d never been interested in any witches, as far as she’d ever heard. Maybe whatever pull she had, only worked on people who were compatible in terms of their and her own sexual preferences. 

Grindelwald’s thumb moved just a little faster, the feather-light sensation an itch that begged to be scratched.. he still wasn’t pressing hard enough to give her what she needed. Relenting, she bucked forward against his hand, trying to help herself.   
At that he withdrew his thumb from her clit, smiling wider at the slight disappointment she couldn’t quite keep from her face. His hand delved lower, sliding deeper between her legs. She squeaked in protest when his slightly slicked finger traced around the rosette of her arse and probed it tentatively without penetrating. He didn’t remain there long however and then he was pulling her back under the water and against his.. admittedly quite warm.. and firm.. and large..body.   
One particular part of his anatomy was not as firm as it could be, her eyes couldn’t help darting down to note. He was only half hard.   
She wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or insulted.   
As if he had recognised where her thoughts were located, he smiled wolfishly, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him to stroke her back again slowly.

“You are perfect” he purred above. “and not as opposed to my affection as you would like me to believe. But there is no point in ..excitement.. when I do not intend to have you now.” He pressed a brief kiss to her forehead and she scowled.   
He was both wrong and an arse. She was completely and utterly opposed to his affections and most people didn’t choose whether they were prepared to be aroused or not

“Can I see Tom tonight?” she asked, not really hopeful that her request would be granted.

“No..” he said without a trace of rancour. “We will dress and take dinner. Then we will speak with some guests and later you will come to bed with me. I have no interest this evening in listening to your thoughts about the halfblood.”

Swallowing, she tried to press to the back of her mind the knowledge that she herself was far lower on the blood purity hierarchy than Tom was. If Grindelwald learned she was a muggleborn, there was no telling what he might do. 

 

The dress that he gave her was not the beautiful black diamond-encrusted one that she’d seen long ago when she visited Berlin with Tom, but it was close. It was a rich indigo blue, shot with tiny little stones that mimicked the night sky. The elf that had helped her into it did not speak to her and remained several metres away the entire time, but one wiggle of its fingers and her wet hair dried, glossed and straightened itself to silky waves.

Grindelwald knocked and let himself into the dressing room seconds after she was finished, pleased gaze drifting down her form. She found herself glancing over him in the mirror she faced. His robes were set in a deeper shade than her own and offset on the sleeve cuffs with a paler, almost muted aquamarine hue. The style and cut of the robes emphasised his broad heavy shoulders and tapering waist and their colour transformed his hair into bright gold and made his blue eyes glow.   
He looked quite dashing, she had to admit. If she had seen him on the street once upon a time, she might have thought he looked handsome.

“Enchanting” he pronounced, his eye still roving over her appreciatively, and offered his arm

The shoes she had been given were rather high stilettos. Much higher than she had worn before and she wobbled on them precariously. When she tried to walk to him, he smiled suddenly in genuine amusement and, without warning, caught her up, lifting her into his arms and holding her. 

“I think you will break your pretty neck on the hanging stairs if I allow you to walk”

The ‘hanging stairs’ as he’d referred to them – were exactly that. Large glassy beams were hung from long tensile golden wires. They were very heavy so they did not swing wildly when pushed but they still moved. Noticably. Nothing was actually attached to anything else. It was horrible. She felt quite queasy as he carried her down.   
In the memory she’d climbed them using her hands to pull herself up faster as he moved quickly upstairs toward the bedroom. In real life they were so much worse. They swayed when he stepped on them. And they chimed softly when they knocked together, as if each stair were a note on a xylophone.   
If the dark wizard noticed her discomfort, he ignored it convincingly. 

When they reached the foot of the stairs, he still did not place her down. He continued through the large foyer into a room to the left, which, she saw was decorated with a more subdued evening note. The icy white was dominated by dark blues and misty greys. There were tall windows over which thick curtains had already been drawn. Rich carpets covered the chilly marble floors and there were many very large and beautiful landscape oils on the walls. They moved in an unobtrusive manner. This one depicting a boat floating on the ocean at night, another a deep dark forest, tips of trees waving slightly in the unseen breeze. There were several other forest themed paintings, she noted. The single unifying factor about all of the landscapes, attractive as they were, was that there were neither people nor animals in any of them.   
Perhaps Grindelwald was paranoid about little painted eyes watching him?!

She wondered what the time was. How long had she been sleeping before he allowed her to wake?!

In the centre of the room was a long rectangular formal dining table.   
There were two places set. One was at the head of the table and one to the left of the head.   
That was exactly where Tom had placed her at the Slytherin table in the Grand hall too, she noted.

The meal was delicious, even if somewhat heavy. Nevertheless her mood was sombre.  
She had no idea what she was eating until he informed her that it was reindeer with semmelknoedel and a red wine sauce. The winter vegetables she could identify. Apparently the strange spongey white semmelknoedel balls were a favoured dish in the land of his birth. 

She ate and tried to ignore the way he frequently looked to her with a soft thoughtful expression, or checked that she was enjoying the meal.. – yes thank you - that the wine was suitable.. – She admitted that she didn’t actually like wine much so he summoned a house elf and had it bring elderflower cordial instead.   
It all felt very similar to the way Draco had fussed over her. She realised suddenly what it meant for him to have told the truth when he said in the last memory that Dumbledore had conveyed to her, that he dreamed of her most nights.   
He was eager and nervous. Like anyone who had long anticipated something, he was anxious upon finally receiving the object of his desires.

She hoped to hell that she could twist this to her advantage without fumbling it and making him incredibly angry.

When she declined dessert he seemed disappointed but did not insist. Instead he helped her from the table, taking her hand on his arm and walking with her slowly to the far end of the room, and through a dog leg corridor. Although it was uncomfortable and precarious to walk in the very high heels, he pretended not to notice her difficulty and simply ensured that she did not slip or fall.  
The room that he led them both to turned out to be a very small library with a tiny, very nearly ornamental, fire and several comfortable armchairs. 

Someone was already seated in one of them. 

The chair was facing away but she could see a hand on the arm of the chair and a leg slung casually over a knee.  
Uneasy, she slowed. He did not and she had to struggle to catch up or be dragged.  
She tried to see who it was seated there as they approached, but he was on the closer side and his body blocked her view as he assisted her to a small sofa opposite the guest’s chair. 

Hopefully it was Tom.   
But no. It wouldn’t be Tom. Whoever it was, was sitting very calmly and did not seem to radiate anger at all. If anything there was a sense of vague boredom.

Having helped her to sit, Grindelwald moved away to seat himself beside her and she finally got a clear view of their ‘guest’ seated in the chair.

Confusion was swiftly subsumed by rage – the way that he sat, so calm, collected and, yes, bored, bespoke that he had been here before – spoken with this man often. He had little independent interest in being here tonight.   
Cygnus was the rat. He was the nasty little creep who had told Grindelwald all about her.. all about Tom and the Death eaters.   
Traitor!!

He didn’t bother to greet her politely. At least that. She was already grinding her teeth in fury at having to sit and look at him, unable to draw on her magic to strike at him. 

“Now Maia.. Do not look so angry. Young Cygnus did not bring you to me as you know. You came unassisted. Cygnus has been reporting on events at Hogwarts for several years now. Long before you arrived.”

“You lying traitorous little creep!” she hissed at the boy opposite who bore a passing resemblance to a younger version of Harry’s godfather Sirius.   
Cygnus only smiled and sniffed, amused.

“Maia.. Cygnus has told me of many things he has observed since you have been at Hogwarts, but there is much he did not know. Too much. He does not know where you are truly from.. he is not certain of your age or whether Maia Schiller is your real name.. he does not know how or when you came to carry Tom Riddle’s mark... He has not found anyone who knows these things.”   
Grindelwald trailed off with a meaningful look.

“Good.” She said simply. “He’s a worm and I wish he didn’t know anything at all about me.

Cygnus smirked and spoke up now. “I’m not even sure Tom knows. He’s acted very strangely when it comes to her. At one point he seemed averse to using legilimency on her. And that’s ignoring the fact that he warned everyone not to touch her in the beginning and then, unexplainably decided to share her with Abraxas, Septimus and Sorrenson. For a while I thought Parker might be involved too..but seems like it was just those three.   
Tom is not naturally inclined to share anything. He’d burn to ash something he did not value, before he’d give it to someone else.   
The whole school has gone barking mad since she arrived. I’m fairly sure she had something to do with Professor Slughorn ending up in St Mungo’s spell damage ward and, on the day I brought you Tom, there was a massive shitstorm.. sorry..disturbance.. at school when at least twenty students from various houses banded together to attack her and Tom separately.   
I’ve told you about the situation with Tom – but I found out yesterday that the students who attacked her were trying to abduct her. And not for anyone either. Apparently they wanted to keep her hidden away somewhere for use as some kind of whore or something.”

Hermione’s eyes darted to the face of the blonde man seated next to her. It had darkened considerably.

“I think this last information might have been better saved for private discussion Cygnus” Grindelwald admonished lightly. “But you are right. it is troubling. I have thought that my own fascination with her must be due to some enchantment or other. To have so many affected – it is very nearly proof. And yet.. you are not affected it seems, so it must be a selective enchantment.”

“It’s an aftereffect of a potions accident!” she said quickly, hoping to avoid legilimency.   
“A kind of low grade amortentia. I can’t help it. I haven’t cast any kind of enchantment on anyone and I told Tom that I shouldn’t go to Hogwarts. But by then he wasn’t willing to listen.”

She took in the interested questioning faces of the dark wizard and his pet snitch and, sighing, answered the questions she considered most pertinent before they could be asked.

“I don’t know what potions were being brewed – the brewer didn’t survive the accident. I think it only affects those who are naturally attracted to females. It is mild attraction until they touch me and then it becomes almost obsession.   
I don’t know of any cure or way to reduce it.   
...I recently discovered.. that is.. someone else discovered that everyone who is affected is constantly draining my magic unless I engage in some form of intimacy with them to reverse the flow. Since they’re all in another country now.. I don’t know whether they’ll continue to sap my magic or whether that will stop. It would be better if you let me go back to Hogwarts – your own magic will increase the longer you don’t touch me.”

She thought that was a pretty convincing argument really. What wizard wants to become weaker?! Surely if Grindelwald were so motivated by power he would prefer to just cash in on someone else’s magic.

He looked disturbed in fact, which gave her hope. But when he spoke, she realised that she was talking to someone with a rather more psychopathic mindset.

“Indeed that sounds problematisch - but it is very simple Maia. I will kill all other wizards affected and then no more problem. Cygnus – Bring me a list of all the wizards affected at Hogwarts.”

“NO!!” she yelped, realising the implications for Abraxas, Septimus and Sorrenson.   
Cygnus too, seemed to be considering the prospect of possibly delivering three of his friends to their deaths.

“Do not think on it, little flower” the wizard at her side advised. “It will be soon resolved.   
What else have you to report, Cygnus?”

The boy sitting casually in the armchair of the most powerful wizard in the hemisphere, brushed aside his hair and addressed all of his attention to Grindelwald. Hermione recognised suddenly that he was not just a loathsome rat – he was a besotted loathsome rat. He looked at Grindelwald the same way that Sorrenson had looked at Abraxas. With the obvious difference that Grindelwald was not an oblivious young fop and he definitely did swing that way. She wondered whether there was anything between them.

“The Aurors have been combing the school since she and Tom disappeared. Dippet called off classes today and tomorrow. More than half the school has been questioned but I don’t know what the results are. The houses have been keeping to themselves and somehow the contacts I have in Ravenclaw have been ostracised. I don’t know whether it is because of their Slytherin connections or because one of the bright sparks in that house has worked out that I’m not trustworthy...”  
Hermione was amused when the disloyal death eater flinched at Grindelwalds sharp threatening glare.  
“I’ll find out! I’ll fix it. Don’t worry. They won’t find me out! You know how good I am at this. Have I let you down before!?”  
Grindelwald seemed to calm down slightly and Cygnus shifted in his seat, somewhat ruffled.   
“I started a rumour that Maia and Tom had eloped but it didn’t take. I suspect Dumbledore killed it. He has been behaving very strangely. He called Abraxas to his office this morning. When he came out he looked upset and he wouldn’t tell me why.”

“Stay away from Albus. He will discover you. It is better if he does not notice you at all.”

“I don’t see why he cares that we’re gone..” Hermione grumbled before she could stop herself.  
Both pairs of eyes turned to her in surprise.

“Why do you say that?” Blonde eyebrows hoisted themselves questioningly.

She considered backtracking but then decided that she probably wouldn’t be able to get away with it anyway and it would just increase the chance that he’d want to take a look in her mind. The last thing she needed was to provoke him to use legilimency.

“Well.. he told me to come to you.. for the greater good, if you’d believe it. He showed me the memory you sent him and tried to guilt me into coming here.”

Cygnus frowned, confused, but Grindelwald snorted softly, amused. “I am glad. For once Albus’ most irritating quality works in my favour.. that damned tendency to play the conscience.. that terrible beseeching patience. You will never know how many times I have wished to curse him for it.”

“Well.. its a bit hypocritical that he’s concerned about me now.” Hermione added unnecessarily, wondering how many times Grindelwald wanted to curse Dumbledore, could have cursed Dumbledore and didn’t.   
“And he’s always hated Tom so worrying about him is just ridiculous too.”

“Is that so?” The blonde commented thoughtfully. “I do not know if that is true. Disapproval and hate are not the same. Albus has always disapproved of me also.” He paused and then seemed to think better of what he was about to say, waving the matter off with a gesture and turning his icy blue gaze back upon Cygnus.  
“What else have you to tell me? I have other appointments planned this evening” 

Cygnus was looking a bit annoyed. “Nothing really. The holidays are coming up soon though and-“

“No. I have no need of you at present. Spend them with one of your friends or remain at Hogwarts. I shall call upon you when I require your report. I do not expect you contacting me unless the matter is urgent. Return tomorrow with the names I require.” 

The horrible, sneaky, traitorous rat sitting opposite nodded angrily, as much to say ‘whatever’ and stood up, moving to the door without a backward glance at her. She had the feeling Grindelwald was probably sleeping with him. It sounded like Cygnus had spent time here in the holidays before and he’d seemed irritated at the remarks that suggested a less than neutral relation between Dumbledore and the dark despot he was serving.

When they were alone, Grindelwald pulled her closer roughly. 

“So many wizards have touched you? Twenty, he said!”

“No!” she corrected quickly.   
“or.. I think one or two might have touched my hand or something at some point. No. I haven’t had anything to do with any of them.”

“And the others? He mentioned four wizards within Tom Riddle’s group.

“...” she wanted to deny it. Grindelwald didn’t seem to like her silence. “I have already heard of your affairs with them. Cygnus was thorough. They will be brought here and killed. I will not take the risk that you are deceitful.”

“No! Please don’t hurt them! Please!” She tried, turning and almost climbing up onto his lap. “Please.. please – let them live!”

“I should let them continue to drain your magic?! No. They will die.”

“But i’ll still grow weaker if you do that!” she protested. “it’ll just be slower. The only way for me to grow stronger.. the only way for you to really gain power from me.. is for me to be..um.. is for me to-“ She swallowed and pulled herself together. “The only way that I’ll grow strong and, consequently – you’ll grow strong – is for me to take more than one wizard to my bed.” 

Grindelwald looked aggravated.   
“I will not accept my witch sleeping with other wizards!” he declared contemptuously. “I will find a different way. There are potions one can take to replenish one’s magic when depleted.”

This was news to Hermione. And it was of no help to saving Abraxas, Septimus and Sorrenson.

“but..” she started and found a warm finger placed over her lips. “Enough, Maia. Let us return to the other questions you have refused to answer”

She felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. Great. Better and better – three people she cared about were to be killed just as soon as the bastard could get them in his clutches and now it was time for the polite interrogation to begin. No doubt it would cease to be polite when he began to dispute her answers.

“My name is Maia Schiller. I’m not sixteen – i’m eighteen. Tom made me lie. I met him in London. I was placed in the orphanage where he lived over summer. The muggle police found me living on the street and brought me there.”

He frowned, concerned. “Why were you living on the street?! Where are your parents? Family?”

“Dead. Your soldiers killed my mother. Somewhere in France. I don’t know where we were. I escaped.”

This seemed to bother him even more than the notion of her living on the street. “Why were they killed? Tell me of your parents.”

She bit her lip, undecided whether to repeat the halfblood lie she’d gotten away with at Hogwarts or to try to pretend to be a pureblood in order to satisfy the german dictator’s sensibilities about blood purity.

“My mother was a witch. She studied history. Muggle history. She was English.”

“and your father?” he asked, sounding unenthused.

“was...not a wizard. He practiced a form of muggle medicine. Dentistry. He came from a town in Germany. I don’t remember. I was younger when my mother mentioned it. He died when I was young.. I am not sure whether my mother left him before that. Its all.. a bit hazy.”

“So you are a halfblood... Cygnus told me that it was rumoured but I had hoped it was a lie.. either yours or his. He is a foolish boy. I could easily see him lying about such things in the hope of convincing me you are unworthy.   
Your blood status is more than unfortunate.. however I have had many weeks to think on it. It will not matter I think... For the present it is of no consequence. I am not seeking children. Naturally I cannot pollute my own line by breeding with you.. but you are very young. I do not think you want children so soon either, no?

Hermione shook her head. No. No she didn’t want to have children with Grindelwald. That thought sparked a sudden realisation in her mind. She needed more birth control potion here. having no magic meant having no way to cast a contraceptive charm. She’d need to take care.   
And that thought led another by the hand.. potions.. She needed to brew the blood bond satisfying potion. Crap. She didn’t want to collapse again and she must be getting quite close to the point she was at last time when she’d gone down for the count.

“If you are ever asked, you will say that you lied about your origins out of shame. You are a pureblood, Maia. Your father was a wizard of title who refused to recognise the shameful birth. You will not reveal his identity.”

Her thoughts snapped back to the moment jarringly and she nodded absently.

“It is a terrible thing to be a bastard child, but these things happen. It is more easily forgiven than the stain of dirty muggle blood. No one must know that you are a mudblood! Do you understand? I will ensure that all necessary papers and magical tests are created to show that your blood is unspoiled. We will not speak of it again. From this moment you are a pureblood, Maia.”

“But.. I don’t know how to act.. I don’t know any of the traditions. No one will believe it! What if they secretly test me somehow?!”   
She couldn’t explain it but the thought of pretending to be a pureblood rubbed her up the wrong way terribly. It was like being back in school and admitting that Draco Malfoy was right when he spouted horrible rubbish about blood purity.  
That thought made her smirk though. Oh if she could only go to Hogwarts when Draco was fourteen and inform him that Gellert Grindelwald, the very emblem of blood purity, was going to go to great lengths to undermine every test of blood purity just so that he could take a muggleborn to his bed.   
Ha! And Voldemort hadn’t even bothered with faking her blood status. He basically thumbed his absent nose at his supporters and did what he liked with her. He’d bound her.. marked her..  
Poor little fourteen year old Draco Malfoy would be so upset if he knew that the three wizards he probably admired the most – Grindelwald, Voldemort and his own father, were only paying lip service to the principles they spouted.

“No one will question your origins when you are on my arm. They will not dare to test you..and I will see that you know how to behave. Do not worry. Now, tell me of this supposed..potions accident”

Hermione thought for a moment and then began inventing freely.   
“We were visiting a friend of my mother’s – he was a potions master. I was thirteen. My mother asked me to go and tell him that supper was prepared.   
I walked into the laboratory to find him brewing. He glanced up at me and asked me to hand him a silver stirrer. I had only approached, placed my hand upon the stirrer when the potion exploded.   
He, unfortunately, was destroyed, along with all of his notes and equipment. My own burns were able to be healed.  
It was not realised that I had this affect upon others until I was fourteen. My mother believed at first that I were somehow provoking the attention men gave me. Flirting with them.”  
She managed to manufacture a shiver.  
“When she realised, she took me to healers, potions masters, all manner of experts, to try to heal the condition. There was no cure to be found. Then she started bundling me up head to toe, as if I had some kind of disease. That worked for a couple of years. Travelling around, trying to work where we could.   
After she was killed, I tried to get to England. It was..difficult to persuade others to help me without letting them see me.. without touching their skin.. The policeman who brought me to the orphanage was a close call. He was not a nice man at all.”

The blond wizard at her side looked somewhat sceptical. “And that is all. That is the truth? How is it possible that such an accident can lead you to exchange magic with others?! Are you certain?! 

Hermione bit her lip. “That’s all. Yes. I don’t know exactly how it works.. The um.. the others that I was with... it was because of the obsession..not anything else. Tom was worried that his servants would turn against him if he didn’t allow it.   
The finding out about the magic came later. A servant of Tom’s observed that my magical potency decreases when I am not..active.. I mean.. sexually. You know. And he also observed that the magical potency of the wizards with which I had been.. um... with.. increases when we are not together. He guessed that the two effects were somehow related.   
He also found that.. Tom’s magic was decreasing..but more slowly than mine. It decreased whenever we were intimate.   
So... I absorb magic from my partner.. and I shed it to them whenever we’re apart. I guess.   
I’m not certain, no. It just seems the most likely explanation for the evidence.   
It means..that if I am monogamous – you will be absorbing magic from me constantly, and either we will be intimate too seldom – in which case i’ll weaken – or too frequently – in which case you’ll lose power.  
Tom wasn’t happy about the...sharing.. thing.. either. But it was too late. Others were already affected. He changed his mind about allowing it and kept the others away from me. But we both lost a lot of power while the others became very strong...Well.. they also became miserable and obsessed.   
Toward the end I could barely manage a spell. But..I felt a lot better when he allowed Abraxas to visit again.   
Then the attack happened. I think.. if I hadn’t been stronger due to being with Abraxas, I might not have been able to escape when they surrounded me in the corridor. 

Grindelwald seemed to think on this quite heavily. His brow furrowed as if he were considering a number of weighty alternatives.

“Who else knows of it?!”

Hermione grimaced. “I don’t know. Tom.. Septimus.. maybe some of the Ravenclaws. I think Septimus said something about them knowing something. I don’t remember exactly what he said. I’m sorry”

The wizard brushed it away with a gesture. “Perhaps it does not matter. I shall have them all brought here. I will learn what they know and who they have spoken with and decide what I wish to do. If they have been studying you more closely than Cygnus, they may be of use before they die.”   
He seemed pensive again for a moment but his expression shifted again suddenly when he looked back at her.  
“How is it that you took this mark?” He reached for her left arm, pulling it toward him and examining more closely the stormcloud surrounded dark mark. The snake on her arm hissed and snapped at his fingers when they travelled over the skin.

Hermione sighed, thinking quickly. She offered a somewhat embellished version of the truth.  
“Tom was..the oldest child at the orphanage. I could tell immediately that he was a wizard – you’ve felt how strong his magic is. He gave me a lot of attention, as the only non muggle there. He touched me, possibly innocently. And then everything developed from there.   
I told him that I couldn’t go to Hogwarts with him - he threatened someone else that I considered a friend..so I took his mark. Then I didn’t have a choice anymore. I have to obey him. I can’t not obey him when he gives me an order.”

The dark wizard nodded as if this was not new information.

“He has been punished for refusing to remove it from you. I have learned that it is..difficult.. to remove a mark when the caster lives and is not in agreement.   
You will therefore take care you do not disappoint me, Maia – it would be preferable to me to kill Tom Riddle. However I see that it will be easier for you to learn to obey in the beginning if you are worried for him. Eventually.. he will no longer be needed. You will obey because you will love me.”

Hermione felt cold.

“What did you do to him?! Please don’t hurt him! I’m..obeying.. You don’t need to do anything to him. I’ll be better if you just treat him well. I’m telling you what you want to know. I’ll do what you want. Don’t... just don’t..” She had the horrible image of Tom horribly injured, alone, wondering where she was and if she was coming for him.   
“Please – can I see him?! G-Gellert.. please?!..”   
His name felt alien on her lips and she had to struggle not to actually reach out and grip the man’s robes in her desperate need to persuade him to take her to Tom immediately.

“Perhaps tomorrow” The German answered with sly satisfaction. “We shall see how I am feeling toward you in the morning. If you are very good perhaps.. we shall visit him.. briefly.” 

She knew that she was playing exactly into his hands. He would just hold Tom above her from now on, if it worked well. There would always be the threat of his suffering.. his death.

But then.. this was the only way. And..Tom couldn’t really die. He went on to become Lord Voldemort. It was how history recorded it! She wouldn’t be here now if he hadn’t!  
Professor Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald next year. So.. so.. at worst all she had to do was everything he said for a few months until Dumbledore grew a pair and stepped up to right things.  
And time...couldn’t really change.. Tom didn’t believe it could anyway.   
But then.. if that was the case.. why had he been willing to forgo using legilimency?! If he couldn’t change anything, it wouldn’t matter.

Maybe he wasn’t sure.  
He’d said it was a theory. He’d reasoned it out logically.

What if he was wrong?!   
What if she’d already changed time and created a paradox. What if there was nowhere for her to return to because she’d erased her own timeline?! 

Grindelwald was looking at her in a way that sent a shiver down her spine. She remained fearfully still while he leaned close and slid one arm beneath her knees, the other behind her, lifting her without effort and placing her upon his lap. He was so close now. His hand stroked down her leg in the dress until he reached her feet, where he slipped off the high heeled shoe and dropped it with a soft clatter to the floor. Its twin followed a second later. 

“Alas.. I had not considered that you are so very young and untutored. Most of the wardrobe I have bought for you is full of such shoes. I am more used to the demands of witches twice your age. ...I will have the elves transfigure less dangerous footwear. I wish you to be able to explore the castle.”

Hermione realised she was offering him a genuinely thankful smile. She felt the atmosphere become heavy and knew that it had been a bad idea to smile like that. He was going to kiss her.. and then he was going to take her upstairs and probably do what he had done to that glamoured girl in the memory.   
Well.. probably that and more. 

Pale blue eyes fixed on her own, almost hypnotically, his hand drifted lightly to her ankles, trailing slowly back up her calves and sliding the elegant dress she wore up in the process. Silkily the dress moved up past her knees. He was no longer pushing it higher, instead his hand had slipped beneath it. His fingertips were hot as they stroked her inner thigh in teasing little circles.  
And she loathed herself because some small part of her, that obviously had no morals whatsoever, didn’t mind... Wanted more... Was completely delighted at the touch of the powerful wizard.   
Her thoughts dissolved as warm unfamiliar lips pressed lightly upon her own, accompanied by a strange tickle of facial hair. She was surprised at the absence of conquering dominance. She felt his other hand pulling her closer and didn’t resist even as it wound itself into her hair in a way she knew Tom liked when he was in a rough mood.   
But the kiss was not deepened. In fact, Grindelwald pulled back a second later, looking at her thoughtfully. 

“You are a wondrous temptation.. but I will not allow myself to begin what I have not the time to continue. I will not hurry what I have waited so long to taste and the evening is not yet finished.   
I had said earlier that we would meet with several guests. Cygnus arrival was not planned. The guests I wished to entertain are waiting still.”

Hermione looked back at him warily, trying to ignore the slight warmth she was feeling in her core.  
“Are they male?!”

“Some of them. Do not be concerned. They will not touch you. I will not allow it.”

Hermione shook her head. “I didn’t touch those students who attacked us either. If they’re at least slightly attracted to females then its better if I don’t meet them”

“Maia.. None of the men present tonight would dare to act against my wishes. It would be their death. Do you not realise who I am!?”

It was useless, she could see.   
Inwardly she groaned. This would end one of three ways, she was certain. Either she’d end up being passed around among his dratted friends, just as she had with Tom, or one of them would eventually do something stupid and would either get away with it – in which case she’d find herself in a bad situation – or would be killed, which Grindelwald would probably resent, since whoever he wanted to introduce her to was probably either important or important to him. 

“Well.. when this goes wrong, I hope you’ll remember that I thought it was a bad idea. If Tom had just kept me hidden in a room somewhere, none of this would have happened. But no...”

A finger and thumb pressed her lips closed firmly. She felt idiotic with them caught in a duckface pout.

“I am amused because there is no one else alive who would dare to take that tone with me. If you use it too often, I will not be amused anymore. Now.. Get up. Put your shoes back on. We will take drinks in the east library with Lord Von Alms and his wife, Ducat Rozov, Madame Papillion, Generalleutnant Staffel and Oberst Krauser. As you did not like wine with dinner.. I do not think you will enjoy the liqueur we will be drinking. But I do not want you to drink children’s drinks – you are already shamefully young. I do not want to draw still more attention to it. You will drink slowly.. Pretend to drink if you do not like it.”  
He drew his wand and pointed it at her shoes, transfiguring them to lower, more sturdy, heels. They were still pretty high, she thought.   
“You will not speak unless you are spoken to. You will sit by my side and smile. If you are uncertain you will look to me.

Hermione opened her mouth to ask who the people were she was going to meet and why she was meeting them but the expression on the dark wizard’s face made it clear that he was not currently entertaining questions. She looked down again and took his arm when he offered it. He placed his hand upon her own and stroked her fingers.   
“You learn very quickly, Maia. I think I will be very happy with you when I have taught you what I expect of you”  
She grumbled inwardly, cursing herself for not being impulsive enough to throw a massive tantrum. She knew Harry would probably do something reckless and emotional and he’d probably somehow pull it off anyway.   
She didn’t do reckless and emotional well. She was much better with non-confrontational these days. At least.. in situations where she was dealing with dark wizards and had no magic and no means of escape. Non-confrontational seemed to be the way to go. It had worked with Voldemort. Sort of. Sometimes. Confrontational definitely hadn’t worked at least.

 

 

The echoing clack clack of her heels on the marble floor was such a disconsolate sound. It felt like she was completely alone. The way it reverberated around the high rafters in the foyer was just intimidating.   
“Where is Mencius?” she whispered uneasily, unwilling to raise her voice in the silence.   
Grindelwald chuckled. “Oh.. he is here somewhere. He will not come unless I call him. He is a well trained familiar, Maia. And I will not call him now. Our guests are waiting. You will see him tomorrow.”  
She nodded grimly. Somehow, seeing the brightly plumed little bird would have been reassuring. Everything felt quite ominous right now.

The blond wizard led her through a large salon-like room to a long corridor in the back. She paid attention to the path they took till they came to the tall narrow doors that were obviously the east library. With a wandflick, the doors opened quietly and revealed the interior of the room. The room within was very large and the decor was extremely masculine. It was several stories tall and she could make out the dim outlines of aisles of books in the darkened upper levels. On the ground level, she saw that the area off to the right, some distance away was similarly occupied with aisles of books. The east library was actually a library, she realised. It wasn’t a little private affair like the one in Grimmauld place had been – it was a massive, chock full of books library. The area before her, the area that should have been her primary focus was dominated by a huge marble fireplace, the fire within crackling merrily. Torches hung either side of it threw a pleasant light over the chairs and sofas curled around the fire. The assembled guests all looked up from their comfortable conversations and she could feel their evaluation of her. Hermione almost wanted to shrink back and hide behind the man beside her. Swallowing she matched Grindelwald’s stride as he walked across the soft black carpeted floor to a tall comfortable looking wingback chair that was conspicuously empty. A much smaller, more modest armchair stood beside it. The rest of the guests were seated on long sofas and modest armchairs much like her own.   
There was nothing like emphasising to your guests that you were their superior..  
She let herself be seated in the small armchair and Grindelwald sat down in the wingback shortly thereafter. He excused their lateness, explaining that another matter had intruded unexpectedly. Hermione watched two of the men exchange a salacious smirk. It was clear what they thought their other engagement had been. She ignored it, looking over the other ‘guests’ before her. The youngest was a rather attractive man with long shiny mahogany brown hair, who seemed to be in his late twenties and whose narrowed lilac eyes were examining her as if she had grown a second head. The oldest was a woman who had to be over one hundred. She offered a sympathetic smile. Hermione liked her immediately.   
“Finally, the witch we have heard so much about..” one of the salacious smirkers exclaimed. “You are the infamous Maia Schiller? The witch who almost sank Britain?”

Hermione kept her jaw from dropping by sheer will power. She turned an uncertain, faintly accusing eye on Grindelwald, who also looked mildly put out at the man’s comment.

“Staffel!” he snapped. “lass den unsinn. Du siehst doch wie beunruhigt sie ist” He continued without pause in english. “This is indeed my Maia. The most powerful witch I have yet encountered. But I am forgetting my manners.”  
He turned to her, all politeness and formality. She assumed he did not realise she spoke german.   
“Maia.. the rude fellow is Generalleutnant Asmodeus Staffel. He is not quite as foolish as he appears. He is very good in siege strategy in fact. A reason why he has become my second in command. The other reason being his ability to convince me over and over again not to kill him.”

The man in question looked a little older than Grindelwald himself, although not by much. He too had blond hair, although it was straight and of a darker hue than his commander’s light golden curls. Staffel had a broad chested figure, an alert posture and, curiously, was a man who seemed to be perpetually grinning, even when he was not – he reminded Hermione of a fox, somehow. In his hand he nursed a shallow tumbler of black liquid which he swirled absently. Hermione greeted him politely and he moved to offer his hand but withdrew it at the faint shake of Grindelwald’s head. He looked somewhat confused but hid it passably.   
By his side, the man that Grindelwald introduced next, was oberst Rolf Krauser – who was described as a wizard with much potential. Hermione disliked him for no rational reason, since he smiled quite pleasantly at her and asked her, with a subtle german accent, how she did. He had short brown wavy hair, grey eyes and a slender build. He looked to be in his early thirties. She glanced at Grindelwald questioningly but he had already moved on and was introducing Lord Calver Von Alms and his wife Andraea.  
Lord Von Alms reminded her of some kind of sickening hybrid of Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy. He himself looked rather unimpressive. He was quite short, narrow of frame. His eyes were so pale a blue as to appear weak and wraithlike. His chestnut brown hair was styled short and the curls brushed his ears. It didn’t particularly suit him. Yet he was dressed as if he were a prince. The cut and composition of his robes screamed that they had cost several arms and legs, and possibly heads also. No doubt one or two species of small furred animals were slightly more endangered as a result of his taste in clothing. He was looking at her as if he was estimating the possible cost of purchasing her. He did not greet her at all and his eye flicked quickly back to Grindelwald after its thorough perusal of her. 

“How old is the girl, if I may be so bold?”

Hermione could actually feel the temperature in the room drop.

“Calver..” the woman beside him murmured uneasily. Andraea was a rather nervous looking woman, Hermione thought. Her dark brown hair was wound up in an ornate plaited style and her ears dripped with diamonds. Her face made it clear that she had been a true beauty perhaps ten or fifteen years prior but that age and the overuse of beauty enhancement spells were taking their toll on her. The beautiful deep purple crepe dress she wore hung on her thin shoulders and only served to emphasise how pale she was, while the faint blur around her eyes suggested to Hermione that she might be using a glamour to hide dark rings under her eyes. 

The chastising look that Lord Von Alms gave his wife caused her to shrink back and lower her eyes like a beaten child. She breathed an apology and ‘Calver’ turned back to Grindelwald as if nothing had happened.

Apalled, Hermione looked at him with as neutral an expression as she could manage. She was surprised to find a warm hand placed over her own as it lay on the arm of the chair. She glanced up to find Grindelwald’s pale blue eyes watching her solicitously.

“Maia is eighteen, Calver” he answered in a low dangerous voice. “And she is a more powerful witch than any I have met. She is more powerful than most who are present in this room. Her age is of no importance to me in view of that fact.”

“How do you know? What has she done for you to declare her so powerful?!” The peevish voice persisted. Lord Von Alms’ wife looked horrified.

“Oh Von Alms.. You are so tiresome this evening” the youngest man in the room yawned irritably and finished his goblet of red wine. “I do not know why you tolerate him Gellert. He is always such a boor.”  
Lord Von Alms huffed and turned away, folding his arms. Obviously he was lower in the pecking order than the younger man.  
Hermione wanted to sing an aria in honour of the strange-eyed fellow who put Lord ‘jerk’ Von Alms in his place.

“Maia.. may I introduce Ducat Uriel Michaelovich Rozov.” Grindelwald sounded pleased that the man had intervened too.

The young man was looking at her again with lavender eyes narrowed in scrutiny. “Gellert.. I will require a moment of your time in private” he said, forbearing to make any greeting whatsoever.

“Perhaps later, Uriel. Maia.. This.. is a very dear friend of my mother’s family. Madame-...”

“No now Gellert!” The strange young man rose to his feet and strode off into the darkness of the aisles. 

Grindelwald observed his dramatic exit with visible irritation and then looked at her uncertainly. “I will return quite soon. Do not allow Calver and Asmodeus to intimidate you.” He glanced up at the older woman who was looking mildly alarmed now. “Tante Sophie.. perhaps you might like to show Maia the extent of the Library in my absence.”   
He straightened and stalked away, every movement betraying impatience.

She blinked.   
Apparently.. the young man who had put Lord Von Alms in his place was also able to dictate to the dark wizard Grindelwald.   
Who the hell was he?! His name sounded Russian but he’d had no accent at all. Or rather he had an accent, but it wasn’t of any place she could name. It sort of...wandered.. a bit. Here it was a bit French.. there a bit Spanish.. definitely british on the vowel and there were other more german and Slavic twists.. but in general it wasn’t an accent she’d have called Russian.   
Perhaps the Ducat travelled a lot?! What was a Ducat anyway?! Was it like a Duke?

“I am pleased to meet you, Miss Schiller” the elderly witch said with a smile. “Would you like to see the rest of the library? Or shall we go and have a nice-“

“WAS??!”

The furious exclamation in German was followed by a loud string of expletives in the language. Hermione blushed at a few of the more creative ones. They got louder until Grindelwald reappeared, storming over to the group with rage in his eyes.

“I must ask you all to leave. Another urgent matter requires my attention.” 

Generalleutnant Staffel was the first to rise. He looked at his commander with concerned questioning in his eyes. A brisk shake informed him that he was not required. Relieved, Staffel bowed to Grindelwald and then turned and, to Hermione’s surprise, offered her a short bow also.   
“I regret that there was not time to speak with you, Miss Schiller. Perhaps another evening.” He snapped his fingers and indicated that the younger man by his side should come to heel.   
The ‘wizard with potential’ looked at Maia suspiciously before he stood and offered a bow to Grindelwald, departing at the heels of his commanding officer.   
Madame Papillion didn’t even stir. She seemed to have determined to remain.   
Lord Von Alms and his wife left rather ungraciously. The latter seemed anxious to hurry away but her husband perversely took his time in standing and bidding them all an insincere good evening. He took another long pensive look at Hermione before he finally departed and she had the feeling he was memorising every flaw in order to submit an itemised list later. 

The heavy silence that followed the departure of the four guests felt dangerous. Hermione took in the fact that Grindelwald was glaring at her. Peripherally she was aware that Ducat Rozov had returned at some point. He had glided back so smoothly and quietly that she had not noticed. 

“At what point did you think to tell me that you are blood bonded to a vampire?” the dark wizard looming above her growled.

Hermione actually did gape now. “How do you know?!” she sputtered.   
She recovered quickly and her head spun to look at the lilac eyed young man again more speculatively. A rough hand caught her chin and dragged her face back roughly in the blonde wizard’s direction.  
“Who is it?! Uriel tells me they are of the clan Gosthemne. How do you know Albanian vampires?! Little witch, what else have you been keeping from me?! Give me your eyes!”

She lowered them defensively even as she yelped out “I wasn’t keeping it from you – I just didn’t remember to tell you. I brought the ingredients and the spell for the potion I need with me when I came – I would hardly do that if I was keeping it a secret, would I?!. I would have told you tomorrow at the latest when I remembered since I need to be brewing it soon..”

“Soon?! I am told your health is dire. Who is the vampire?! How did this happen?!”

Hermione struggled to think of an adequate excuse.   
“I don’t remember. I was living on the street in London. A man attacked me. When I realised he was a vampire I was scared he would kill me. So I agreed when he asked”

“lie..”   
The soft voice of Ducat Rozov was loud in the silence.

Grindelwald growled furiously and dropped to his knees before her, wrenching her face into position in front of his own.   
“It was unwise of me to allow you to avoid this up to this point. Do not fight me, Maia. You will surrender your mind now...or I will bring you Tom Riddle’s heart on a plate...


	74. Chapter 74

“Gellert.. You are hurting the girl. There is no need for such..brutality.”

Hermione, even in her panic, wondered whether the so called ‘Madame “Papillion” – that couldn’t possibly be her real name, could it?! – actually knew Grindelwald at all.   
This was, after all, a man who slaughtered children, purely to inflict feelings of guilt upon another. He might have been clutching her a bit tightly but it was hardly unbearable agony.. It could not be described as brutality. Tom was rougher than this when he was being affectionate. She decided that it was probably in her interests to be as ‘wounded’ as she possibly could be, nevertheless.

The older witch’s soft concerned voice drew merely a disgusted growl from Grindelwald. He snarled something back in French. Once again Hermione cursed herself for having wasted so much time in the last few months that might have been better spent learning something useful. French would be useful right now.   
The older woman seemed insulted by whatever the dark wizard had told her. She shrank back from the piercing blue eyes, looking away. It was obviously not enough for him. He spat something further in the fair tongue that sounded quite a lot like a command, and with a withering look, the old witch rose slowly to her feet. She offered Hermione a sympathetic look, which metamorphosed into disappointment once again in the glance she tossed at Grindelwald, before turning and walking slowly and carefully from the room, her long antique gown swishing softly in the stillness.

“Now, Maia.. I will have the truth. I will see for myself!” Grindelwald called her attention back to him and fixed her with an absolutely resolute expression. She could see clearly that there was absolutely nothing she could possibly say to avoid this now. Even so she lowered her eyes, delaying.   
He was not having that apparently and she knew she was lost when he murmured impatiently “imperio.” 

Struggling against it was like swimming upstream against a strong current in a warm relaxing stream. She just couldn’t hold strong against the feeling that everything would be so much better if she would just look up and meet the wizard’s eyes. Even though she registered the very slight twist of derision in his pleased smile as she gave in, it wasn’t enough to prompt her to struggle further.

An elf cracked into the room.

Grindelwald’s brows tightened but he didn’t look away. She felt the first faint twinge of penetration in her mind as the elf bleated urgently.

“Master – a wizard is passed the warding. Him’s standing in the ‘parition room. Master.. he’s not going till’s he’s speaking with you. We is not being able to move him to the dungeons.”

The slight tingle retreated again, to Hermione’s relief.

“Who is it?”  
Grindelwald sounded beyond irritated.   
“Why can you not transport him to the dungeons, stupid creature! I do not have the patience for this at present! You see I am busy”

The little elf flinched back a pace and wrapped its arms around itself fearfully.   
“Can’t moves him. Him’s bringing an elf along. Strong elf. Many older than we’s, Master. Wizard is saying that him’s Albus P-persy.. er. Persy val..uh. briar, wolfy, dumble?. He is being saying you is wanting to talk now.”

The soft pleasant blunting of the spell faded as the german wizard became immediately distracted by his emotions. They flickered over his face like stormclouds. The sheer mass of them was stunning to watch. There seemed to be curiosity, hope, resentment, anger, regret, indecision – all churning in flux.   
Hermione wondered how long it had been since Grindelwald and Dumbledore had last spoken in person and found herself frought by similarly torn inner reaction to the news.   
Had Dumbledore thought better of sending her (and Tom) off to meet their fates here? Had he perhaps come early to duel Grindelwald?   
Cynically she thought that it was probably something else. Perhaps he was concerned about the others back at Hogwarts who were affected.  
Perhaps he just wanted to see how she and Tom were faring. Or maybe he was a little jealous. After all.. he never had quite gotten over Grindelwald.

Finally the dark wizard in question seemed to reach a conclusion in his mind and half nodded to himself.   
“Na, fein! Bestimmt will er etwas voellig unrealistisches und hat vor es mit armseligen moralischen predigen zu begruenden.” The blonde sighed long sufferingly. “Rozov – ueberwache das maedel. Falls sich etwas unerwartetes ereignet, behalte sie bei dir bis ich sie wieder abholen kann.”

He climbed to his feet and looked down at her pensively.  
“Maia.. You remain here. Do not attempt anything foolish. I will be still angrier with you, if I do not find you sitting here, exactly as you are now, when I return from speaking with my uninvited guest.”

The doors had barely closed behind Grindelwald when she had the sickening feeling of being suddenly tackled hard and the world around her blurred. She closed her eyes, feeling a slight breeze and then the wind was knocked out of her as her back met a wall at speed.  
She opened her eyes to find startling lilac ones only inches away. 

Numbly, she recognised that they were in an entirely different room. It was dark. Muted tones and very dim light. Nothing like anything she had seen in Grindelwald’s domain. 

“The light is very harsh upon my eyes. It is a trait of all my kind.”

Ducat Rozov’s voice was soft and measured but the way she was pinned against the wall in midair, her feet dangling, was not at all gentle. 

“I was very curious when I detected the scent you carry. Perhaps you do not know very much about our world..but when a blood slave is bound, it bears forever the scent of the vampire that bound it.   
It is a very ...informative.. trace. These things have developed over centuries to avoid disputes, you understand.   
Your scent tells me much of the age and physical appearance of the vampire that owns you. It tells me his clan.. and most importantly it tells me his bloodline.   
I find it most...interesting.. that you are” the young man inhaled deeply through his nose and smiled in a strange way” undeniably the slave of my childe. As far as I am aware – and I see no way for such an event to have escaped my notice – I have as yet made no childe.   
Tell me..little liar...what year do you come from? How is it that you are here?”

She gritted her teeth and panicked – astounded and infuriated at the impossibility of running into the ONE vampire anywhere who might immediately draw enough information from her..her.. scent or whatever it was.. to realise that she was in the wrong time.   
Watching her turmoil, he added, in a soft, calm voice “Answer the question, witch, or I will be inclined to hurt you.”

That stilled her. She looked into the placid purple warily. He was a man.. well ok.. he looked barely older than Tom.. but he was a man just like Grindelwald and Voldemort it seemed. If he announced that he was going to hurt her – hurting would certainly follow, unless whatever contingency he’d mentioned was carried out.   
Would she be able to tolerate whatever he did to her until Grindelwald returned? Would he even take her back there at all?!  
That thought only brought a further inward groan. She would be just as screwed if he did. Grindelwald was going to go through her mind now. 

“1996” she answered softly. “Coming here was.. an accident. There were others involved and I just.. somehow.. ended up here.. I don’t really know how it happened. Did.. did you tell him?!”

The information seemed to make no impression upon the man pinning her to the wall.   
“That is not so very long. It seems I will change my beliefs within the century. I wonder..why that will be.. Do you know? Did your master tell you of me?”

She thought back. No. Rodolphus had never mentioned anything about how he’d become a vampire. She’d kind of assumed it was an easy thing to achieve. If Lord Voldemort wanted someone turned as a vampire – they were turned.  
“I...I’m sorry. No. He.. the situation was.. We didn’t talk that much..”

This drew a scornful sniff from the other man.

“I cannot imagine why.” He said dryly “You make..such an eloquent impression upon me, witch. Still.. your scent is alluring..I will admit. No doubt it earned you his desire.   
There is another well known piece of vampire lore of which you are probably ignorant. I will enlighten you. Vampires are loyal to a patriarchal hierarchy. What belongs to the childe belongs in the second instance to its father.. and that in turn to that vampire’s maker, should it still live.   
As you are his- and he is mine.. you too are mine.   
For quite obvious reason I did not mention this to the young wizard with whom ten of the eighteen clans have chosen to ally themselves - my clan among them.   
He has taken it into his head that you are his. It would not be politic to disabuse him of the idea.   
No.. You will be my gift to him.   
Nevertheless..with such a sweet scent.. I can be forgiven, I think, for taking a very small taste before giving you away.

She wanted to scream “STOP!”.. she wanted to yell and warn and persuade him that drinking from her would be a very bad idea. She could have told him the lie about the potions accident. That she was addictive.   
All of those things remained however on the tip of her tongue as the vampire, who was obviously centuries older than Rodolphus had been, looked into her eyes and her mind melted.  
It was hypnotic.. that soft unusual lavender.. the faint smile.. the sheer perfection of his beauty. She suddenly saw that was even more dazzling than Tom – a feat she had thought impossible. She watched, utterly fascinated by the way his incisors lengthened to wicked daggers. His fingertips stroked down the length of her arm till they caught her wrist. When he lifted it to his mouth, she was more than happy for him to bite her. It felt like an honour. The pain was negligible as he sank his teeth in, his eyes always upon her own, seeming to dance now in mirth. It was wonderful to feel her life flowing from her wrist out of her.. to offer him what little she could.

All too soon he pulled away, licking his lips with a slightly confused expression. 

“You.. taste..” he murmured, seeming to forget where he was going with the sentence.   
“Familiar” he added finally. “you taste.. you taste of.. ” he frowned.. “I cannot..think of it... but I know it.. More. I will have more.. and it will become clearer”   
She nodded on general principles. It felt like her head was swimming. As if he were giving off waves of relaxing numbness.   
When he brushed aside her hair impatiently she tilted her head to offer him her throat and gasped as he bit down hard, drinking deeply. His arms had somehow slipped around her quite naturally and she felt like she was floating in the circle of his embrace, pinned down from flying away. The feeling of his sucking and lapping was the greatest feeling in the world. Everything was just perfect.

 

 

She woke to find herself staring at a dark surface. Upon turning her head and reassembling her mind, she discovered she was lying upon a soft velvet chaise lounge in midnight blue. There was a silken pillow beneath her head. She blinked, looking around at the unfamiliar dark room and trying to remember what exactly had led to her being here.  
The memory surfaced in her mind in the same moment that the voice spoke up from across the room.

“Magic. You taste of magic.”

It sounded quite dark and pensive. She sat up and felt a little dizzy for a moment. On the far side of the room, in a chair that faced a low fire, the pretty young man Grindelwald had referred to as Uriel sat and stared into the dark orange embers.

“I know what you are” he murmured and it sounded as if he wished that he didn’t.

She wanted to believe that perhaps he might be thinking of something else. That hope was shattered when he spoke again.

“you are...a user of wild magic. It flows through you. One can taste it in your blood. Sweet and fresh.. like sunlight. ...I have..encountered.. this before. A long time ago. More than two hundred years and the taste is still...memorable.. to me.”

Ok. so he knew. She turned on the chaise, putting her feet on the ground – bare feet she now realised. She was wearing different clothing!   
She looked down at the soft indigo gown. It was very.. flowy. It seemed to be made of layers of gauze.   
Ok.. so.. someone had undressed her! She looked up accusingly. Her expression made absolutely no impression upon the vampire still staring at the ashes of the fire.

“He will kill you when he learns of this, you know”   
It was said conversationally.   
She nodded. Yes. She had thought so too. Grindelwald wasn’t as arrogant as Voldemort- he didn’t believe he could control everything. He was a strategist. It was never a good plan to keep a weapon that would sooner destroy you than your enemy. He would see what his attraction meant and kill her before she could weaken his mind sufficiently to attack him – and he would know that that was exactly what she was planning to do since he would read her mind from cover to cover.

“I... am bound to inform the Conciliate of my discovery. They too, will wish to destroy you while you are still weak. It is probable that they will choose to drain you dry and divide your blood among the highest.”

Hermione felt panic shiver through her. She had no idea where she was and no magic to draw upon. Tom was imprisoned and would not be coming to assist her.. Her survival was resting in the hands of this unknown vampire.  
Admittedly – he had consumed her blood.. Theoretically he would be averse to destroying her.. but then he had not seemed too interested in sleeping with her. Perhaps he was inclined toward males – in which case she was almost certainly going to die.

“It is lunacy to attempt to preserve you” he murmured, as if in answer.

“I’ll.. I’ll give you anything you want” she pleaded, standing shakily and hurrying over to where he rested. He did not look at her. She dropped to her knees, crawling closer to the foot of the chair   
“He said it was a potion. It will wear off and then I’ll give you whatever you want! Anything! Please... please don’t let them kill me!”

At that he did turn, the amazing lilac eyes narrowing harshly. “You ask me to break laws in both worlds. Suffering such as yourself to live is an offense that is punished by death – with good reason. Perhaps wizards will never realise what I have done – but my kind live a very long time and eventually.. eventually they will discover my foolish betrayal.”

There was something in the way it was phrased. She swallowed and looked up at him hopefully.   
“I’ll stop them. If you help me – i’ll protect you. I promise. Even if they kill you – i’ll bring you back. I promise!! Please!!

The vampire snorted as if amused by something that was not at all funny.   
“You bear the stain of my uncreated childe. You are..my blood slave. To think.. a creature such as yourself belongs to me.. it is preposterous.” 

She inched closer, wanting to try to persuade the vampire somehow but not wanting to anger him. Cautiously she reached out and touched the smooth fabric of his charcoal trousers. He merely glanced at her in annoyance.   
“I am still deciding, little witch. Be still.”

Chastised she dropped her head, hoping that obedience might be enough to persuade the Ducat to decide in her favour.   
She couldn’t argue that his helping her was necessary for the timeline. If anything – the timeline would probably be safer if he were to toss her to the wolves. He would definitely survive then – which would mean that he would go on to bite Rodolphus, who would then bite her. Her own life in the past meant nothing to the future. It was only the lives of all those around her that were relevant. Tom had to survive to go on to be a Dark Lord. Grindelwald had to be defeated by Dumbledore next year. Abraxas Malfoy, Alexander Potter and ..well.. quite a few of the other students she’d met had to produce heirs. Antonin Dolohov had to survive to curse her in the ministry of magic. She wondered suddenly, incongruently, whether he had known that the lethal spell would not harm her.

“Grindelwald will be soon defeated?” The vampire above her asked quietly. She realised, dully, that the coincidence was too great. Ducat Rozov was able to hear her thoughts, much like Lord Voldemort and Rodolphus could.  
Not bothering further with the issue, she nodded and confirmed it aloud. “Next year, history records that he will be defeated by Albus Dumbledore and interred in his own prison for the rest of his life. In my time he was still there.”

The vampire nodded slowly. “That is... useful to know.”

“Please..” she whispered, leaning closer to the man’s knee. “please.. if..if you won’t save me - please will you save Tom. He has to live!”

“Who is this Tom.. You say he will be powerful?”

She nodded, hope springing. “Yes. Very. In my time he is considered more powerful than Grindelwald.

This was received with a thoughtful nod.  
“What would you do, should you regain control of your magic?”

She had heard this question before. At that time she’d been unprepared for it.. Voldemort and Harry were looking at her curiously and she’d just grasped at something wistful.   
Now though... now it was so much clearer.  
“Anything you want! I’ll do whatever you ask of me.. I swear!.. and then I’ll leave this time. I’ll go back to where I came from – it’s not safe for me to be here.”

This elicited a subtle turning up of the corner of the Ducat’s lips. “Whatever I want..” he repeated in a lazy purr. “it is a temptation. Who would not appreciate having their own private djin?! But the risks are...less appealing. There is very little that I desire that I cannot take for myself. You would need to defy the laws of nature to offer me something worthy of the agony I would face should I choose to protect you.”

She looked up at him imploringly. “I can! I’ll try!! I’ve raised the dead.. i’ve travelled through time...made people immortal. I’ve healed souls.. Whatever it is you want – I’ll try to give it to you. I .. I promise I’ll try! Please.. please let me live!”

Ducat Rozov was silent for a few minutes. Hermione watched anxiously, unsure what she could possibly add to convince him.

“You will have to return to Gellert.”  
It was said quietly. She leaned closer and barely prevented herself from clinging to his pants-leg desperately.

“He’ll use legilimency! He’ll find out that-“

“No. A..somewhat less known feature of the blood slave bond, even among my kind – Just as I am able to skew your mind with lust or fear, or find you when you are distant.. so too can I shield your mind. Another adaptation, you might say. How better to spy upon a vampire than to interrogate the memory of their slaves?!   
Unfortunately.. I cannot present an alternate truth, as would be the case if you were to occlude with skill. I am not old enough to have developed that ability. A Concilor could achieve it - of course a Concilor would kill you on sight.   
I can do no more than prevent him from gaining access to your thoughts and memories.  
And it will be clear to him if this is done. He will be furious.   
But there is no alternative to returning you to him. If I keep you here.. or hide you elsewhere – he is irrational and stubborn enough to hunt me, despite our long acquaintance. He would alert the other clans to my betrayal.. it would not be long before I.. and you were found. Then the truth of the matter would be exposed and we would both die – I rather more painfully than you, I expect.”  
If I return you to him, you will need to please him sufficiently to convince him to cease giving you the restrictive potion. I cannot help with...”  
The vampire paused thoughtfully.  
“I may not be able to do anything to convince him. We shall see. Either way.. before I return you to him, I will have your oath that you will perform any tasks I require of you, in exchange for my efforts to preserve your life and restore you to full potency.”

Hermione weighed the agreement for all of two seconds – she had no alternatives. Death or an oath. She made the oath.  
The pale purple eyes shimmered in pleasure for a moment as the Ducat smiled at her.

“Then it is settled.” He slipped a hand into a pocket and withdrew a pale white shaft – a wand. A twist and flick transfigured the flowy indigo garment, which she had awoken wearing, back into the star-scattered midnight blue gown that Grindelwald had required her to wear.   
Although she knew she shouldn’t have been so surprised that the vampire was also a wizard, she had not had that impression of him so far and it did surprise her. It was a relief too – she’d thought that he’d actually undressed her while she was unconscious. This was preferable.

Ducat Rozov seemed to almost float to his feet. His movements were strangely light and airy. Watching him made her feel inexplicably melancholic.   
But there was no chance to dwell on the bizarre reaction – the youthful vampire was standing inches away suddenly, almost as if he’d apparated. She blinked in surprise and received a tiny amused smile in return before arms were firmly but carefully surrounding her and the world blurred.

 

“If this is a ploy of yours, you foolish schwuchtel, I will lose all patience with you!”

“Is is not, Gellert! I have no-..”

Hermione swayed dizzily in the vampires arms as the library shivered into being around them and she was abruptly faced with Gellert Grindelwald, wand drawn and spitting black sparks as he loomed and snarled over her transfigurations professor. The younger Dumbledore had not drawn his wand and held his hands up in front of him, open and empty, as if to reassure the dictator.   
Both heads snapped in her direction when she and the Ducat reappeared.

She squeaked and closed her eyes as Grindelwald’s arm came up and fired off a hex in their direction immediately.   
The arms around her were gone before the spell had even covered half the distance. It hissed past her ear, making her shy away automatically.

“Gellert!!” Dumbledore shouted, alarmed. “Control yourself!”

“Silence, Albus. What happens to the girl is no longer any of your concern. Come out, Uriel! You cannot hide from me – I will have your little council bring you back on your knees if you try!”

Hermione opened her eyes again. Grindelwald looked murderous. His piercing blue eyes scanned the room, looking up into the heights as he turned slowly, wand extended.

She experienced momentary panic at the thought that the vampire might be destroyed, and with him her shielding, and any hope of escape. But it was short lived. Uriel had to survive, or he would not go on to bite Rodolphus, who would not go on to bite her. Obviously there must be some way out of this situation!  
“Please stop!” she tried, her voice somewhat shrill with adrenalin. “He didn’t hurt me. He.. he took me to the vampire responsible for the blood bond. That’s all!”

Grindelwald froze, his back stiffening as he turned slowly to face her again. She was not prepared for the blinding rage on his face. His wand was levelled upon her a moment later and he stalked closer slowly.  
“You lied earlier about this vampire, little whore! Nothing you say can be trusted. You lie brazenly with wide, innocent eyes! I assume that you have seduced Uriel also in the mere minutes you have been in his presence. You will remain silent!!”

“You are not wrong. Her blood is like nectar, Gellert... so sweet..”  
The low purr drifted down from the dark heights of the room, followed by a soft seductive little laugh.   
“However she spoke the truth in this instance. Her blood sickness has been satisfied by the one who controls her bond. She will live for another month”

The blonde wizard standing over her bared his teeth in a snarl at her.   
“Untrustworthy little harlot. This is how you repay my kindness? Crucio!” he growled hotly.

Shrieking and twisting on the floor, Hermione had just enough of her mind left to observe with an inexplicable low-burning satisfaction that Grindelwald’s curse was not as painful as Lord Voldemort’s would one day be.   
This faculty for thought was rapidly dimming however as he held the curse on her and the endless agony became everything in the world.   
She was almost unaware (and entirely uncaring) of the shouts from Dumbledore – and then Uriel also, as the curse went on and on.

 

It was dark when her eyes opened again. Dark and still. 

The first thing she noticed – and how could she escape noticing – was that everything hurt! God.. god.. everything hurt so much! Breathing was torture. Just remaining still on her back was horrific as her muscles twitched and pain cascaded through her. She wanted to scream but the fear of increasing the pain caught her tongue before the sound could leave her throat.

“Still..”   
The word was spoken softly in the darkness and came from across the room, but she automatically flinched away even so and then shrieked hoarsely in pain, trying and failing to get her body back under control from the helpless movements evoked by her reaction. It felt like her nerves had been scraped raw over acid soaked glass.

Hands were suddenly upon her and she screamed even harder as the pain increased. The scream, despite the full force of her lungs, was faint and muted, broken and hoarse, as she was forced with inhuman strength back down upon her back and straightened. She wondered how long she had been screaming, for her voice to be this damaged now.   
A body bind snapped through her then, preventing her from twitching or moving further. 

She recognised the scent.. the feeling of the cool hands. The lilac eyed vampire was in the darkness with her.  
“Potion?” she hissed between her teeth desperately. Just that tiny movement of her lips was intolerably painful.

“I take it there is a remedy in your time” the voice in the dark murmured, amused. Hermione felt her chest tighten in painful horror. It had been hours of this agony when she’d had the potion after Voldemort had cursed her. She couldn’t use her magic to heal herself now as she had after Tom’s curses. How long might this pain endure?! How long before she would be able to move again without screaming.

“It will take perhaps a week. More if you injure yourself during your rest. ..And I cannot leave you under this spell”

Her breath caught.  
No.  
No she couldn’t handle that. Minutes were bad enough. She’d lose her mind if this went on for days! Couldn’t she be sedated? 

“Gellert has forbidden more than eight hours of unconsciousness per day, just as he has forbidden the full body bind. He... wishes to punish you severely, to remind you never to betray him again.”

She felt the hot tears slide down the sides of her face into her hair. Even that small sensation hurt. She could not be in this pain for days. She couldn’t!!  
‘I’m sorry. I was wrong. Please.. please kill me!’ she thought as clearly as she could.

There was silence for a while. She began to wonder whether Uriel had left. Then his voice sounded softly, again from the other side of the room.   
“You will survive the pain.”

This was it. This was the worst thing she had ever felt. The worst thing that had happened.   
And she knew.. it would get worse.

There wasn’t any point to begging Uriel to help her. She knew it absolutely just as she knew she’d be begging him anyway within hours.   
Why was he here?! Grindelwald had done this because of him. Why would he let him stay here?!

“He requires someone to ...care for you.. in your recovery. He is preoccupied at present and content to lock you away while he devotes himself to others.   
I am here because he does not trust the elves not to take mercy upon you. They have difficulty causing witches and wizards pain. I have no such weakness...   
Gellert’s view, in his...distraction... is that the harm has already been done and cannot be undone.   
...Therefore, as I am to remain warded in here with you until further notice, he is permitting me to take what I require when the need is upon me. 

That shouldn’t be a comforting thought, Hermione reminded herself.   
It was, though.   
The feeding of the young unfamiliar vampire had been nothing like Rodolphus, she mused, although she had loved and still missed Rodolphus’ hungry, powerful ardour.   
It felt odd to even compare them.   
Uriel’s bite had somehow been almost entirely without sexual pleasure.. although she had enjoyed it.. thrilled in it. The pleasure had been more emotional. A blinding awe and devotion.   
Attraction, yes, but to something distant and immeasurably superior. It had been heavier..headier..than Rodolphus influence; drugging..like a wonderful dream.

“You are tempting me..”  
The low voice in the darkness was nearer again. She tried to turn her mind away from the foggy memory of the bite.  
What had happened with Grindelwald after she had passed out?! He was obviously still angry with her. Had he realised yet that legilimency wouldn’t work? Had Uriel explained it to him somehow?

“He knows that your mind is now shielded from legilimency by the vampire to whom you belong.”   
Uriel spoke in an ominous tone that didn’t reassure her at all. He sounded darker, dangerous.   
“He was ...displeased..to discover it and blamed me for taking you from this place. He...punished me.”

There was something hard and cold in the quiet voice that hadn’t been there before. She realised that it again reminded her of Lord Voldemort. The hate and indignation in the words.  
As if she’d challenged him out loud, the vampire was suddenly almost on top of her. She croaked in pain again, struggling for breath.   
Uriel’s face hung over her own, inches away - she could sense it - but in the blackness she saw nothing at all. There was no movement of breath as a cold hand stroked her face slowly.   
It felt more like a threat than a gesture of affection.

“I am over six hundred years old, witch..” he murmured with icily controlled rage.   
“I am a Ducat – a vampire lord – I rule tens of thousands of immortal beings, I am one shift below the highest among our kind. - And this evening.. for the first, and I can only hope last time, I was obliged to submit to punishment at the hand of a childish wizard of forty years, who holds the allegiance of my concillate. He took a silver braided whip to me like a dog!   
Can you imagine the humiliation?”  
The cold hand at her face slid down and gripped her throat lightly. She felt his fingers tense and relax..tense and relax.. as if he was toying with the idea of crushing it.

“I’m s-sorry” she managed to whisper and, at least partially, meant it. She didn’t want to cause him suffering or a loss of face. She hadn’t meant to.. but she didn’t see what else she could have done. She hadn’t wanted to die and then she’d been cursed. She hadn’t had a great deal of power to determine his fate.

“That word means nothing. I will enjoy your suffering, here in the darkness, until your body recovers. And after you are well you will obey me. Your blood is mine. Your body..should I ever desire it, is mine. You exist because I have chosen to place myself between you and your richly-deserved death. By my will you breathe.”  
The pain increased as the body above her lowered itself gradually to rest upon her. She whined in the back of her throat helplessly at the feeling of being flayed and shredded with burning knives, withstanding it for mere seconds before she was again screaming full throat, emitting only a rough, strangled squeal for her effort.  
She had no reason to believe that the vampire atop her was smiling and knew it even so.  
“offer me your throat..”   
His whisper-soft command cut through her pain-blind squalling, penetrating to a deeper level of her consciousness. Turning and tilting her head was excruciating and accomplished only in tiny twitching movements.  
A cool pointed tongue trailed slowly up her pulse point. It hurt, just as everything hurt now – the merest pressure upon her skin was like claws in her flesh.   
She yearned for the blissful drugged feeling but the pain was like a drill in her mind, preventing her from turning her thoughts to anything else.   
Lips brushed her skin and then sharp points picked at her, scraping lightly; almost playfully. She screwed her eyes shut in desperation for relief from her present suffering.   
It was not granted. 

The unparalleled agony of the bite was almost transcendental, cutting like a scalpel through the pain the rest of her broken body was frenetically reporting. It was true torment. And it went on for several minutes as the powerful vampire above her drank unnaturally slowly. Whether he was sipping out of his own epicurean preferences or merely prolonging her torture, there was not even the light headedness of excessive blood loss to dull her senses.

When he finally did pull away, it was to the tune of her breathless sobs and whimpers. He leaned in once more and licked over her wounds, but lingered then, his lips light upon her skin as if he were tempted to bite her anew. She heard a soft, faintly frustrated sigh and then he moved away.  
The reaction of her nerves to the weight being removed from her body was, irrationally enough, even worse than the pain of their compression. 

“Do not imagine that we are safe because your thoughts are protected from him..”  
The voice was soft and pensive and emanated again from the other side of the room.   
“Even if I am protected by clan law from revealing the identity of the vampire to whom you belong, he has other means by which to ascertain truth. He is an extraordinarily resourceful wizard.   
As soon as your health allows, he will interrogate you.  
He will learn everything. No one could ever call Gellert ignorant or slow. He will be more than capable of finding his way to the crux of the matter.   
I could kill you now.. it would be..merciful perhaps.. but if I were to do that, He would end me, no matter how far I might flee.   
I could reveal the truth of what you are.. and the result would be similar. It was my duty to surrender you to the Conciliate. Death awaits me for returning you to Gellert.   
Neither outcome is to my tastes – and, powerless as you presently are, you are worthless.   
Therefore I will wait. Perhaps something may be done later to reassure the man.. It is faintly possible that I will think of a way to save myself.   
And you, naturally. I will not put myself through this risk for nothing.”

There was nothing she could say. He had already rejected her apology.. Thanking him would be received the same way, she expected.   
She closed her eyes and tried hard to concentrate upon something that might distract her from the pain. 

It didn’t really work. She could think for a few moments about Dumbledore.. or the other knights back at Hogwarts..she could think about theories or potions or arithmancy but within minutes her mind would be drawn back to her present state.. the terrible constant ache that begged to be relieved.   
If she could just change her position then it might lift.. but if she tried to move in the slightest the pain would arc through her entire body.   
She knew she was crying but tried to do so quietly so as not to annoy the vampire even more.

If she could just sleep. Voldemort had made her sleep most of the time when she was recovering. 

His face floated up in her mind. His first face.. the flat snake-featured one that he’d been so anxious to repair. She had woken in bed with his breath against the back of her neck.   
She wondered whether he had remembered her from his past at that time.  
She couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t think so. Something in the way he looked at her was different. 

A sudden flash came to her of the serpentine despot on his knees, holding out a small white snake to her, with hope and fear in his eager red eyes.  
Had that happened on the night she had used magic on him? It must have. She remembered him mentioning a snake to her later when he was telling her about how he had regained his more human appearance.   
She thought again about his original face.. he had allowed her to trace her fingers over it when he had taken her to his bed.. the strange flat slitted nose had been cool and soft and had moved slightly beneath her finger pads as he breathed.

“What is that creature in your mind?”   
The quiet inquisitive voice emanated from somewhere in the region of the end of the bed.  
Hermione would have sighed if it would not have hurt so much.

In explanation, she thought back to Tom in his room, furious and devastatingly handsome, standing over her with his wand drawn, about to curse her for again bringing up the topic of Abraxas’ mental state. Then she thought about Tom in the future – her own past.. the Dark Lord.. still gorgeous although his snakelike eyes shimmered in crimson, standing over her just as angrily, before he took her to the dungeons and left her there. Finally she thought back further.. to the memory she had seen of Voldemort duelling Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic, serpentine in all aspects, moving like liquid silk.. toying with the old wizard.

“This is the boy in Gellert’s strongroom?” the Ducat murmured, barely audibly. “What happened to change him in that manner?! He does not seem human.”

She gave the mental equivalent of a shrug and tried to clear her mind again to relieve the pain. Now was the time to really work on meditation and occlumency. If she didn’t find a way to escape the agony, she thought she really might go mad over the course of the week. How long had it been now since she woke?! An hour? Two? Hopefully two.

“You awoke forty two minutes ago.”

At that she did give a low sob of misery. It made everything burn and spike in sharp sizzling pain but she couldn’t help it. God.. she had hours and hours and hours to go before she could sleep again.. and days before it would stop hurting! Damn Grindelwald! – that fucking inhuman bastard. He was worse than Voldemort would be. 

Everything jarred and twanged again as the bed shifted slightly.   
Uriel. He had seemed almost to float before, so she had to assume he was intentionally disturbing the bed as he climbed onto it this time.   
At least she knew where he was, she supposed. Sound and body senses were the only meaningful signals in this darkness.  
She could identify his crawling movement up to lie on the bed next to her. 

“I must remove the body bind now..” he murmured from half a metre to her left. 

“No...please!!!” she hissed through her teeth. “Please..Ur.. Ducat..Lord! -don’t!..”

She gave a strangled squeal as her body devolved back to twitching and trembling, with the associated heightening of pain. It was like falling back into a pit of churning torment. She snivelled and sobbed helplessly.

After an indeterminate length of time, which felt like hours, the soft voice next to her spoke again.  
“Perhaps it is your nature.. the effect that creatures such as yourself exert upon others.. but I find that I do not enjoy your discomfort.   
If Gellert were to witness you so, I suspect he would take mercy upon you.   
...A pity that he is so preoccupied with the red haired wizard.”

Hermione heard the words and didn’t care at all. Nothing that didn’t reduce this state of torture was at all relevant to her world.

After another long silence, Uriel moved. She felt him lying closer now. This too, was of no interest, provided he didn’t touch her and make the pain worse. She was breathing fast and shallow and trying to concentrate upon the idea of a cool, still body of water. It had been one of the exercises in the hokey meditation book her mother had tried to convince her to read when she was anxious over the state of the war, the last time that she had seen her parents alive.

“I.. cannot make you sleep.. or employ a spell to fix you in place.. but.. perhaps I can ease your condition even so..” the vampire whispered.   
There was unmistakeable something faintly greedy in his tone.  
She practically convulsed in screaming reaction as her hand was taken in cool fingers and lifted, till it lay, palm upward, next to her head.   
Then.. it wasn’t exactly as if the pain diminished.. but it felt suddenly more distant to her. She felt somewhat..numbed.. swaddled in cloud.. her mind fuzzy. Relieved tears squeezed themselves from the corner of her clenched eyes.   
Lips brushed over her wrist faintly. It hurt.. the sensation was akin to burning wires in her flesh, but the pain was just a background noise now. Nothing important in comparison with the thought of pleasing the creature on the bed next to her. She thrilled as a cool tongue traced over the path the lips had recently taken.   
Everything in her head was screaming ‘Yes!’ – there was nothing she wanted more than to offer her blood to him.   
He continued licking her slowly for long minutes and the need to give more became almost overwhelming.   
When he moved away she begged and pleaded incoherently. 

“I should not bite you there.” the strangely accented voice breathed “I cannot drink you so for the rest of the night. I will take too much.”

The murmur was unintelligible to her. She would give everything for him. Anything. There was no too much.

He shifted slightly, turning her hand somewhat and then her finger was gently sucked between his cool lips, sucked and.. nibbled.. for a few minutes, as if the vampire was undecided. When he finally bit down on the pad, impaling it with one needle sharp fang, it felt like release. It was.. almost orgasmic although it felt nothing like sexual pleasure. It was simply... euphoria.. pure and devoid of other physical sensation. His soft slow sucks were like waves in a blissful ocean in which she was floating.. She was nothing more than the ecstatic pulse of her own blood.   
Periodically he bit again, deepening the wound when the flow dropped off.. 

After hours of passive pleasure, she startled when a cold hand stroked her cheek. It had stopped.. Each of her fingers hurt – even her thumb. She gasped as it seemed that she dropped suddenly closer to a black roiling sea of agony.   
“Don’t stop! Please!” she whimpered. “Don’t let me fall!”

“It is time for you to take sustenance, little witch. You must drink.. eat.. if you are to remain strong enough. Or I will not be able to..soothe you.. like this again when you wake.”

Yes. Yes.. she would do whatever was necessary for that, she agreed without hesitation. If she could stay in that state forever, she would not mind in the slightest.

There had to have been some kind of charm on the glass of water, she realised. She was lying on her back but when the rim was pressed to her lips and tilted, it felt as though she were standing vertically and drinking it. After the water, she was given a thick soup with what might have been soggy bread mixed in. She accepted spoon after spoon of it, hurriedly swallowing. It felt like the pain was moving ever closer to her awareness and she had to try to finish eating before it arrived, or she wouldn’t be able to manage at all. Finally the soup was done.   
She nearly choked on the blood replenishing potion when it was tipped without warning into her mouth. It was far more bitter and coppery than any she had tasted before.  
The pain was flaring and roaring in her mind now and she couldn’t help the whimpers she was making in the back of her throat.

“Good.. Very good. You will sleep now.” Uriel told her softly as if she were a dog and had performed a trick well for him.   
She heard no more. Obviously he had cast a somnus of some description - her mind faded as if a curtain had fallen over it.


	75. Chapter 75

Surprisingly, the week passed far too quickly. The periods of full awareness were so brief, so far between, that Hermione had the sense of time blurring. Whether she was incoherent with delight or deep in a dreamless sleep, she only became fully cognisant when she first woke and when Uriel pressed food, drink and potions upon her.   
It seemed though, that he grew gentler each time she became aware of him again. 

When she woke in the darkness, the faint impression of the vampire was still and silent on her right side. Before the pain could really get its jaws into her, before she could even assemble her mind enough to think on her situation, the soft blurring of her mind set in and she felt him pull her fingers to his lips and pierce one, licking and sucking as if her blood were ambrosia. She only surfaced again hours later, her hand and wrist stinging, for him to spoon water and stew into her mouth, followed again by a sharp, bitter blood replenishing potion. Then there was sleep again.  
The next time she woke, he lay again on her left side. She could feel that the pain through her body was less, although she had not fully woken before he was again drugging her with pleasure and biting into her fingertips eagerly. She could hear soft growls now and then; somewhat reminiscent of purrs of appreciation. Her mind reeled enjoyably throughout. 

Some days later, she became abruptly aware that she was healed, when there was no distant pain at all when the body at her side in the dark – the vampire that had been shredding her fingers in greedy desire for more – raised itself suddenly and fell upon her.   
His weight was both comforting and exciting at once and she wrapped her arms around him as he unceremoniously pulled her head aside roughly.   
It was beyond wonderful. His teeth tore so deeply that she was light headed and he was groaning in relief as he drank her in draughts.   
For the first time, she felt a sudden lust threading through the ecstasy and her hands moved of their own volition to try to unclothe the body above her own.   
They were captured and held, preventing her from reaching her goal. She writhed mindlessly against him. This was tolerated, although he made no move to stimulate himself. He simply curled, intent upon drinking, and allowed her to frott herself to a gasping climax beneath him.  
She heard a low pleased mmmm just as she was coming down. He continued to drink for another minute afterward.

When he drew away, after healing her wounds and licking her thoroughly clean, he administered the blood replenishing potion at once. It was a larger dose than she normally received.   
She caught her breath, feeling her head ache slightly from blood loss and dehydration. Through her time with Rodolphus, she knew that that would dissipate after a minute or so.

“I find..that I no longer wish you to recover..”  
Uriel’s voice sounded dark and sated – it was almost a purr. She turned her head toward him in the darkness. 

For the first time in.. she had no idea how many days it had been.. a soft blue glow ignited between them.  
It was bright after so long in the dark and she narrowed her eyes, squinting past the lumos at the end of the wand to the face of the youthful vampire beyond.   
His eyes seemed dark blue in this light while his skin was pale sea green.  
He was beautiful in a way that looked very slightly too perfect. As if his skin were too smooth.. his features unnaturally symmetrical. His long dark silky hair shone even in near darkness.   
She had almost forgotten what he looked like over the course of the week. He was simply a voice.. a body.. Hands.. lips.. hunger.

“Soon enough, Gellert will come to retrieve you – he has been distracted with his other guests but he has requested my presence later this evening – No doubt he intends to confirm that you are well and clarify what is to occur from this point. I... find that I am not eager to give you back..” The perfect brow furrowed slightly.

She swallowed. He seemed to be in a good mood. Perhaps she could ask. She tried to think of a way to phrase her question that wouldn’t insult or irritate him. 

His quiet sniff of amusement and faint smile told her that he had already sensed the thoughts in her mind and understood what she wanted to ask.  
“No..girl..I am not exclusively attracted to males. I am-..” He paused thoughtfully and then turned onto his back, his expression softening. 

“It is most easily explained by the fact that as a vampire ages,....certain interests fade.  
The first to slip away is the fascination with the development of the civilisations of mankind. The new and the fashionable become less appealing..tedious and repetitive with age... most vampires grow comfortable with one period of society and retain the tastes and mannerisms peculiar to that time. 

The next loss is the enjoyment of violence.. the preference for fear-tinged blood, followed by the appetite for sexual release and the taste for blood of an aroused or sated victim.   
The very oldest among our kind lose interest in all but their own thoughts and – to a degree – the thoughts of others of similar antiquity. They no longer require blood to exist – no longer thirst for it as I or vampires younger than myself do. They take it occasionally, much as humans might take potions or preparations for their health.   
It is not that I am not drawn to witches.. but that I am no longer drawn to rutting in all its many varied forms.   
Although... I concede that the taste of your blood during your own coital release was appealing.. a little spicy and sharper than its usual sweetness. As I have lost the taste for the additive in the blood of mundane humans, it had not crossed my mind that it would be different with you. ..Perhaps I may expend effort to replicate the taste at some point.” 

Hermione chastised herself for the sudden excitement that coursed through her at the suggestion. 

The vampire continued in a pensive tone of voice “...It would be unwise to take too many liberties while Gellert lives... He has tolerated my feeding upon you, however I doubt he will consent to allow me to take you fully and render his own skills pale in comparison..”

She couldn’t quite suppress the smirk. ‘a little arrogant there?’ she thought to herself amusedly. 

As if spurred by the mild derision, Uriel turned quickly and leaned over her, bracketing her body with his own while he leaned down and languidly, almost casually, kissed her. 

When she’d heard the phrase ‘turned on’ when she was younger, she’d always smiled, imagining a switch somewhere on the back of a girl that would be flipped.   
This was exactly like that.   
As his coppery tasting tongue – now slightly warmer than usual after he had fed upon her – toyed with her own, she felt herself literally drip with eagerness. She was scrabbling ineffectually at her dress and his robes, to try to get rid of all the horrible evil fabric separating her from the vampire’s body. Her core clenched, aching to be filled only by him. If she didn’t have him, she thought she might actually die of emptiness.  
When he lifted one hand from beside her shoulder and traced it down the front of her body she arched in overwhelming sensation. He was only lightly brushing over the surface of the dress - yet as his fingers moved closer to the centre of her aching hunger, she started to quiver and buck. She was almost afraid! Their bodies were connected solely by the kiss and the faint pressure of his fingertips and she felt like she could explode at any second.. could pop like a birthday balloon. If he touched her there.. she knew she would lose herself.   
He broke the kiss and looked down at her with an expression of mild fascination as she panted and whined, wriggling and tossing her head.   
It was only a fingertip.. a single, barely there, fingertip, that he ghosted over her mound through the dress and she shattered, moaning her climax shamelessly and clinging to him.

He smirked faintly and then dropped his head back down to the crook of her neck, licking, then biting into her more carefully than he had earlier and lapping with slow satisfaction. Hermione couldn’t be certain but she thought he might have moaned softly in appreciation, like a hungry man taking the first bite of their favourite dish. He pulled away again all too soon and looked down at her, a thoughtful expression upon his unnaturally pretty face.  
“The taste is extraordinarily good.. Better even than..” he did not finish the comparison and sighed as he pulled away. “Perhaps after Gellert is no more I will take you – purely to indulge my curiosity.”

She told herself that she wasn’t heartbroken at the thought that she wouldn’t be feeling that again. It was a big fat glaring lie however. It was in her nature, she accepted now, to desire the most powerful wizard...the one that might best protect her. She wasn’t certain exactly how ‘power’ was determined – but Uriel definitely had a lot of it. He was centuries old and strong and clever and he had specific power over her, not only through the blood bond which, apparently, he mastered far more fully than Rodolphus had , but also through the oath she’d made to do whatever he wanted when she regained her powers.

He chuckled softly. “Oh.. don’t pout, little witch. You will feel that again. I do not need to do much to bring you to that state. It is not even necessary to touch you. I merely thought you would appreciate it. No.. I referred to the carnal act itself. It has been...a long time..since I have felt the hunger to lay with another witch or wizard.   
I do not feel.. desire.. as such for you.. however I recognise a faint curiosity. If your blood is superior, might not your body be similarly addictive? – it is, after all, how your kind keep their slaves in thrall.”

He smiled wider in the lumos-light at Hermione’s offended frown. 

“Your reaction is very nearly an insult, you know..” he informed her, amused. “Vampires, more than other beings, can view your nature with equanimity. It resembles our own. Were you not...so dangerous to all life, including our own, and so difficult to control, we would no doubt have allied with your kind thousands of years ago.   
Perhaps I am more foolish than my noble ancestors.. ...Of course, I am already connected with you – it is too late for regret. The small sacrifice of my magic required to spice your blood does not concern me. It is easily replenished.   
I therefore have nothing to lose from sampling your body fully, should I find it in me to feel sufficient lust to complete the act.”

That too felt like an insult, Hermione frowned to herself.   
“You obviously know more about ‘my kind’, as you put it, than I do. I only discovered that there was any kind of transfer of magic going on a few days ago. Is there any way to turn it off?! What else do I need to worry about?! What happened to the other witch like me you said you’d met?

Uriel closed his eyes, looking pensive again.   
After a few minutes she began to suspect that he wasn’t intending to answer at all. She was thinking of poking him in the ribs when he opened one eye a slit, a faintly reproving expression on his face. 

“You will not poke, prod or attempt to strike me under any circumstances. It is ..difficult.. for me to suppress my perfectly natural reaction to such behaviour. Demonstrate a little patience or suffer the consequences. And I do not use the word suffer figuratively.”

Wonderful.. now she found herself just itching to slap him. Grumbling under her breath she lay down once again on her back and tried to be patient.  
He made her wait, whether intentionally or not, for a long time. More than a few minutes. She had actually forgotten her interest and was dropping off, when he spoke.

“Lania.. the other of your kind that I have encountered.. was not a witch. He was a boy; a young boy, when I met him.   
He had been orphaned – the circumstances are irrelevant – but he was brought to me as the blood slave of another vampire - an old friend; one of the lesser nobles of a neighbouring Ducat.   
Tetzin was a vampire turned in the autumn of his years. He bore grey at his temples and his features were somewhat cruelly formed. He was an imposing gentleman, but not necessarily a handsome, or particularly kind man.  
The blood of children is, as you may or may not know, far sweeter than that of older humans. I do not know how old Lania was... perhaps twelve.. perhaps fourteen.. He was an attractive boy with honey blonde hair and the most unusual eyes that I had ever seen. Purple..Not dark blue.. but actually indigo.. I could understand Tetzin’s fascination with him. The boy was intelligent.. soft-spoken.. gentle. He did not shy away from the petting and fondling he received at the man’s hands. And it was obvious that Tetzin doted upon him.   
It was inappropriate behaviour toward a slave and I let him know my thoughts in no uncertain terms.”

Uriel’s faintly nostalgic expression darkened and a tinge of what seemed to be guilt flickered around his brow and the corners of his mouth.

“I see now.. that it was most likely desire and jealousy that drove me.. but at the time I believed my own reasoning. The climate within the Conciliate at the time viewed slaves as property - Worthless lesser beings, essentially interchangeable - to the extent that if a blood slave of another vampire was killed, intentionally or inadvertently, one had but to supply the vampire with a human of similar age, sex and health. They were..livestock..nothing more. Tetzin’s attitude would have earned him punishment.. would have had his slave confiscated, drained and destroyed.

I..threatened him.. I suppose. Subtly. And he, to demonstrate his indifference, reluctantly offered Lania up for my use while they were within my domain.   
Do not misunderstand – this was a standard act of hospitality between vampires. Visiting nobles would normally bring gifts.. and would offer their personal slaves as a matter of course. Tetzin’s neglect to do so upon arrival was conspicuous. Politeness would usually restrict one to the gifts brought, leaving another vampire’s personal property untouched.. however in the case of particularly lovely specimens, it was not unheard of to accept the offer.  
And so I collected Lania from my old friend. He was composed, but the evidence of his distraught raving was all around in his quarters. His luggage was half packed. He obviously thought to leave at the first opportunity. I did not attempt to reassure him.. I thought it for the best he depart soon – his behaviour was courting trouble and I preferred that the problem occur elsewhere.   
But I would sample the boy before he left. Purely on principle..to teach him not to behave so foolishly ...and also to learn, myself, what exactly was at the core of all this fuss.

Lania was a strangely calm and endearing creature. I led him back to my chambers and he proceeded to undress, without a word. I don’t remember what was said between us but I do recall he made some kind of compliment about my appearance, when I questioned his behaviour.   
Against my expectations, I was enchanted by him. His mannerisms, his slight body.. those dazzling eyes. I had intended only to drink from him.. but I took him to my bed.”

Uriel swallowed and turned his head slightly, looking away. 

Hermione pressed her lips together slightly and tried not to think. Of all the things in the world she despised, child abuse had to be among the top contenders and if she let her mind start ranting about the vampire next to her essentially raping a child, she would never hear the rest of the story. It was difficult to suppress the anger that wanted to well up in her but she needed to know what happened to Lania. It could be important!

If the Ducat observed her response, he did not react to it. He seemed entirely preoccupied with his thoughts, in this past era with this poor exploited child.

“Later that night, when he slept, I lay awake, watching his small chest move slowly up and down” he said softly with unmistakeable tenderness. “I decided that I was not prepared to allow Tetzin to leave yet. I had not finished with the boy. I wished to enjoy him for another day or two.   
Tetzin was furious when a servant informed him that he was to remain in my domain at my pleasure. I imagine much of his anger stemmed from fear and betrayal. We had been friends..a long time.  
I was unconcerned. Little else held my attention at that time but the small human and his generous affection for me. When he woke to find himself still in my bed, he seemed overjoyed. He climbed all over me, kissing and-..”   
Uriel swallowed, looking sorrowful “...It doesn’t matter. However I began, over the next days, to see how Tetzin had come to be so besotted with him.” 

The vampire seemed to hesitate at this point, as if undecided whether to continue. His eyes shifted and he shook his head as if to call himself foolish.   
“On the sixth night, while we were both ...recovering our strength, Lania asked whether he might be allowed to stay with me. He said he wanted to belong to me and not to Tetzin.   
I, having entertained the same thoughts, considered whether and how this might be achieved. 

A blood slave cannot be forcibly taken, except by the Conciliate. I could not truly possess Lania unless Tetzin decided to free him – and this would never happen.   
Neither could I hold Tetzin indefinitely purely in order to avail myself of his slave – not only would this seed a disagreement between Ducat Goroya and myself but I could be accused by the concillate of the very thing of which Tetzin was guilty.   
I saw no way to have the boy for myself other than killing my friend.   
I actually thought about killing him for hours that night. There are few offenses within the vampire world which are punished by death. Allowing an Epshani such as yourself to live.. betraying the Conciliate to its enemies.. and killing another vampire without justifiable cause.

To my...very small.. credit – I thought better of my plan by the time Lania awoke again. I saw myself hanging over a dangerous precipice and realised that I had to return the boy before I reached the point where I was prepared to fall.  
He was upset at the news that he would be returning to his master. He wept and begged. I very nearly relented.   
I told him that, should anything unfortunate happen to Tetzin, he should tell any vampires he found that he was promised to Ducat Rozov and they would see him back to me safely. Then I had a servant return him with a handwritten apology to my friend for my appalling behaviour. I.. preferred not to face him and I could not stomach the thought of leaving Lania there and walking away.

Tetzin was gone from my castle within the hour and passed out of my domain before the night was at an end. I knew I could no longer consider him a friend.” 

Uriel looked regretful.. as if he still held faint self recrimination. Hermione found herself moving closer, without thinking of the anger that had only moments before troubled her, and placing her hand over his, where it rested upon his stomach.   
He glanced at her briefly and an unreadable mix of emotions flickered in his eyes, culminating in unease. She realised suddenly that her own touch might not be reassuring, in light of what she was and what the particular topic of this story was.   
“Sorry..” she mumbled, pulling her hand back. “I.. I forgot.”  
He caught her hand and pressed it between his own, the guilty worry in his eyes fading slightly. “I have already damned myself. It is too late for such foolishness. I will tell you the rest of the story.”

She furrowed her brow briefly. The rest? She had thought that was the end. Tetzin had left with Lania.

He made a sound that was not unlike a wry snort.  
“Have you so soon forgotten Gellert’s behaviour while you were far from him? Just as I could send Lania back to Tetzin with a servant, so too can Gellert put you from his mind while you are here.. while he knows that you are in his possession – while he can feel you through the wards and knows that he can reach you upon a whim.. It is very different when the object of obsession is removed and taken far away.  
I..managed only two days before I was sending emissaries after Tetzin.. trackers.. spies.. I devoted all my resources to finding the boy and bringing him back. I felt I might never be happy again if he did not return. The opinions of others no longer interested me.  
It was my behaviour and not Tetzin’s that alerted the Conciliate to the situation. When a lesser noble travels, when he makes purchases, when he remains alone much of his time with only one blood slave – there are few to observe or care. When a Ducat mobilises thousands of servants to hunt another vampire down – it is noted by all.

Tetzin was found. Dead. His body was unharmed – No cause of death could be found.   
The killing curse does not affect vampires, of course – there are few deaths possible for our kind and none of them will leave a body entirely unharmed internally and externally.   
It only cemented the fears of the concillate that they were dealing with an Epshani – an incubus of sorts.. devourer of magic.. unmaker of worlds.   
They set every clan to searching for the boy. 

I was afraid.. I feared they would find Lania and destroy him before I could see him again. But I need not have worried. He came to me. I found him in my bed that night, frightened and confused about what had happened and how he had gotten back to where he most wanted to be.  
I kissed him and comforted him. I think.. no.. I know that I would have disobeyed the Conciliate, had I had the opportunity to do so.   
I did not, thankfully. Within minutes of finding him, we were surrounded by a truly intimidating number of the high guard. The boy was stunned, magically bound and removed from my presence.”

The faint seagreen light played over the youthful vampire’s face as he clenched his jaw in what might have been the faint memory of anguish. Hermione held her breath, trying not to disturb him. When he continued, it was with a dark mien.

“The following night, an emissary arrived with a phial of blood in stasis.  
Apparently I was to be rewarded for my part in the capture of a dangerous creature. I suppose it was less troublesome than publically accusing and punishing me. I enjoy a very high position among the Ducai and have been invited to speak with Concilors once or twice. I am even tipped to be summoned to their ranks when my time comes. It would not look well for one such as myself to be denounced.”  
At that he smirked and gave a soft bitter laugh before shaking his head slightly and refocusing, the smile fading disturbingly to the same haunted expression he had worn before.   
“I had spent the time since Lania’s capture in agony, isolated within my chambers, desperately trying to think of some way that I might retrieve him safely.   
I could find none.   
A few hours before the emissary arrived I had begun to feel better, inexplicably. The boy’s fate was unfortunate but it did not cause me physical suffering any longer. When the phial arrived, I realised that it was because he no longer lived.  
The emissary – a higher ranking functionary with whom I had been acquainted for over a century - was ..disturbed at the sight of me. I did not learn why until the high guard came to retrieve me.   
For the duration of my existence I had had pale green eyes. They were much admired and the reason why my maker first desired me. Apparently, Lania left me a parting gift so that I might remember him. A thoughtful boy, as I said.”

Hermione looked at the bluegreen tinted vampire, his lilac eyes dark in this light, and tried to imagine him with Harry’s eyes. It was difficult.   
“What happened then? What did they want?”

Uriel made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “They were concerned that I might be Lania in disguise I suppose. But the boy had been so young. He was not even aware of his effect upon others and I believe that the magic he had used in killing Tetzin and travelling to me may have been his first accidental use of his developing ability. He was terrified that night.”  
The vampire stilled for a moment pensively before continuing.   
“When the interrogators determined that I was not only unaware of my recent physical alteration, but was also uninformed as to the precise capabilities of Epshani, they tested me magically and quizzed me on information that only I and certain Concillors had shared. Eventually they declared me to be me, finding no threat, and released me.”

The silence stretched on. Hermione, thoughts swirling, could not move herself to say anything reassuring, to offer a single word of condolence. The idea of doing so seemed cheap and tawdry – as if it would only lessen the obviously quite painful memories shared by the vampire lying in the near darkness beside her. Uriel himself seemed rather more preoccupied with the topography of his internal mindscape than her own reactions, his gaze distant and thoughtful. She had the impression that this was a matter he had thought on at length over the decades.

After the longest time his movement beside her stirred her awake just as she had begun to doze. She half turned, reaching for the warm arm departing from her side.

“Be still” Uriel’s low voice hushed in the darkness “It is time that I speak with Gellert. Sleep. I expect that the morning will be quite demanding for you.” She barely caught the addendum he murmured with rancour “...for both of us.” 

Nodding sleepily and refusing to even think about what might happen when she next woke (lest she found she couldn’t sleep at all) she drifted back into a hazy dreamless doze.

 

*#*#*#*

 

She stirred from sleep slowly, a smile on her face, at the sensation of fingers stroking over her hair. Turning her head toward the body beside her she became aware, only milliseconds before she opened her eyes, that the warm figure lying beside her carried an entirely different scent to that which she had expected. And then he sat up and she found herself looking up at blue eyes and blonde curls; at a face that was both greedily possessive and smugly contented at once. It was all she could do not to stiffen and pull back.   
That might not be received well at this juncture, her mind supplied helpfully.

“Finally you wake” Grindelwald purred in thick teutonic accent, not quite removing his hand from her hair, but winding her curls around a finger. “I have been waiting for you, my flower. Patiently. Always you make me wait.”

Hermione swallowed the small knot forming in her suddenly dry throat.   
“I...” her voice trailed off as conflicting responses floated to the front of her mine. ‘I’m sorry’ was the natural thing to say if you had made someone wait – however she was not going to apologise for being asleep when she had no idea that the temperamental dictator was even there. ‘Where’s Uriel?’ was the next competing influence, shamefully – coasting to the lead in front of ‘Is Tom ok? Can I see him?’ Guilt welled up inside, along with a decent portion of self loathing for thinking of the vampire she barely knew before she remembered the boy..man..wizard she supposedly loved. Weak.. She was weak and debauched. A ruined thing seduced all too easily by power and strength.   
The thought terrified her that she might, in time, come to respond just as favourably to Grindelwald himself. If it was really true that the nature of...of.. creatures like herself..was to gravitate and offer affection to the strongest sexually compatible user of magic in their vicinity.  
He was still touching her.. – but then, she could hardly demand he stop. She had no idea what he might do if she did, but it wasn’t likely to be pleasant.  
And ...it wasn’t entirely unbearable, the way he was stroking and petting her. Far less excruciating than the cruciatus. Much less awful than a lot of other things he could do.  
The reasoning felt uncomfortably familiar to her now.

“I must thank you” Grindelwald informed her with muted amusement. “It has been ...many...many years that I have known my good friend Uriel and never before have I succeeded in bringing him to kneel for me. Never have I had an object or threat powerful enough to force his hand. Yet this very morning he came to me, weak with the need to have you for his own.”   
Grindelwald must have interpreted Hermione’s shock as fear since he reassured her at once, a dark smile curving his lips, “He never shall of course. No.. on the contrary – he too belongs to me now. For the chance to drink from you, I can ask of him what I will. It is satisfying to finally own something I have sought for so long. To reduce a vampire Ducat to a pet dog  
It seems Albus may have been not so great a fool after all.”

The thin needles of unease that had been skating up and down Hermione’s spine deepened as she blinked up at the dangerous man in confusion. What did he mean about professor Dumbledore?! 

The blonde man smiled and chuckled at her apparent disturbance. His blonde curls shook slightly around his face. It was not at all boyish and cute. Gellert Grindelwald was not attractive in a roguish, charming way. He was horrid and he had her at his mercy. End of debate.

“Why his constant ‘love, love, love’ of course. Do not tell me that Albus has not treated you to one of his inspiring speeches on the power that weakness offers?! As it turns out.. we have both been right, though he does not see it that way of course.”   
The wizard flashed a debonair smile.  
“Albus has always preached that a softer hand was better than a forceful one. He believes that most people are good.. that they want a reason to help and will do whatever is asked of them in order to spare others discomfort. He believes...” Grindelwald hesitated and his expression softened further as if he were thinking fondly of something. “He believes that fate pays all debts eventually and that I should, if only for reasons of self interest, treat the world with more...care.”

Hermione blinked, wondering exactly how this aspect of her former professor’s belief system dovetailed with his treatment of Harry.  
Or Tom, for that matter.   
Dumbledore hadn’t paid very much at all for the years of suffering Harry had endured, in her opinion. The killing curse was a pretty humane way to go, in contrast with the alternatives available. He’d gotten off lightly.   
Grindelwald continued, heedless of her slight frown. 

“And in a sense.. I now see he was right. My generosity toward you has brought me so many rewards. Rewards I would not have gained, if I had taken a harsher hand in acquiring you. Albus advocates sacrificing, in order to reap – and I see now that sometimes sacrifice can be of benefit.”

It was automatic to ask what exactly Grindelwald thought he’d ‘sacrificed’. She didn’t manage to bite the words off before they’d leapt from her mouth in a dubious disapproving tone.   
Astoundingly enough, this only seemed to amuse the dark wizard more and he smiled broadly, flashing smooth white teeth at her as he shifted on the bed next to her, moving even closer.

“You are still so fiery. It is astounding. I wonder whether you are hoping to provoke my anger. The things I have learned from your little halfblood master seem to suggest you enjoy firm discipline. He was not very eager to talk with me in the beginning but I think we are coming to understand each other much better now.”

Tom! Hermione gasped as the anxious thought flew once again to the front of her mind, accompanied by constant companions – guilt and self recrimination.   
“What have you done to him?! You said you wouldn’t hurt him! Please! I have to-”

The disturbing evaporation of every trace of warmth in Grindelwald’s blue eyes stopped her mid sentence. It was automatic to lower her gaze and cower submissively. That expression, in all its variants, she had seen quite often in the past – most frequently on Voldemort’s face, although Harry and Rodolphus had given passable variants also.   
“Sorry.” She mumbled. “Sorry. I...didn’t mean..”

Two warm fingers beneath her chin tilted her face back toward the imposing dictator.   
“You should appreciate my generosity, Maia. I have many reasons to be harsh with you. Do not...as they say.. press your luck.”

She shook her head quickly. No. She wouldn’t. She’d be better. There was no need for anyone to be harsh with anyone else. 

“I have given up much to possess you” Grindelwald continued with narrowed eyes. “I have sacrificed.. and I have been...kind;.. even gentle..in my treatment of you. I am pleased with the rewards that it has brought me. For this reason I will forgive your thoughtless words yet again. In possessing you, I have been gifted with much. I have won a stronger alliance with the vampires and now, I find, several of the most influential British pureblood lines are urgently seeking to form alliances with me in the interests of preserving the sanity of their offspring. You have brought an old friend back to me, and gifted me with an entertaining new toy. This...magnetism.. you are cursed with may prove very useful to me I think.”  
The faint smile on the man’s face was more frightening than anything that Voldemort or Lucius had managed. It was on a par with Snape.. or even Harry, Hermione thought. 

“I am.. disappointed.. that you are so debased. So.. easily awakened to the touch of any wizard. It changes matters somewhat.   
I cannot present you now to my followers, as I had intended... cannot have you as I would have preferred – on my arm to the jealousy of all others. No.. that would be inadvisable. This I am assured by Albus, Uriel and your little halfblood.

The wizard’s expression, which had been pensive grew darker – a slight flare to the nostrils, as his eyes narrowed further.  
But what they all counsel is not enough. I will not have you always as a...a... schmutziges Geheimnis.. a dirty secret. I will not be creeping around my own domain like a thief.

The piercing blue eyes flicked to her own abruptly and she felt pinned in place like a butterfly on a board.

“You will cooperate with me fully, Maia.” More than a trace of German accent was slipping into the growl and for a brief disorienting moment, Hermione was again abruptly reminded that Grindelwald had been reputed, in history texts, to have had some kind of guiding influence on the Nazi regime in Germany during his own campaign. 

“I will discover the root of this influence – its parameters – and a way will be found to control it. It will not control me!” The last was more a snarl than a growl. Hermione struggled not to shrink back from the man when, disturbingly, all of his anger faded abruptly and was replaced by a thin smile.   
“We will begin experimenting today. After breakfast, I think.” A warmth entered the smile, however it didn’t transform it into anything that could be regarded as comforting.   
“It may be...uncomfortable...for you – for us both perhaps. However nothing I will require of you will harm you. You will see – I will help you, Maia.”

He was going to experiment on her?! On the influence she had on others? How exactly?!   
The thought filled her mind suddenly – there were actually only very few ways she could imagine anyone possibly experimenting with the effects of what equated to a lust potion.  
He was going to force her to affect test subjects.. and then what?! How far would he require her to go, to determine the ‘parameters’, as he put it, of the influence?!! 

At her wide-eyed silence, he reached out again to stroke her face. At this she did flinch back and his smile faltered slightly.

“Please..” she whispered. “Please...don’t. Don’t do...whatever you’re planning on doing to me! I’ll.. I...” petering out at the absence of any idea what to promise when her obedience was exactly what she didn’t want to give. 

“Hush, Maia” he said in a much softer tone. “You cannot know how your reluctance reassures me. Do not fear, my flower. I will find a heilmittel for this affliction and then you will no longer need to think on it again. Come – get up now and ready yourself for the day.”

When she didn’t appear reassured in the slightest, he continued, with obvious reluctance.

“If you promise to be good and to try to do as I ask of you – I...will allow you to visit with the boy before we begin...”

This galvanised her, finally, into coherent response.   
“for how long? Alone? Is he alright?! What have you done to-“

“Do not make me regret the offer, Maia. Get up now. You will see him – You will not be alone with him and we will discuss it no more.”

 

 

*#*#*#*

 

 

He was so damn... understanding.. and patient. She was going mad.   
Every time she turned around he was there with some gift or some gentle word, offering her some pretty distraction and then leaving her in peace again. 

Hermione raised the paint brush and placed a long daub of cadmium yellow that neither enhanced nor destroyed the utterly talentless canvas she was pissing away paint upon.   
She couldn’t paint. She had never had an artistic flair.. or a poetic flair. She never wanted to learn to embroider or to make origami swans that flapped their wings. While she could do the latter, the achievement of which seemed to her to be mainly procedural in nature - the former were, she was quite certain in the meantime, just beyond her.  
The bright glassy atrium around her simply screamed perfect ‘painting studio’, just as the many other rooms that had been gifted to her were ideal music suites, meditation chambers, observatories, herb gardens, etcetera etcetera ad nauseum

Draco was almost faultless in his ‘devotion’ – he had been for months now. Aside from the occasional kiss or lingering touch, he hadn’t tried in the slightest to draw her into intimacy with him. She was beginning to find it insulting. Worse – it made her feel guilty. He gave her so much.. and she still stiffened when he embraced her.  
She couldn’t help it, somehow. The guilt of spurning the silver eyed wizard was like the light from a distant star in comparison with the roaring crackling molten heart of the sun that was her guilt at desiring him when she had done nothing...nothing to try to restore the Dark Lord... or to find Rodolphus, at the very least.

She swiped another brushstroke listlessly and flinched as Mirrow pounced and sent something clattering down to the ground in the back of the room somewhere. There was the soft liquid sound of liquid spilling and glugging thickly onto a surface and Hermione ducked her head even further, cringing and hoping that it hadn’t been some priceless heirloom that had just been irreparably destroyed.   
The kneazel padded serenely across the room to her. She didn’t turn at his approach but had to look when he wound himself around her leg wetly.

Blue.   
He was blue. 

Gah!!! Damn it! She turned to find the clear track of blue pawprints winding over the polished oak floor toward her. A large blue puddle was spreading out from a tin on the floor at the base of the...white.. well.. now mostly white.. marble.. decorative fireplace..  
There was a long mark which seemed to suggest the kneazel had actually dragged the upturned paint tin somehow, presumably in order to purposely maximise the damage.  
Fantastic.

Mirrow seemed to smirk up at her.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh what is Master being saying when he finds out?! Oh! Nettie is a bad house elf for letting Masters house be made blue!! 

Hermione sighed softly. Dealing with house elves these days always left her feeling just a little bit irritable. It wasn’t the fault of the poor things themselves, but she ended up, no matter what she did, with a sense of futility. House elves could not or did not want to see that they were exploited and didn’t need to behave as they did. She had given up on trying to bolster their egos because it generally achieved the opposite effect. So now, as the wailing and gushing and miserable blaring honking sobs started up, she placed her brush down and wearily ordered nettie to fetch the slipper.

The dread slipper of corporal punishment. It grated against her every single time she did this – and yet... not to punish the elf would invariably mean that nettie would go and punish herself in some godawful manner far worse than anything the Marquis de sade could dream up, and Hermione would feel even worse.   
The three token swats with the slipper on the small uniformed elf’s behind were administered briskly and she was then perfunctorily ‘forgiven’ and dismissed. Her bright shining eyes were pathetically awe filled as she beamed up at Hermione wetly, profusely thanking her before she disapparated.

“You did that on purpose” she sniped at the kneazel – which was now miraculously paint free and preening its long whiskers in self satisfaction.

“mrrrrow?” it ventured with a look that she was certain Voldemort himself would wear if he were ever reincarnated in feline form. 

“Don’t torment the house elves Mirrow – go outside and play or something.”

The cat smirked again and rubbed itself against her ankle affectionately – as much to say that it wouldn’t be going anywhere as to subtly emphasise exactly who dictated to whom here.  
Yes. More and more she was coming to think that cats of all descriptions and dark wizarding Lords might have many things in common.

“I’m not sure about the canvas, but I love what you’ve done with the decor”

She smiled faintly. Draco. His warm presence approached and for a moment as his fingers traced up her arms and he leaned closer to press warm lips to the side of her neck, - for a moment she could almost give herself over to the sensation.. before the automatic guilt reaction flashed through her. She stiffened and he drew back wordlessly, moving around her to stand before her, a soft smile undiminished on his face.   
Her brows furrowed slightly and she felt that fainter guilt stir within her chest but he half shook his head and only reached to brush aside a thick curl of her hair.

“We’ve discussed this, Hermione. Never..never.. feel that you have to do anything for me. You have no obligation. I am pleased just to be able to speak with you.. to be around you when you allow it. If my affection makes you uncomfortable – you only have to say the word and I will restrain myself.”  
she swallowed at the thought, catching Draco’s silvery grey eyes following the movement of her throat

“No..” she countered just slightly too quickly. “No.. it’s...you know it’s not that. You.. you don’t have to..um..”  
blushing redly, she trailed off, hoping that he would get the point. 

Draco smiled and there was the barest edge of superiority to it, gone before she could really pin it down.   
“If that’s the way it is – I should tell you that we’ll be dancing like this forever unless you show me what you want from me. I won’t press my suit with you, Hermione. When you are ready, - if you ever feel that you are ready – this-“ he gestured between them vaguely “-will be at your speed. Always what you desire and no further... “

Frowning slightly, she turned back to the canvas on which a child’s impression of the lilies in the vase on the piano was daubed. Why did Draco have to be so bloody chivalrous these days?! Why couldn’t he have just a little bit of his father in him. She wouldn’t feel so guilty if she had no choice.   
The thought was appalling that she might prefer to be helpless and she discarded it immediately, taking a deep breath.   
She was not weak.   
She wasn’t!

“Have you found out anything about Rodolphus yet?”

Draco’s posture did not change at all and yet she had the bizarre impression in her peripheral vision that there was something defensive in his stance now.

“Unfortunately not... but i’ll keep up enquiries, obviously...” he paused. The silence was somehow heavier. When he spoke again, his voice was softer, more hesitant.  
“Hermione... it’s been.. a long time since you...” correcting himself absently he tried again “I know it hasn’t seemed very long to you.. but for the rest of us it has been many years since the Dark Lord fell... What i’m trying to say is that I’m not sure Lestrange is even alive.. or .. undead.. or whatever vampires are. There was a ministry purge of dark creatures several years ago and, really, I haven’t heard from him since the turning of the era. It’s possible he perished.. or left the country. Surely – if he were around, he would have detected your waking and come to search you out. It has been almost half a year since you woke, you know, and I have been trying to-“

“Just... just keep looking, ok??” she interrupted, hating the tight, high, pinched sound in her voice. “Please, Draco?”  
Rodolphus couldn’t be dead. He wasn’t dead. They were all dead. Tom and Severus and Harry and Lucius. Rodolphus was alive somewhere. He had to be. She was sure she would feel different if he was gone. She would just know. Draco wasn’t looking properly. He probably wasn’t looking at all. He didn’t want to find Rodolphus, for obvious reasons. But if she just kept asking.. maybe?  
Or else she’d have to try to leave and search on her own. Draco might try to stop her from finding him.  
Draco might try to stop her from leaving, irrespective what he kept saying about how much he loved her and how he would never force her to do anything.   
And if she were to give in to the loneliness she was feeling and return his little affections, no doubt it would be even more unlikely that he’d let her go. 

The disappointed hurt that flashed quickly through the grey eyes did not escape her and she turned away still more, trying to tamp down the flaring guilt. It seemed that guilt was all there was these days. Guilt at treating Draco so coldly when he did so much for her. All he asked of her was the chance to see her – to speak with her, if only for a few minutes each day. He didn’t even sleep next to her anymore – although she found herself wishing he were there when she slipped between warm satin sheets in her beautiful room. She missed him.   
He had said that it was too difficult to be so close to her and not want to be closer still. He had said that he didn’t want to forget himself in the midst of some dream and abuse her trust.

“Draco... I... I’m..” she mumbled unhappily. The apology sounded so flimsy in her mind.

“No.. It’s fine” he stopped her, the emotion drained from his voice again. “I’ll find him. If he is out there, i’ll turn over every rock until he’s found. Don’t worry. I’ll see... -Will you be joining me for dinner this evening??”   
He almost sounded casual. The vibrato of anxiety nearly subsumed beneath his polished exterior.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll come down” she reassured him and felt another wave of guilty longing when the relief twitched the tightness from his brow. He started to turn away and leave her to her painting.  
“Draco...”

Half turning, raw hope shone in his silvery eyes. 

She felt something clench and begin to fray inside her. Before she could think better of it she took the two steps toward him and curled herself into him in a hug that soon became a limpet cling.   
It felt so good. So warm. Even better when his arms enfolded her gently. Turning her head she pressed her face into the curve of his neck, inhaling that familiar delicious scent that was inherently Draco – always there beneath the various expensive aftershaves he favoured.   
“I’m sorry i’m so horrible” she mumbled, aware that she sounded like a child and unable to find the words to say what she was feeling in a more eloquent manner. 

The slow shake of his head was felt. “Hermione.. You couldn’t be horrible if you tried” he whispered. “I’ve missed you. So much...”

She drew back at the unexpected thick, choked, sound in his voice, just in time to feel a hot droplet hit her cheek. Draco’s red rimmed eyes darted away as if in shame to be caught in such a pitiful display of emotion. His lips started to part in a word that she could see would be an apology.  
And the clenched thing inside her heart frayed and snapped.   
“No. Don’t!” she blurted. “Don’t say it. I’ve missed you too. I miss you. Draco – i’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m so sorry!!”  
And then her lips were on his, competing in their desperation with Draco’s own as they kissed like creatures possessed – like lovers who might never have another chance to taste the other’s sweetness.

It was salty with their combined tears and it was not at all refined as they groped and explored one another blindly. Draco tugging her, his hands still roving over her body in starved delight, toward the door and, she imagined - beyond, to the stairs and onward to the bedroom. No. that would take far too long. She countermanded that direction, digging in her heels and simply beginning to unclothe him where they stood. He did not hesitate once he realised her intent and soon they were entwined on the polished hardwood floor, their robes hanging on them, snagging and wrapping around them as they struggled to remove every barrier between their bodies.


	76. Chapter 76

The sensation of showering was heavenly after a week of being prone in a bed. It was made even more so by the wretched gratefulness she felt at being permitted to shower alone. With Grindelwald’s temperament in mind, she didn’t remain too long under the warm flow, turning in circles and enjoying herself. The risk that the man could suddenly change his mind and decide to join her was reason enough, but it had the added weight that he could become irritated at being obliged to wait and decide not to take her to Tom after all. 

She washed her hair and body and got out quickly, wrapping herself in a plush towel and returning to the bedroom – where she was required to dress in front of the wizard as he lounged in a chair, gazing upon her proprietarily. 

No. His expression was not merely one of satisfied ownership, she mused to herself darkly as she snuck sideways glances at the man while towelling herself dry and attempting to minimize the bare skin on display at any one time. Beyond the possessiveness, there was something of internal conflict to it too. It reminded her of the way Severus had looked at her when he had come to heal her burn scar. The professor had been at once hungrily coveting and yet reluctantly restrained, as if he refused to allow himself to bow to his baser instinct any further than he already had. 

Evidently, Grindelwald had decided to refrain from indulging until he had examined her ‘effect’ on others further; it did not however appear that he was particularly satisfied with that decision.

The clothing that he had selected for her was much akin to the style of clothing that Voldemort would one day place in her wardrobe for her. He had selected a rich satiny robe in cream which reminded her a little of a nightdress. It was probably some well-known designer from the forties whose name would mean absolutely nothing to her. It suited her, both in cut and colour – lending warmth to her pale skin and burnishing her brown eyes and hair.

Grindelwald seemed pleased too as he flattered her with a flowery compliment and captured her hand a shade too eagerly, to lead her to breakfast.

Breakfast was like twenty years in purgatory - as such mundane chores often seem when one is waiting for something of actual significance to begin. It could not have been longer than half an hour, but each minute seemed to drag excruciatingly. In light of the situation, she really wasn’t hungry and only managed a few sips of orange juice at Grindelwald’s solicitous prompting, if only to move things along. It was entirely irrelevant whether she ate right now, she ranted inwardly, mind fixated on the prospect of seeing Tom again as soon as the bloody German dictator finished his stupid croissant and lemon tea. It took all of her self-control not to fidget irritably the entire time.   
Grindelwald, for all his apparent obliviousness to her impatience, smirked mildly when she sprang up like a jack in the box as soon as he indicated that they would leave.

As it turned out, she had been wrong in her assumption that there would be an impressive degree of security around Tom. 

The level of security around Tom was more than merely impressive. Grindelwald was not a man to do things by halves, evidently.   
The security that the dratted man had installed passed through ‘impressive’ without stopping and hovered in ‘intimidating beyond reason’, with a vague gesture in the direction of ‘Abandon all hope ye who enter here’. It left all of Hermione’s most paranoid suppositions in the dust. 

Grindelwald had side-along apparated her to wherever this prison… or dungeon…or whatever... was – and the apparition had felt oddly heavy and thick, as if it were dragged or slowed somehow. When they arrived, the pressure of the wards made her ears pop and she knew she would have a headache before long.

“Yes... it is somewhat uncomfortable at first” the wizard in whose arms she was enfolded rumbled quietly as he released her. “The sensation abates after a matter of hours when the body adjusts... you will not be here for so long and I think you will rather accept the pain than leave now, hm?”

Her impatient nod only worsened her burgeoning headache.

It took a few minutes for them to traverse the labyrinthine corridors to reach Tom’s ‘quarters’. As they walked, she felt the wash of further, denser wards several times as they passed into deeper security zones. Once, a silvery pane swept rapidly through the corridor and passed through them both with an unpleasant prickle, continuing on undiminished. Some sort of scan, she assumed, wondering what exactly might have happened if it had deemed her a threat.   
All things considered, she was beginning to wonder about her realistic prospects for launching a rescue independently, even with the recovery of her magic. Doubtless the wards and scans that she had felt so far were only the tip of the iceberg of security fortifications here. Not only that, but the corridors were starting to exert a strangely disorienting effect upon her. It was a spell of some kind, obviously, since she actually didn’t know where she was going and could not, therefore, have come off her intended path or missed the turn she had intended to take. Even so, the urge to turn around and look behind her or retrace her steps was irrationally intense. 

When Grindelwald stopped by an uninteresting stretch of wall, she kept walking for a step and a half, pulling up sharply at his hand heavy on her shoulder.

“Stop! It would be unwise to move too far from me here. There are wards here set specifically against you. Your half-blood ‘Lord’ is here – though he will be elsewhere after we have left. Come. Take my hand and I will show him to you”

That was further useful information, she thought with another lead weight added to the sinking feeling in her stomach. Wonderful. The already suffocatingly thick wards here would do something particularly nasty in reaction to her if she ever came here alone – not that she knew where ‘here’ was in any sense of the word – and Tom wouldn’t be ‘here’ even if she could miraculously pull the coordinates out of her arse.

She placed her hand in the larger one extended to her. 

With a small smile and a brush of his thumb across her knuckles, Grindelwald raised his other hand and placed it on the rough grey stone of the wall.

A moment later she watched as the stone flickered, shimmered slightly and then a five metre wide section appeared to vanish, opening a view into a white walled chamber with a single pallet bed attached to the wall, a toilet and a sink. ...And Tom. 

She was reminded strongly of a movie she had seen only the summer before the war had begun in earnest. Silence of the lambs, it had been called. 

Tom stood in the centre of the room looking toward them. He had an air of anticipation to him. He was dressed in plain white cotton garments that resembled loose fitting pyjamas and his hands were clenched into fists.   
He didn’t seem to be injured, although he looked very wan and drawn, as if he were exhausted; limp and listless hair and bloodshot eyes blinking too often in the bright white glare of the room.

He didn’t react at all to their appearance and her growing suspicion was confirmed when Grindelwald told her that he could not see them and had likely been anxiously awaiting their arrival all morning, since he had been told of the planned visit late last night.

“You see that he is well. I have not hurt him too badly yet. It would be a pity for that to change, would it not?”

Her anxious pleading expression drew a chuckle from the man. “I think that you will prefer to be good for me, no? Then you will start as you intend to continue – I will take you inside to speak with him, Maia – but there are rules. Do you understand?”

She did.

“You will not leave my side without permission.” He fixed her with a calculating gaze. There was no humour at all in the sapphire chip eyes.   
“You will not speak without permission, even if the boy speaks to you. …If I instruct you to do anything – anything at all - it is to be done at once and exactly in the sense of the instruction. Do you understand, Maia? You will not argue or protest or refuse. I will not accept childishness here. When I decide it is time to leave, you will obey without hesitation or you will not be returning here again. Do you agree?”

Was there really a choice, she wondered? She could agree and see Tom with a thousand restrictions, or refuse and probably watch Tom be punished in front of her. There had to be some kind of Dark Lord training school where one learned to be a complete bastard. Perhaps Grindelwald had founded it? Or Dumbledore? Maybe there was a bastard before them who influenced them both?! 

“Yes. Okay. Fine – I agree” was blurted quickly. Grindelwald made her wait even so, watching her with a dubious expression.

“Do not disappoint me again, Maia.”   
It sounded ominous. She nodded again uneasily and turned back to the room where Tom was nervously shifting, his eyes sharper now. It almost seemed as if he could sense them there somehow without seeing them.

The grip on her hand tightened and then, without warning, Grindelwald stepped forward through the wall, dragging her after him. The sensation was both tingly and gritty at once and she took a gasping breath automatically, shaking her head slightly to rid it of the peculiar muzziness that lingered.

“Did you sleep well, Tom?” the wizard beside her inquired with the barest sardonic lilt to his voice. Hermione pulled herself together and raised her head, to find Tom’s dark blue eyes fixed on her intently. He ignored the question and spoke softly, with a voice that sounded rougher than she remembered “Are you well? Has he harmed you?”

She almost replied, but the fractional adjustment in the posture of the tall man next to her reminded her of the agreement she had only just given. Reluctantly she turned to look up at him expectantly.

“Very good, Maia. You are learning.” He squeezed the hand that he still held affectionately before turning to Tom. “She is quite well. I have barely needed to discipline her yet. She has been...most accommodating...” 

Hermione watched the rage flicker across Tom’s perfect face and vanish again, subsumed beneath a blank mask. “I am pleased to hear that” he gravelled mildly. “Might I be permitted to speak with her directly, do you think? After all... I don’t believe I am hallucinating her presence in the room with us.”

Hermione felt the darkening of the atmosphere in the room as Grindelwald stiffened. He sounded cold and pitiless when he spoke.   
“Do you remember, Tom, our conversation about that tongue, which sometimes makes difficulty for you? I think you do not want to embarrass yourself in front of Maia, after you have finally the chance to look upon her again. 

“No!” Tom replied at once, emphatically shaking his head. “I apologise. Please don’t-“

It was utterly disturbing, Hermione concluded, to see Tom so abruptly reduced to using that helpless pleading tone. Whatever had been done to him must have been awful to bring him to this point! She almost didn’t want to know what it was. To know now, and be able to do nothing, would be worse than to wonder. When she got them out of this...somehow…eventually... she would see to it that he never had to be beholden to anyone ever again! She would protect him from now on. And Grindelwald would suffer for doing this to him. It wasn’t enough for him to just moulder away in captivity as the history books recorded after Dumbledore defeated him – she would have to take some kind of measures to see that he-. 

“Maia?” The devil himself sounded mildly irked at her lack of attention. 

“Yes...Gellert?” she replied, trying for appeasement. It was successful. She received a smile and another hand squeeze for her effort.

“I had thought to leave, as Tom does not seem to have the discipline for a visit today,-”

The way that Tom flinched and actually cowered slightly at this was painful to observe even from the corner of her eye. Hermione tried her hardest to broadcast an air of devoted obedience, in the hope that it would be enough.  
It wasn’t that hard actually. All she had to do was imagine that she was right now miraculously transported back to her own time and was in her chambers alone with Voldemort – a prospect which now seemed like some kind of unattainable paradise. 

It was, apparently, enough. Grindelwald went on after a brief pause during which his eyes narrowed in seeming consideration. “Although... I think it would be perhaps useful to begin the experiments here. In this way I might compare the results to less significant subjects later.”

“Experiments?” Tom prompted in a tone that tried for disaffected and only managed mildly perturbed. 

Grindelwald smiled coldly. “I have decided to examine Maia’s condition. Naturally, I cannot let her suffer under the connection to other wizards. I will discover the basis for this magical parasitism and then it will be removed. For this there must be testing.” His smile became slightly thinner for a moment. “I may not require your conscious cooperation, Tom. Remember that.”

Tom’s gaze flicked to Hermione’s before returning to Grindelwald. “Of course. I will assist however you require...” There was a long pause and then he muttered, through gritted teeth “Master.”

At this Grindelwald laughed brightly and smiled. “Very good Tom. It seems that you too can learn. I should have perhaps trained you together from the beginning. It is a good beginning for what we will be doing here. Even so – you have not proven yourself very worthy of trust before today. You will be bound. Go to the wall.”

Tom nodded and backed up slowly until he reached the back wall of the room and stood pressed against it with his heels and his shoulders touching the stone.

It seemed like the position was very familiar to him, Hermione thought and again twinged in distress at what he had been reduced to.

“Brav.” Grindelwald commended, as if Tom were a dog that had sat on command. He twitched his wand slightly, vanishing the few basic amenities in the room. A further flick saw Tom’s arms pulled sharply out to the sides as if in preparation for crucifixion. His fingers were splayed and the slight tension in his brows betrayed that the position might not be all that comfortable.

“Maia... You will move exactly as I direct. Do you understand? If you do not – it will disturb the measurements.” 

“Yes Gellert” she replied at once, eager now for what she hoped the ‘experiment’ might eventually entail. From the brightness barely veiled in Tom’s eyes, he too had read the implicit connotation and was highly motivated to reach that end.

Without warning he threw his head back and cried out in pain, skull knocking hard against the stone behind him and limbs trembling in place. Hermione jumped and barely stopped herself from running to him, whirling to Grindelwald instead and screaming out “Stop!! Stop, Please! I didn’t do anything!! He – he didn’t do anything! Why are-“

The agonised cry cut off and Tom’s head fell forward as he panted, recovering.

The blonde wizard looked down at her with mild chastisement. “Do not speak out of turn, Maia. The boy was punished so that you would see what will happen if instructions are not followed. I must leave the wards in order to measure the effects without affecting the magical fields. I would not want you to think that this means I am not able to control what happens here. If you show me how well you can listen and follow orders – we will perhaps come back another day to continue, when I have other results to compare with the boy’s.”

Other results. A sobering thought suddenly. No matter how much she might have hoped to have the chance to be close to Tom – to be able to touch him and perhaps even kiss him, caress him, be intimate with him even if they couldn’t be alone – the prospect that whatever acts they were instructed to carry out here would undoubtedly be repeated later with several unknown ‘test subjects’ was sickening.   
Although Tom’s head was still hanging down against his chest, she thought she caught a grimace on his face that mirrored her own. Experiments. Grindelwald had said that they might be uncomfortable for her.

“Okay” she whispered. “I understand. I will do exactly as you say. You won’t have to hurt him again.”

Grindelwald smiled, pleased and tugged her hand, pulling her closer to him and embracing her with his other arm. “Good, Maia. Very good. We will see whether that is true.” He punctuated his comment with a light, familiar, kiss to her forehead and released her, striding away and back through the wall.   
She turned back to Tom and saw that he had raised his head slightly and was now looking up at her with a small, rueful smile. 

“Perhaps I should have listened to you, the day you suggested we visit the zoo.”

She couldn’t help the tiny smile that twitched the corner of her lips. The situation was not at all comical. This was beyond terrible – she had been in only a few situations that she could qualify as more ‘dire’ than this. Nevertheless – it was so rare for Tom to ever admit that he had made a mistake that she almost felt lightened by his words. 

The response “only perhaps?” died on her lips before she could speak it. Had she so soon forgotten the punishment that Grindelwald had administered as a mere demonstration?! No – she would not give him a reason to do it again. 

The Teutonic voice boomed through the cell only moments later, making her flinch. “You will feel a little prickle as the room is cleansed. Remain still.”  
Before the instruction had even ended, she watched a large seamless silvery pane emerge from the right hand wall. It was much like the one that had earlier passed through the corridor but was moving much more slowly than the other one had been and it seemed to emit a soft sizzling sound like frying bacon as it approached.   
Tom tensed. That was sufficient for her to anticipate that Grindelwald’s idea of a ‘prickle’ might be more than just a ‘little uncomfortable’.

It was rather like having the worst case of pins and needles in every part of your body at once. ‘Remain still’ he had said – it was difficult to remain standing.  
When it had passed she had to struggle not to shake herself and massage her limbs. She ‘remained still’ and waited instead and the sensation abated.

“Good. Maia, move to stand directly before the boy, but do not move closer.” 

She complied and was further instructed to begin to take slow steps toward Tom. The steps were to be of normal pace length and she was to take one every two seconds until she was an arm’s length from Tom, who seemed to be watching now with greater interest once again.  
He smiled at her as she approached with pedantically irritating slowness until she was directly in front of him, looking up at him. 

For a moment he seemed to want to say something, but with a dart of his eyes to the back wall, apparently thought better of it.

“One step closer, Maia – but do not touch him.”

The step brought her within a hair’s breadth of Tom. She could have leaned forward five inches and kissed him if she had been of a mind to immediately provoke the German bastard to punish him again.  
Even so she could almost read the thought lingering in Tom’s eyes and entreated him with a warning stare not to do anything reckless. He smirked and wet his lips with the tip of a pale pink tongue. “Don’t!” she mouthed at him and was saved from further worry a moment later when the booming voice instructed her to go back to the other end of the room and wait.

The sight that greeted her when she turned around was surprising but not at all unwelcome. She had heard the tiny caught breath behind her and it had apparently been the moment that Grindelwald had vanished the white hospital pyjama set that Tom had been clothed in, since he was now no longer clothed in it. His body was somewhat, but not significantly, thinner than it had been, she observed.   
He was beautiful; his body painfully lovely, especially stretched and tensed as it was now.   
It seemed her observation was having an effect on its object too. She watched as he hardened slowly under her gaze and still couldn’t quite help the warmth on her cheeks.

“And still she blushes!” Tom murmured. “After all that I have seen you do... after all that I have myself done with and to you... how is that even possible?!”

“Be silent now boy or I will seal your lips.” The Nazi intercom commanded. “Maia... repeat the previous movement path. Do not deviate.”

This time, the slow walk had something more tantalising to it. Tom’s eyes burned as they held her own, drawing her in. She found herself breathing faster and thinking about where she would like to touch... how he would react if she were to stroke him here or lightly scratch him there. How he had reacted when she had done so in the past.   
From his smirk, he knew the effect he was having on her too and delighted in the near pavlovian response.

When she was standing virtually eye to eye with Tom again and his movements were partially hidden by her silhouette he mouthed at her ‘you are still mine’

She smiled and mouthed back ‘yes’

“Step back one pace Maia” Grindelwald directed. 

Reluctantly she increased the distance between them. 

At first she thought something was wrong when Tom closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall, but the expression his face took on was not one of pain but weary amusement.

“Do you know... I have a far greater understanding now for how Abraxas could continue to try to touch you despite the curse that he knew would cause him pain. It is intolerable, Maia. I think-“

What Tom thought went unsaid however as Hermione watched his lips forcibly pinned closed with a nasty little spell. Silver thread glinted and the image of Harry sprang up in her memory wretchedly.

Definitely some kind of horrible Dark Lord School or something. Had to be.

Tom managed a wan smile at her, although the thread couldn’t have been pleasant.

“Touch his hand. Use only a finger. Either hand will do. The right one.”

She complied. Tom turned his head to watch her. Nothing very spectacular happened. It felt like touching Tom’s hand with her finger. Evidently, for him it felt like having his hand touched with a finger.   
Nevertheless there was a longer delay from the German wizard observing them magically somehow. When he spoke again he sounded distracted.

“Two fingers”

She exchanged a look with Tom again and he rolled his eyes as much as to say – this could take all day.


	77. Chapter 77

“Halt!”

The command was so sharp, so harsh and ringing, that Hermione flinched back on her knees as if stung. Wide eyed, her fingers trembled, bare millimetres from the intimate contact that she had been working toward for the last… however long it had been now.

“Stand and step away, Maia” 

She could just… just… ignore it.. She wanted to touch Tom so badly now. It was almost like a form of pain.  
Well… touch… touch was relative really. She had been touching him in infuriatingly regimented and comparatively chaste patterns now for what seemed like hours. She had been instructed in crisp, precise terms exactly what she was to do and she had obeyed to the letter, Tom’s heated gaze alternately following her fingertips and drinking in her features. She had quickly lost herself in the surreal intensity of the sensations. It was, in some indescribable way, almost like a dance… or a ritual. As if the air grew heavier with each minute of slowly tracing the curve of a bicep, the line of a rib, the inner arch of a knee. She found herself breathing faster and her hands seemed to become abnormally sensitive. Tom was so warm… Standing so close, she could smell the faint familiar scent that had become home to her. She could remember exactly how it would feel, how it would taste, if she were to lean forward the decisive few inches and take him into her mouth. There was nothing…nothing she wanted more right now!

She had thought… for a moment… with her hand finally tracing up the inside of Tom’s thigh toward the hard bar of want that had been unflagging for the entire frustratingly restrictive process – she had thought that Grindelwald might actually permit them to -

After all – it was for research, wasn’t it? And..and.. in light of what he had said – or at least implied – she was to be forced to do later, was it so unreasonable to think she might be given this one thing?!

“Maia…”  
There was an undertone that spoke of steel-capped-boots in Grindelwald’s disembodied voice this time. 

Still she hesitated. 

A glance up, tearing her eyes from the organ that had previously captured all of her focus, revealed Tom’s intensity; his deep blue eyes alight with furious demanding. He didn’t implore – if anything it was closer to a command – were his mouth not stitched closed with silver wire, she could very clearly imagine the tone of voice he was likely to use, in the state he appeared to be in. Every line in his face conveyed that he was not interested in the consequences that might be inflicted upon him by their captor – she was to give him what he wanted now!

And she wanted to. So badly!!

It was only the horrible aching uncertainty within her of just what those consequences might be.   
The boy in the memory that Grindelwald had sent her had looked just like Tom.   
He had looked exactly like Tom right up to the point that his flesh had been mutilated and his eyes destroyed and his mouth became a gurgling shrieking froth of blood.

…Surely the man wouldn’t do anything so destructive – after all, he wanted to be able to use Tom as a bargaining chip to shape her behaviour. 

But he had certainly done something awful to Tom to get him to behave as he had when she had first arrived in the cell. Tom had been afraid – not merely wary or falsely compliant. She had never seen him like that before – not even in the orphanage. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what might persuade him to bend his neck like that when apparently molestation and physical abuse were things he was able to simply tolerate.

Tom was obviously not able to think clearly about that right now and, honestly, a large part of her was finding it very difficult too, making excuses and equivocations and bargaining with her conscience to just…just…

But that part was not at the helm. There was still enough reason and rationality in her to realise that the gains to be made in disobeying would be brief and likely unsatisfying, while the losses could be great.

With an inward sigh she reluctantly withdrew her hand and leaned back.

Tom let his head drop forward in frustrated disgust and she heard his low growl that might as well have been an articulated oath to impale the German bastard’s head on a spike at the earliest opportunity.

“Stand and step back, Maia” the command repeated through the white cell, echoing in an unpleasantly piercing manner.

She kept her eyes firmly down as she climbed unsteadily to her feet, the impractical dress she had been given to wear hampering her movements now far more than it had seemed to when she had been lowering herself to kneel.

There was no sound, but somehow, she could feel some small change in the texture of the air to betray the fact that Grindelwald was no longer standing outside the cell watching them through the magical equivalent of one way glass, but had joined them in the room.   
Perhaps she had caught the nearly imperceptible tensing of Tom’s frame in her peripheral vision and that was the cue.

It hardly mattered what she noticed first. A moment later she was spun harshly by an arm and the blond dictator’s hand was at her throat.  
He did not squeeze hard – had he, he could have likely snapped her neck without too much effort on his part - but the pressure of his hand around her windpipe was heavy and choking even so. She couldn’t breathe. His narrowed blue eyes were like glass chips and his mouth was hard. Goggling at him, she gasped like a caught fish in the hand of the angler.

She had expected to be mildly chastised for her hesitation. It had been verging on disobedience. She had not actually disobeyed. She didn’t expect..  
Inwardly she slapped herself for her foolishness. Time and time again she slapped and slapped and yet her idiocy somehow always grew back. She really knew by now that she could never expect to be able to predict what they would do. Her…owners There were never any solid rules… no immoveable lines within which the walker might know they were safe. In her limited experience, she had seen enough to expect by now that any and all dark lords were likely to have the emotional stability and impulse control of toddlers on crack.

The hand loosened slowly, seemingly reluctantly and she blinked her eyes rapidly against the tears that had filled them.

“I regret… I lost my patience for a moment. Do not test my good will again, Maia” Grindelwald gravelled softly and Hermione mentally underlined three times her observations on the nature of Dark Lords.   
“It is…unpleasant… to see you so brazen with other men.”

She couldn’t quite stop herself from sputtering, infuriated and still reeling from the shock of the careless strangulation, “But you told me to do that! I..I did everything you told me. How can you”   
The words just fell out of her mouth before her brain could intervene and bite them off. 

She could see that the dark wizard was unimpressed. 

With a dismissive sneer in Tom’s direction he half turned, reaching out and gripping her upper arm. “Enough, Maia. Come. I would see to your continued testing before other more pressing tasks demand my attention today.” He had dragged her to the open wall to the corridor before she had even realised she was moving, but then he seemed to hesitate. Just as she turned to see what had happened, he pushed her through the ward barrier, into the corridor outside the cell. She nearly stumbled, and dangled briefly from the iron grip on her arm before righting herself. Behind her, inside the cell she could see that Grindelwald was obviously speaking to Tom, his lips were moving and his expression promised nothing good. The corridor she stood in was silent however. There was the faintest of white ward flimmers around the dark wizard’s arm where it passed through the invisible ward barrier.

Tom’s demeanour barely betrayed his concern at whatever threat their captor had made. His eyes gazed ahead serenely, and he had on his very best distant and unaffected expression, but the increased tension in his shoulders and the slight whitening of his lips made clear his aversion to whatever was being promised to him.

A moment later, Grindelwald had joined Hermione in the corridor and the glassy pane into the white room faded back to unforgiving grey stone slabs, rough and depressingly solid. The sight of Tom was swept away as if it had never been there.

A sudden frisson of fear arced through her nerves – she had a horrible feeling that she might never see Tom again. She wanted to go back into the white cell right away and make sure that he was still there. It was on the tip of her tongue to start begging for five more minutes.. another minute… another few seconds of simply watching him, but the dark and forbidding scowl on the blonde man’s face made clear how ill-advised it would be to push on that front right now.   
Feeling utterly miserable at the thought of the horrible things she would no doubt have to face now, in payment for the despot’s graciousness in allowing her to see Tom at all, she turned her eyes down to the ground and allowed herself to be silently led by the hand. Who even knew how long it would be before he brought her back here, if he brought her back here at all. He…he could hurt… no… he would hurt Tom – of that she was certain. Even if she pleased him to the letter, he would still hurt Tom because of what Tom was to her. He could decide to kill him and there would be not a thing she could do about it.  
Yet again she felt the sharp ache at her utter powerlessness without her magic.   
Even the thought that she might somehow barter for Tom’s well-being with her compliance…her good behaviour…was a hollow and unconvincing wheedling in the back of her mind. She had no faith that anything she could do might significantly influence the mercurial and sadistic dark lord in whose possession she currently found herself. Grindelwald would do as he pleased and his preference was liable to switch from fire to ice without warning.

“I am disappointed” 

The low growl shook her from her morbid thoughts and she glanced up unhappily.

“I do not think it has served any purpose, bringing you to see the boy. You are less satisfactory than you were this morning at breakfast.” The dark wizard narrowed his eyes at the corridor before him as they walked, his lip curling slightly in angry disgust. “Perhaps it is counter-productive to preserve the impudent wretch’s life. I do not think that he will become useful with further discipline or training. Perhaps you will accept your situation more readily if he is removed.”

Horrified, Hermione almost stopped in place and stumbled slightly as she was tugged on. 

“I…I’m sorry!” she managed. Don’t dwell on Tom. Don’t remind him about how much he means to you. Just… just focus on something else! “I was distracted.” She added, her voice somewhat steadier, despite the swift march down the abyssal corridor. “It’s a big change to be here. I’m not used to…any of this. I’ll try to do better.”

The hand around her arm tightened slightly and, it seemed to her that the pace of the dark wizard’s stride slowed to a speed that, while still not particularly comfortable, didn’t make her head swim with the wards they were passing.

“I want to kill him.” He growled between gritted teeth “The wretch! The filthy blooded, self-important little worm!” Grindelwald stopped, releasing her arm only to fist both his hands. “ The way you look upon him…It makes me itch to curse him, blind him, tear him to pieces and obliterate him completely.”

He seemed to be seething! To see the normally supremely controlled man so unhinged was a troubling development. Hermione was reaching automatically for his arm, with the insane thought that it might calm him, when he rounded on her, herding her back against the wall of the corridor and boxing her in with his arms. She squeaked as her back met the stone and tried not to squirm, looking up at him fearfully. 

“You should look at me as you were looking at the boy in that room.” Something in his eyes was flickering between fury and entreaty, as if he couldn’t quite understand what was wrong or how to bend it to his preferred configuration.   
“You should be mine! I have won you now and you belong to me! And yet you look upon me with…with disgust. I have treated you no worse than that child. I am not hideous to look upon. I…I am powerful.. I am the most powerful wizard alive! You should be GRATEFUL that I have chosen you. I have… I have treated you….kindly… have I not?!”

Hermione’s mind whirled. How exactly was she supposed to answer that?! ‘Um…do you mind if we put this off until we can retrieve a dictionary and I can explain to you very slowly, preferably with pictures or witness accounts, exactly what the meaning of ‘kindness’ is’   
“Of.. of course..” was what she did say. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I…have known Tom for a long time now. He has been very kind to me too. Maybe… maybe if I spend more time around you… and…and if you continue to be…kind… and – “

He cut her off, sneering unattractively. “Your words are empty! You seek only to preserve the vermin’s life! Be at least truthful in your intent. It is enough that you are a whore. You need not be a deceitful whore!”

She flinched away, unreasonably hurt and trying to ignore the sensation. 

When she didn’t respond, a hand gripped her jaw roughly and she was turned to face the infamous dark wizard. She tried to meet his stare and failed.

As the silence dragged on she struggled against the emotions that wanted to well up. She’d been holding herself together so well. She’d been doing her best to approach her situation with reason and caution and nothing ever helped! It had all been just about enough!! She had tried and tried and now she was in the bloody past, in bloody Scourge of bloody Europe-Grindelwald’s inpenetrable prison, being called names because of something she had been born as. You can’t be born a whore, she argued with irrational fervour. It wouldn’t be fair. A whore is either a job description or an expression of social disdain at one’s believed promiscuity. She hadn’t had a great deal of choice in her so called-choices due to said inborn condition. And now, she ranted inwardly, this awful man was blaming her because she was afraid of him and what she might do to Tom. Who’d also blamed her because she was afraid of him and what he might do to others she’d cared for. All of it… it was not fair and she couldn’t do it anymore and she just wanted to go home!

And with that she burst into tears.

She ignored the dark Lord’s mildly frustrated sigh and gave herself over to a good sob. It felt like she had been holding it back for the longest time, trying to just get through the next thing.. the next crisis… just get out of immediate danger and she could fall apart then. But immediate danger was like a hole she was in and every time she tried to climb out, the walls crumbled under her fingers and tossed her back into a slightly different muddy pit. She was always holding it together and pushing it down to deal with later and she just..couldn’t right now!

When she felt strong arms drag her forward against a wool cloaked chest and hold her, she just gave herself over to it and set about snivelling a nice wet patch into the other man’s robes.

After a while she felt a large hand gently stroking the back of her neck. It was soothing and she allowed herself to be slowly swayed until her tears subsided into gulping breaths. Her face ached. She just knew her makeup would be like an expressionist painting.

“I apologise”

The words were spoken very softly, as if the man was worried that the walls might hear and tell everyone that he was weak.

“I am…also troubled… as you seem to be. Unfortunately I can only respond with anger… accusations… violence. It is the way it must be for a man in my position. And…it is also easier for me. You understand?”   
Hermione felt two fingers below her chin, tilting her wet face up in the direction of the low rumbling voice. She opened her eyes to see an uncertain expression on the dark lord’s face.  
“Do you…-“ he stopped and seemed to hesitate, before his eyes turned away and he swallowed, obviously thinking better of whatever he had been intending to say.

“We should continue. Now, even more, I wish to find a way to rid you of this curse and discover the true nature of your affections.”

She hadn’t even seen him draw his wand, but she did see it in his hand now and a second later a gentle cleansing spell washed over her face. He applied it to his own robes shortly afterward.   
With a strangely fond expression, he paused and seemed to admire her.   
“Do you know - many of the women I have been with will not allow themselves to be seen without …paint… or glamours? I shudder to think what they might truly look like. It is of little concern to me - They are only for looking correct at a party or enjoying in a bed.. But…you…look the same. Perhaps a little puffy from the… but that is easily fixed” he flicked again and she felt something like a cooling balm settle over her face.   
He took her hand gently and led her at a much more sedate pace down the corridor they had been traversing before the little meltdown. 

Soon after, the corridor they were following widened into a four way crossroad of two paths. It was there that Grindelwald brought them to a halt. Hermione, moved quickly to stand where he seemed to want her and waited, looking up anxiously.

For a moment the piercing blue eyes scrutinised her, before they softened again. A strained smile twitched the corner of the corner of the other man’s mouth briefly enough that it might have been a mere tic. “Let us not speak of this again” he said quietly, although there was something in his tone that seemed to imply he was really saying “Don’t tell anyone about this please”, before the unpleasant compression of the apparition flung them both away from the dismal prison.

 

\--

 

The space that blared into being around Hermione at the other end of the apparition was barely an improvement.

They were in what appeared to be an office or study. The walls were lined in bookshelves – there were no windows at all - and, central in the room was a large dark glossy wooden desk.   
On the far side of the desk sat an extremely focussed man, He was staring at them both in a manner that conveyed unmistakeably that their presence was not only expected but eagerly anticipated.

It was quite disconcerting. 

The man’s gaze flicked between them both and came to rest upon Hermione, seeming to ramp up the unsettling fascination a few notches more. 

Averting her eyes for a moment from the unsettling man, she glanced at the yellow lamps that were lit. Bizarrely, from their appearance, they seemed to be electrical. This was a muggle place?! 

Her eyes darted back to the man in question. Was he a muggle?!

Almost as if to facilitate her inspection, the man stood up now and moved to join them.

He was dressed in dark pleated trousers and a crisply pressed white shirt, which certainly supported that he might be a muggle! His boots, she saw as he rounded the corner of the table, fairly shone with polish. Was this man in Grindelwald’s army somehow?! He was perhaps in his thirties if he was a muggle, although it was hard to be sure with wizards. He was slender of build and had short lank, dark hair in a rather military style. His nose was straight, his chin dimpled and his mouth mean. None of those features were particularly remarkable. His brown eyes, however were slightly protuberant and oddly bright and intelligent. This lent him a manic..even fanatical aura.   
Hermione was incongruously reminded of Bellatrix LeStrange, despite the fact that the two shared no particular feature or even the most slight of resemblances..

“Du hast dich verspaetet Gellert” (You’re late, Gellert) the man murmured in a gently chastising tone as he moved to lean against the desk, facing them both. He folded his arms. “Ich hoffe du warst nicht damit beschaeftigt meine test-subjekt zu kontaminieren?” (I hope you were not busy contaminating my test subject)

Hermione froze. She understood enough German to know that ‘test subject’ was not an encouraging term to be bandied about.

Grindelwald, at her side, released her hand with a light chuckle.

“Ich bin kein blutjunger bock mehr, Zeph. Mit der Zeit kommt Geduld!” (I’m no randy schoolboy anymore, Zeph. With time comes patience)

A thin smile from ‘Zeph”. “Zweifellos” (Undoubtedly)

The odd man turned his attention back to her, his eyes seeming to sharpen once again in a discriminating manner. It had something of a judge or a merchant-dealer to it. She felt she was being weighed and assessed for some desirable property or trait; as if her value were being estimated.

“Bleibst du denn fuer die erste test-reihe? Ich haette nichts dagegen…” (Are you staying for the first test-series then? I would have nothing against it)

She glanced at the tall blonde man questioningly. He seemed to be considering.

She caught ‘Nein’ easily enough in his eventual muttered response and something about Elms? From Elms? No. Alms. Von Alms. She vaguely recalled the awful officious little man that she had been introduced to …minutes before Uriel had outed her and Professor Dumbledore had been announced and she had been suddenly and painfully demoted from her ‘privileged captive and projected future consort’ status.

“Maia” Grindelwald summoned her attention back from where it had been wandering. She looked up at him with her best compliant and eager to please expression. Strangely, this caused him to sigh in a manner that seemed almost regretful.   
“Maia… This is my….” He hesitated uncomfortably before continuing “…half-brother. He is a doctor and a researcher. He will find out why this …effect…persists with you. He will cure it and then there will be no more difficulties. You understand?”  
He raised his eyebrows as if daring her to question this assertion.

She very dearly wanted to. 

Exactly how was this researcher going to find out why her “effect” persisted? She could imagine a few ways and it was even less appealing now than it had been when she first heard the idea. 

Something of her alarm must have shown on her face because a moment later she was being swept against a broad chest and gently embraced.  
She thought she felt a kiss pressed against the top of her head.   
“Hush, Maia. It will not be so terrible. You are strong. You stood and fought me without hesitation. This will be only a little thing.”

There was the sound of a throat clearing and Grindelwald stiffened, releasing her somewhat reluctantly.

“Kein blutjunger Bock, hast du gesagt? (No randy schoolboy, I think you said?) Grindelwald’s half brother observed dryly. “Es faellt wieder an mich dich zu beschuetzen, bruder-mein. Wie es aussieht, ist dein vernunft bereits beeintraechtigt. Geh. Triff dich mit Von Alms. Wenn du dich doch mit irgendwas graessliches infiziert hast, kann es zumindest nichts schaden, wenn diese Ente daran krepiert.” (Its again up to me to protect you, brother-mine. From appearances, your reason is already compromised. Go. Meet with Von Alms. If you have infected yourself with something horrific, at least it will hurt nothing if that goose dies of it)

The dark despot scowled good naturedly but stepped further away from Maia.   
“Du bist ein penebeler arsch, Zeph, aber du hast vielleicht recht.” (You’re a pedantic asshole, Zeph, but you may have a point) A smirk twisted his lips briefly. “Vor allem wenn es um Von Alms geht” (Especially about Von Alms)

‘Zeph’ chuckled.

Grindelwald sobered somewhat and fixed him with an half embarrassed, half beseeching gaze.   
“Sprich doch auf English mit ihr, Zeph.” (Speak English to her, Zeph) He muttered, as if ashamed of what he was saying. “Sie hat schon jetzt angst. Wir beide wissen wo deine geschmaecke liegen aber siehe zu dass du die an irgendwelche von deine andere tiere ausuebst.” (She’s already frightened. We both know where your tastes lie, but take them out on your other animals instead) His gaze shifted away to inspect the bookshelves in faux interest and he said, almost dismissively “Sie ist mir teuer. Mach dir die muehe. Hast du mich verstanden?” (She is precious to me. Make the effort. Do you understand me?!)

The other hmmphed noncommittally and made a ‘hurry along now’ wave with his hand.

When Grindelwald hesitated he sighed long sufferingly and addressed Hermione for the first time since her arrival.

“Come along then –“ he instructed briskly “Do not fear.”   
His accent was thicker than Grindelwald’s and there was something indefinably colder to his voice. Considering that the dark lord was himself a rather cruel and merciless individual, Hermione considered that this wasn’t the most encouraging of impressions.

“Go with him, Maia” came the rumble from behind her. When she moved to look, Grindelwald was already turning and in a muted pop, was gone, before she could so much as think to utter “stop! Wait! Don’t go!”

And then she was alone with ‘Zeph’ – the creepy researcher.

 

 

“Welcome to your new home for the duration of our experiments”

Hermione looked around the room -well…Box. It was closer to the cell that she had visited Tom in than the room that she had awoken in this morning.

It had an actual bed rather than a pallet – it was a generous single no less; a simple metallic frame with head and foot brackets and a pale blue wool blanket covered mattress in between – but apart from that microscopically slight nod at luxury, it was a grey walled box, lacking any other furniture. A door in the right side wall at least gave her hope that there was not to be a waste hole in the floor.

“How long will these experiments take?” she asked with more than a little trepidation.

“As long as they require” was the curt reply. “Your environment will be strictly controlled in this time, in order to provide the most accurate results. You will eat when and what you are told. You will sleep when instructed to do so. You will vacate your bowels when you are permitted to do so. You will comply with any instruction given. If you do not, you will be corrected. You will not like correction, so I advise you to do as directed without fuss.”

“Oh,” Hermione mumbled, already feeling the dread and claustrophobia crawling around in her gut.   
The horror show hadn’t even begun.

“Undress yourself”

“what?!”

She received a tsk and an eyeroll in response. When she still did not move, the other man drew a wand from the inside of his sleeve. It was a dark pointed needle of a wand. She was already retreating away from him when he flicked a stinging hex at her impatiently.

“I would prefer you do not force me to correct you. The room will need to be cleansed each time you oblige me to use magic upon you.”

His tone was cool and detached. He sounded almost bored. The slight dance of his eyes belied that impression however. No. this was someone who would enjoy every opportunity to ‘correct’ her. He would probably even enjoy having to cleanse the room. If the cleansing was as uncomfortable as it had been in Tom’s cell, and if she was reading this…individual… correctly, he would probably take every opportunity to keep the room thoroughly ‘clean’.

She reached behind her back for the fastenings to her dress.

“Very good. I see you are able to understand the situation.”

Hermione shuffled out of the silky dress carefully and held it out to the waiting man. He took it and made a circling motion with the tip of his wand as a gesture for her to continue.

With downcast eyes she complied. 

When she had given her underclothes and stockings up and stood uncomfortably bare, there was a silence. 

She didn’t need to glance up to know that her ‘researcher’ was conducting a thorough visual examination of her body. Without bothering to wait for the inevitable order, she turned slowly on the spot till she was facing in his general direction again. 

“Excellent.” He commended wryly. “You seem to know your place well enough. I think we will have no difficulty understanding each other.”

He turned on his heel and paced away to the door.

“You may rest, if you wish. Food will be supplied in two hours.” He gestured in the direction of the door and Hermione noticed that there was a low flap built into the bottom of the door.   
She was reminded wretchedly of Harry’s awful family and sidled away toward the bed, thinking to climb under the covers as soon as possible.

The door was closing when she realised something she’d forgotten.

“Wait!” she called. The door paused in its motion.

“What should I call you?” she asked softly, uncertain whether simply asking might be enough to warrant ‘correction’.

It seemed that this was an acceptable question however, as she remained pain free.

“You will address me as Doctor Green”

The door closed quietly.   
She didn’t even need to try it to know that it would not be opening again until ‘Dr Green’ returned.

And then of course, she was treated to the delightful sizzling sound that heralded the approach of the cleansing ward.


	78. Chapter 78

Hermione awoke with a jolt, to the sound of clattering. It sounded familiar somehow. She was sitting up in bed, looking about, before her mind had even fully comprehended where she was and when.

Dr Green was in her room. She hadn’t heard the door open. No it had been the sound of the wheels on the archaic looking machine he was pushing, clattering over the tiles.

She snatched the bedcovers up to cover her nakedness. The man didn’t even appear to notice.

“Ah. You are awake. Good. Remain where you are while I prepare the room.”

This wasn’t really encouraging news. But the doctor had already left the room. She considered whether this might be her chance to run and slipped one leg from the blankets, but the sounds from outside the room made it clear that he had not gone far. Indeed, a moment latter he was returning, pushing a trolley covered in a blue sheet. The oddly chittery clattering sound reminded her strongly of her father’s dentistry practice – the sound of wheeling a tray with small metal objects placed on it. 

The hairs stood up on the back of her neck as the implications of that realisation hit her. 

The Doctor had left the room again and this time he did not immediately return. 

She realised that this could be her only chance to escape. Perhaps there were a lot of barriers in place to prevent that from happening, but she could at least try. Just sitting back and letting…whatever was on that covered trolley…happen to her, was no answer at all. These people... Grindelwald…his brother...- they were not going to simply let her go at some point when they had finished whatever they wanted to do here. The plan was that she would never…ever… be released. And at some point Tom would be killed. Although…at the moment it seemed that anything she might do could get Tom killed… Perhaps it was better to wait.  
But there might not be another opportunity. Who knew what Dr Green was going to do to her now?! What if he found out the truth about what she was?!!

Hermione decided quickly and slipped out from beneath the blankets, uncaring of her nakedness, tiptoeing to the wall beside the door. There was a short wide corridor beyond it. It was perhaps ten metres in length and painted in nicotine yellow. There were three doors that she could see. Two were very solid looking grey painted metal and were set in the left hand wall while the third was on the right hand wall at the end of the corridor. This last door was open. From within, she heard Dr Green bark something in German. Moments later, there was a more submissive German acknowledging bark in return and then the sound of boots on tile. Obviously there were other people out there.  
She dropped her head in frustration. Why couldn’t she just catch a break?!

The other two doors then.

Creeping carefully forward, her eyes and ears trained on the open door at the end of the corridor, she made her way to the first door.   
It was of course locked. It didn’t rattle or budge the merest millimetre. The handle might as well have been set in stone. It was probably magically secured, although there was a very muggle looking lock visible.

The second door was further up the corridor. She hesitated. If she stood by that door, she would probably be visible to anyone standing in the room that Dr Green was in. She wrapped her arms around her body, suddenly reminded of her current unclothed state again. She could hardly do anything about it though. She could wrap a blanket around herself and then trip over it when running. Dr Green had probably taken her clothes at least partly for that reason. 

The second door seemed to glint at her nastily. She just knew it would be locked anyway. 

The voices within the last room spoke again and she was struck with a sudden pang. It was something in the tone of the exchange. Familiar again. Reminded her of something. Television perhaps. She shrugged it off and, temporarily defeated, crept quietly back to her room, looking around at the ‘preparations’ that the Doctor had already brought in. 

Her eyes flicked over the very old fashioned machine that was sitting, sinister and silvery grey in the centre of the room. It had an electrical cable dangling at the side with a plug. It was unmistakeably muggle in origin. There was a raised brand on the side but she didn’t recognise it. There were several dials on the top console area of the machine and a number of holes along the front panel with labels in an old fashioned German script. They were clearly intended to plug or insert something. It could have been an object of measurement or an object of torture. There was no way to know.

The trolley then. Darting a glance out the door, to the short corridor beyond and the open door on the right side at the end, and satisfied that no one was yet emerging, she slipped over to the trolley and pinched the blue sheet, raising it enough to peer below. 

Silver and glass. Syringes, Small bottles with liquid. Peculiarly shaped medical instruments. She gulped, her hand shaking as it held the blue sheet up.   
A scalpel! (She snatched that and tried to hide it against her hand and wrist as best she could.) Along the end of the trolley there were a number of cables coiled. They were obviously for the machine. Some of them ended in what looked like sucker cups, some in alligator clips and some in short needles. Something bright Green caught her eye suddenly. Stepping back, she realised that the trolley had two layers.

In the bottom later were medium sized pots with very healthy looking plants in them.  
Roses. White roses, in fact.

Hermione dropped the sheet and backed away. 

She was just moving back in the direction of the corridor, now prepared to risk trying the second door, when the sound of approaching clattering stilled her. The edge of something large and boxy was pushed into the corridor from the open door at the end.

Whirling, Hermione fairly threw herself in the direction of the bed, wincing as the springs squeaked slightly with the force of her landing. She covered herself with the blankets quickly and did her best to try to wipe the horrified expression from her face.

Dr Green clattered into the room wheeling a low slung trolley on which was affixed a large chair. A monstrosity of a chair. It would have been at home in an execution chamber. It was wooden, straight backed and had leather manacles fitted to it at far too many points.

She knew that her horrified expression had surfaced again by the small satisfied smile she received from Dr Green. His eyes flicked around the room as if looking everything over, before sliding back to the sheet covered trolley, where they narrowed slightly.

With a frisson of fear she realised that the sheet was now hanging crookedly.

The Doctor tsked quietly and moved to straighten the sheet. He mused aloud, his back to Hermione. “I suppose it is only natural to be curious.” Turning then, he fixed her with an appraising expression. “And what did you find?”

Hermione shook her head slightly, fear was tingling through her veins now and flavouring her mouth with the taste of metal filings. She gripped the scalpel more tightly beneath the blankets.

Dr Green’s mouth twisted into a small smirk. “Well… we shall soon see, hm?” He started back toward the door but hesitated as he reached it.

Turning he withdrew his wand quickly and flicked off a spell.   
A red spell. 

Hermione flung herself to the side, trying to get out of the bed, but this only meant that the doctor’s second spell, pink in hue, hit her squarely in the chest.   
She collapsed, momentum carrying her in the direction she had been moving. A moment later she bit her tongue as her head and shoulder struck the floor sharply while her lower body still lay splayed over the bed. 

Blinking away tears and swallowing at the blood that now filled her mouth, she found that her entire body was unresponsive. Rather than the rigidity of the petrificus or the blissful unconsciousness of the stunner, this spell somehow left her conscious and pliable and entirely unable to move her body below the neck. She could however feel the painful pulling of her muscles as she was stretched in this unnatural and undignified position. She could feel the dull throb in her shoulder and the more troubling dizzy pang in her head. She could twist her eyes up to see the repulsive fascination on the face of the doctor.   
She couldn’t feel the smooth metal of the scalpel lying in the palm of her hand anymore…

“I think it would be best if you remain where you are while I finish preparing the room, don’t you agree? After all… I would not want you to develop unhealthy notions. It would force me to correct you more severely and that may set back the research by several days unnecessarily. I am sure you want this unpleasant business to be over as soon as possible, as does Gellert - so it may be necessary to restrict you somewhat more than I had initially planned.”

Hermione noticed, with dull despairing acceptance, that Dr Green had not included himself among those who wanted this unpleasant business swiftly completed.

Then she was alone in the room again for a while. 

She had ample opportunity to scrutinize her field of vision for the scalpel. By best will she could not see it. She did not remember hearing it skitter over the tiles when she fell. It must still be in the bed. She couldn’t feel it. At least she hadn’t cut herself with it when the spell hit her. Rationally, she realised she should be glad she hadn’t accidentally disembowelled herself. Perhaps, if she was extraordinarily lucky she might recover from this spell in time to find it before the doctor did. Or perhaps he wouldn’t find it at all. Perhaps it would still be in the bed later on when they were done with whatever he was about to do to her. 

With the way that her luck was going, she doubted it. . 

Idly, she turned her attention to the cracks in the tiles, the small metallic wheels of the trolley, the underside of her bed. There was no dust or dirt on anything. Not even under the bed. 

Eventually, after he had come and gone three more times, Dr Green closed the door to the room and moved to start arranging the equipment he had amassed. He spoke conversationally to her as he worked, although she was still hanging half off the bed with blood drooling out of the corner of her mouth.

“Of course, all this-“he gestured at the equipment around himself “-will not be necessary once we begin with the first experimental series. Most of the measurements I will be performing with magic, and for that I need not lug muggle apparatus around. Today however… today we will be establishing your history and conducting base measurements.”

Hermione closed her eyes. Of course they would. Naturally. She went over in her mind what she had told Grindelwald about her ‘condition’. The fact that his half-brother had brought white roses... almost certainly truth roses, certainly suggested that she was about to have a problem on her hands in the very near future.

“It is a chore to have to transport things by hand” Dr Green went on, idly. She could hear him connecting cables and doing something with the machine. A faint hum started up. “But I have found that active magic, such as the levitation or summoning charms, interferes with the normal operation of many muggle devices. Even using it upon something as simple as a wire, can disrupt measurements significantly. I could have one of my assistants prepare the room for me, of course but I do not wish them to know so much about you. You are a rather special project.” Hermione was treated to another sinister little smile. “Besides, several of my wizarding assistants are lazy and may slip and contaminate my equipment with a spell if I am not there to supervise them. My muggle assistants, by contrast are clumsy and ignorant of anything magical. They are also liable to be untrustworthy in other ways. Many important people would be very interested in the things I am studying. And of course there is the small matter that all of my assistants are male. It would be wise not to put undue temptation before them. Of any sort. I have spent several years training some of them. It would be a shame to have to put them down when they are just coming into their usefulness.”

Hermione looked up at the man. There was something in the way he had said it. She couldn’t put her finger on it but she had a sneaking suspicion that he knew more about her ‘condition’ than Grindelwald appeared to know right now.

The doctor said nothing more for a while and she watched him as he arranged the equipment around the wooden chair. 

“Ah. That should do it” he muttered to himself eventually, turning back toward Hermione. “Time to take a seat. I am sure you will be glad to be in a more comfortable position by now, hmm?”

“Not especially glad, no” she responded with an unexpected jolt of Gryffindor fecklessness.

The doctor chuckled. “No, perhaps not. But it does not matter really how you feel. It was just a question for politeness. Gellert wishes me to be nice to you.”

Hermione gritted her teeth. “You’re not very good at it.”

This drew a slightly more robust laugh from the man.   
“No. I am not. But I also do not enjoy niceness. You should see me when I am unpleasant. I am very good at unpleasantness.” He withdrew his wand and levelled it at her. 

She would have flinched, if she had sufficient control of her body to do so. As it was, he did not curse her, although her body felt quite sore as it was levitated out of its uncomfortable position to hang in the air. 

There was a faint dull clink from somewhere below her.

Hermione closed her eyes with a sigh and mused again on how much fate must despise her. That would, of course, be the sound of the blasted scalpel dislodging itself from wherever it had been in the blankets before she was moved and slipping off the bed onto the tiles.   
Unfair. It was always so unfair!! Fate was continually kicking her in the kneecaps. 

When she opened her eyes, she did flinch back. Or at least her head did. Dr Green was standing a metre away from her, frowning in mild consternation.

“How inconvenient” he observed. At first she thought he was making a wry little observation about the inconvenience to her that her ‘cunning’ plot had just failed. But he added then - “I will have to delay your well-deserved punishment, in order to complete these tests.”

‘Naturally’ she thought, cursing fate yet again. It was on the tip of her tongue to make some plea for understanding of her rational reaction to imprisonment. But she was glad she had supressed the ridiculous urge when he next spoke.

“Never mind. I shall spend the time considering how severe a response your behaviour warrants.” He stepped back and flicked with his wand, pulling her through the air slowly, back in the direction of the chair. She noticed that he took pains to keep them both away from the muggle equipment in their path. 

When they reached the chair, she had expected to be dropped, or possibly even thrown. Against expectations, she was placed carefully and her limbs gently manipulated with the spell into the appropriate positions.   
It was hard and cold against her skin and she felt horribly exposed as the spell parted her legs wide in order to allow her ankles to rest in the manacle cuffs.   
When the man fumbled with threading and buckling spells for the leather harnesses and manacles, spells which were well known to be a pain in the neck at the best of times, rather than simply doing it by hand, she realised with certainty that he was taking pains not to come into physical contact with her.

When he was done, she was firmly attached to the chair at wrists, ankles, waist and throat. The last was quite loosely strapped, thankfully. While it would prevent her from moving more than a few inches forward, it would not choke her or prevent her from speaking.   
That was probably the point.

“What are you going to do to me?” she asked quietly.

The brown eyes that had been narrowed on her restraints as if deciding whether or not they were tight enough, swivelled to fix on her own again and he answered without hesitation. “I am going to ask you some questions. You are going to answer me truthfully. You are going to answer, even if the answer is uncomfortable to speak about. Because if you choose not to answer truthfully, I will need to take further measures to ensure you provide a truthful answer. Do you understand?”

At her hesitant nod, the man smiled briefly, like a fleeting sun ray through dark clouds, quickly swallowed again by darkness, and flicked his wand at her summarily, ending the immobilising spell.

Watching him as he moved to the trolley, removed the sheet and started to arrange some of the rather unpleasant looking instruments in the tray, Hermione was more than a little concerned.   
No... Actually, she had been concerned yesterday morning, when she woke and found Grindelwald staring at her. She had been quite significantly concerned when she had first seen the place where the bastard was keeping Tom and then seen the fear in Tom’s eyes that he tried hard to hide. She had been extremely concerned when Grindelwald had just left her with this creepy Dr Green. This though…there really needed to be a new scale of measure for this level of concern. She thought she might actually wet herself if he picked up that little hooked claw syringe instrument that looked like something someone might use to remove pickled onions from a jar   
(or eyeballs from a skull).

And there was no way that she could tell this man the truth about anything!! She just couldn’t!! If she did it would only make her situation exponentially worse.   
However much of a puzzle she might be for him as an unusually capable witch who happened to have a strange addictive effect upon males, it would only be worse if she were instead a conduit of raw magic, parasitically dependent upon sex in order to function, who arrived here from the future, where the British Wizarding World was ruled by the half-blooded boy currently locked up in Grindelwald’s dungeon.

God, it even sounded ridiculously fantastical to her. It was entirely possible that he wouldn’t believe her, even if she did speak the truth! 

Her mind spun. She could see Dr Green had turned and was watching her thoughtfully. She really tried to stay calm, but calm just wasn’t happening. It wasn’t that she was afraid she would immediately spill all her secrets. No. That wasn’t it. It didn’t appear that Grindelwald or Dr Green had access to veritaserum, if they were using these truth roses - and the truth roses only detected untruth; they couldn’t somehow force truth. 

No... It was the thought of what else this man might do when he had grasped that she was going to keep lying to him. Dr Green was already planning to punish her for taking the scalpel. She was about to give him every excuse to really get inventive with his persuasive methods.   
She really didn’t need to learn what that horrific looking corkscrew-like tool was for, or the curved thing like a probe with small spikes along its length. Actually, perhaps it was better if she just kept her eyes off the trolley. It was not serving to calm her down at all. 

“Please don’t do this!” she tried, although she already knew it was pointless. “I... I don’t need to be cured. You don’t need to understand this. Just… just lock me in a room and don’t let anyone find me. It’s – “

The other man’s smile was like something that stepped out of closets in children’s’ rooms at three in the morning.

“How….interesting. One might almost think you know what the cause of your condition is.” He reached for a pair of thick black rubber gloves and started to put them on. They reached over his shirt all the way to his elbows.   
“I am quite sure you will tell me all about it…eventually. For the moment…I need to fit you to the machines. Try to remain relatively calm.”

Hermione ignored the implied instruction to be silent and babbled helplessly on, somehow not able to stop herself from trying to beg, barter or threaten a way out of the situation. Dr Green nodded absently to some of the things she said, while he very carefully stuck round pads to various parts of her body. These were then connected to different wires that came out of the archaic machine and at some point she registered that the gauges had started to flick about.   
The next machine, she actually thought she recognised. It looked a lot like a polygraph. Which was, she supposed, the muggle equivalent of the truth roses. 

A primitive glove was fitted over her hand and a thick band strapped around her upper arm. Dr Green looked uncomfortable as he had to lean quite close to fit two thick stretchy cables around her chest, one above and one below her breasts. 

For a brief horrible second, Hermione actually considered trying to strain forward and touch his skin with some part of her body. Her sense of reason cut in again in time, thankfully. She certainly didn’t want this man to….imprint on her… or whatever it was that happened with the others. She was strapped into a chair, for merlin’s sake. Exactly how well could that possibly end?! Desiring her had never stopped anyone from hurting her before.

It seemed that the doctor had realised the direction of her errant thoughts too, as he certainly retreated quite quickly as soon as he had the cables fitted around her. He didn’t go far however, and when he returned, he held a pot of white roses and a pair of scissors. He appeared to admire the roses for a moment before selecting a fully blown flower and carefully snipping it off some way down the stem, leaving a brutally thorny section of about two hand’s width. 

“You recognise this plant.”   
It wasn’t a question.

“Open your left hand, please. This will hurt a small amount, but if you are truthful with me and do not blacken the flower, I will heal your hand as soon as our conversation is finished.”

Hermione pressed her lips together stubbornly and fisted her hand. 

Dr Green sighed, but when she darted a look up at him, he was smiling almost fondly.   
“I can see that I will enjoy working with you. You seem to prefer the hard way. You make it very easy for me to disregard Gellert’s foppish wishes.” He walked away and retrieved what resembled a muggle first aid kit, taking a thick wad of bandage from it and some tape, before returning and kneeling before her. Carefully he gripped her left knee, raising it up as far as the ankle restraint would allow. 

Hermione could see where this was going and realised that it would be far worse than the alternative

“Stop! I’ll hold it” she said quickly, trying to pull her leg down.

He glanced up dismissively. “No. You have lost that option. You will come to see that I do not tolerate disobedience. If you make this any more difficult, there are more painful places I could apply the rose, even if several of them might be difficult to access with you strapped in this position.”

Hermione let her leg go limp, mortified as her mind supplied examples of where else she would not like a thorny rose stem applied.

She watched as Dr Green positioned the rose stem in the inner crook of her knee with the bloom in her view between her separated legs. He delicately placed the thick wad of bandages over it gently without pressing; it felt cool and a little scratchy. In the next moment he had pressed. Hard! Hermione yelped full throat as the sensitive skin of the back of her knee was ripped open. It was an area that was not often exposed to pain and she was unprepared for the sharp intensity of the sensation. Whatever was in the rose thorns burned and stung. She closed her eyes, letting her head fall back as tears were forced from the corner of her eyes. Peripherally, she could feel Dr Green taping the bandage and rose into place and dropping her leg.

A minute or so later, when she had finished dealing with the painful stinging and burning and her embarrassing tears, she opened her watery eyes to see that Dr Green was sitting on a tall metal stool by one of the machines, facing her, with his legs crossed casually and a clipboard on his lap. Seeing that he had her attention once again, he detached a muggle fountain pen from the metal loops at the top, before looking up at her and smiling in a manner that could have been considered friendly and reassuring, if she had just met the man. 

“Well then. Let us begin with something that is not so difficult. State your name.”

Hermione grimaced. There really were no easy questions.


	79. Chapter 79

(translated) Transcript of interview recording   
Recording #1 (of 6)   
Day 1. 10:18   
Dr Green.

Concerning Subject 001 who is exhibiting symptoms of magical parasitism associated with sexual activity.

Subject is a Caucasian female with brown hair and eyes, appearing to be in her mid to late teens. H:163cm W:56kg Magical tattoo on right inner arm depicting a skull and snake surrounded by storm clouds (Mark: Tom Marvolo Riddle. See file) Subject has blood slave binding to unknown vampire (last feeding T-1wk) but is otherwise in good physical health although exhibits severely depleted magical reserves. Subject appears to be of average to above-average intellect.

Note – Polygraph and corianthis rose utilised in questioning.   
Notation for roses – Truth - White rose WR, Partial truth - Grey rose GR, Untruth - Black rose BR

 

“What is your name?” (no answer)

“What colour is the sky” 

“Right now? How should I know?! I haven’t exactly seen the sky in a while” WR

“What colour is grass normally 

… “Green” WR

“Tell me that grass is normally pink” 

“Grass is normally pink” BR

Note – Corianthis rose functioning well. Strong, sharp colour change observed. Rose was severed at 10:03 and is due to be replaced by 12:03

“What is your name?” (No answer)

Question repeated x 3 (No answer)

“What is your date of birth (No answer)

Question repeated x 3 (No answer)

Babbling brew applied.

“What is your name?” 

(Laughter)…“ What’s my name? What’s my name? …What's in a name? … that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And for that name which is no part of thee Take all myself.” (giggling) WR

Note to record. Subject is quoting muggle literature. 

“What is your blood status?” 

(Humming a tune) “Red.” WR

“Are you a pureblooded witch?” 

“Are you a pureblooded witch? What is your obsession with blood? You are a morbid man. Did you know that you have very strange eyes?! I knew a wizard who had strange eyes once. I liked him more than you” WR)

Note – Babbling brew not having the desired effect. Counter applied. Interview not suspended.

“Are either of your parents muggles?” 

“Are yours?! You are his half-brother. How did that happen?! Was it your mother or your father who had a dirty little affair with-“ WR

Applied force 

Question repeated. 

“I bet you enjoyed that. I bet you were just looking forward to having a reason to do that. My parents are dead. I’ve already discussed it with Grind…Gellert. Why are you going over this again? I don’t want to think about them. Ask something else” WR)

“What did you tell Gellert about your parents” 

“Why don’t you ask him?” WR

Applied force

Question repeated. 

(indistinct) “Go to hell”

Applied force

Question repeated (No answer)

Applied force

“We can do this all day. What did you tell Gellert about your parents?”

“I.. I told him that.. my father was a muggle. A dentist.. from Germany. and my mother was a witch” WR

“And was that the truth?” (No answer)

Question repeated. (No answer)

“Was your father a muggle?” (No answer)

“Was your mother a witch?” (No answer)

Applied force.

Prev 2 questions repeated. (No answer)

Applied force.

Prev 2 questions repeated. 

(indistinct)“My father was a muggle” WR

“Was your mother a witch?” 

(Long pause.) “No. (indistinct) muggle ” WR

Note to record – Subject is a muggleborn witch.

“What is your name?” (No answer)

Applied force.

Question repeated. (No answer)

Applied force 

Question repeated. (“I can’t breathe.. Stop.. I can’t.” WR)

Subject revived with smelling salts.

“How old are you” 

“18” BR 

“19?” BR 

“I…I’m not sure” WR

“What is your date of birth? (No answer)

Question repeated x 3 (No answer)

Applied force.

Question repeated. 

“Stop. Please! Please! I can’t!”

Applied force

Subject revived.

Question repeated (No answer)

 

Interrupt session. 15 mins. Subject given water.

 

 

(translated) Transcript of interview recording 

Recording #4 of 6   
Day 1. 20:10   
Dr Green.

“Are you attracted to men?” 

“Yes” WR

“Are you attracted to women?” 

“No” GR

Question repeated 

“I don’t think so! I haven’t been before. I..I don’t think so. Maybe? I don’t know!! Please don’t hurt me – I don’t know!” WR

“Are you a virgin” 

“No” WR

“With how many men have you engaged in acts of a sexual nature?” 

(No answer)

Question repeated. 

“I don’t want to say” WR

Question repeated. 

(Pause. Seems to be counting.) “I’m not sure” WR

“Make an estimate” 

“Maybe..ten..or twelve?” GR

How old were you when you had your first sexual experience? 

“I’m not sure” WR

“Make an estimate” 

“about 18?” BR 

“about 16?” BR 

“15 then??” GR

“I don’t remember it!” WR

“Why don’t you remember?” 

“The memory was obliviated by the person. I only found out later.” WR

“Who was the person?” 

“A teacher” WR

“What was their name?” 

“It doesn’t matter. They’re not alive now.” WR

“Did you kill them?”

“No.” WR (Although slightly grey tinged. Revisit this later)

“When was your most recent sexual encounter?” 

“Gellert made me touch Tom yesterday”

“And before that.” 

(No Answer) 

Question repeated x 3 

(No Answer)

Applied force

Question repeated. 

(When I was at Hogwarts with Tom) BR

Applied force

Question rephrased 

(pleading)

Question repeated

“Uriel!” WR 

Threat of force 

“Uriel. The vampire. He was guarding me while I recovered. Gellert.. Gellert cruciated me. Uriel only (indistinct) to prove how powerless I was. I …I couldn’t help it.” WR

“What exactly did he do?” 

(long pause) “he just touched me We weren’t even undressed.” WR

“Where did he touch you? 

(Subject reddens, indicating with eye movement at my groin area.)

“You must speak the words. 

“My.. pubic area” GR

“My chest and..and my hands too!” GR

Threat of force

“Please!! Don’t!! my mouth! My mouth – my neck! That’s all. I think that’s all!” WR

“Did you like him touching you?” 

(no answer)

“Did you climax?” 

…”yes” WR

“Does Gellert know? 

“I don’t know.” WR

“Do you care for Gellert?” 

(long pause)“…Yes”GR

Question repeated. 

“He abducted Tom from a Hospital wing in order to trap me. He’s holding us both captive!” WR

“Answer the question” 

“I don’t know him well enough to care for him like that” GR

“Do you care for the vampire Uriel?” 

“That’s not fair!” GR

Question repeated. 

“Gellert has threatened, abducted and cruciated me. He has hurt Tom. He sent me here to you. You are torturing me.” WR

Session interrupted. Ten minutes.

Session resumed 19:48

“What is your favourite sexual position?”

“What?!” WR

“Just answer the question”

“I… why?! No!. You don’t need to know that!” WR

“Perhaps you’re right. Alright then. What sexual positions do you dislike?!”

(No answer)

“Have you performed oral sex before?”

(No answer)

“Do you want me to hurt you again?”

“No!” WR

“Then answer the questions. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think I need to know the answers. All you have to do is tell the truth and this will all be over soon enough. You are making it more unpleasant than it needs to be by lying to me. We could have finished this this morning. Have you performed oral sex before?!”

“yes.” WR

“Did you enjoy it?!”

(pause) “yes” WR

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?! Have you received oral sex before?”

“yes. And yes.” WR

(chuckles) “I see. There’s no need to get indignant about it. Have you experienced anal sex?”

“yes.” WR

“And did you-“

“yes.” WR

“Have you experimented with any more unusual sexual practices? Have you engaged in an act involving more than one sexual partner at once, for example?”

“yes.” WR

“But never a woman?”

“No.” WR

“Have you engaged in an act that involved more than 2 sexual partners at once

“Yes.” WR

“Have you ever hurt another person for your own sexual pleasure?”

“Yes” WR

“Have you ever taken sexual pleasure in being caused pain?”

(pause)…”yes.. I suppose.” WR

“But you do not normally derive sexual pleasure from pain? You do not seem to be enjoying what we have been doing here in that way.”

“No. No I don’t like pain. I don’t like it when you… Please don’t hurt me anymore.”WR

“Have you ever engaged in a sexual act with a person who is more than ten years your sen….oh wait. You did mention your teacher. Have you engaged in any other sexual acts with persons who were more than ten years older than yourself.

“Yes… with Gellert,”WR

“You have engaged in sexual acts with Gellert??” 

“Yes. The first day I woke here. I had no choice. GR

“What exactly happened?! Did he fuck you?!”

“No. He just touched me. He came in while I was showering.” WR

“Did you enjoy it?”

(No answer)

“I see. Did you want it?”

“No!” WR

“Did you enjoy it?!

“No.” BR

“Do you desire Gellert?”

(No answer)

“Do you desire anyone?”

(No answer)

“No one? Not even Tom Riddle?”

(No answer)

“Come now. You were doing so well. Don’t ruin it now.”

“You were right” WR

“I was? About what?”

“You really are very good at being unpleasant”WR

“Thank you. I take that as a compliment, you know. Returning to Tom Riddle… what do you feel for the boy?!”

“Worry,”GR  
“Only worry?”

“I don’t want Gellert to hurt him. I’d do anything to protect him!” WR

“What if you had to give yourself over to Gellert completely, in order to protect Tom?”

“I…. I’m trying…”BR

“I don’t believe you. Let’s talk again about when you first met Tom Riddle.”

“I’ve told you everything” BR

“You’ve lied to me about everything. Where did you first meet Tom Riddle”

“At the orphanage” BR

“At… at Hogwarts” BR

“I don’t know. There’s something wrong with the rose!! I’m telling you the truth!

“You are not telling me the truth. You are lying through your teeth! I continue to give you the opportunity to tell me the truth and you persistently lie. Perhaps we need to take a moment for a lesson about trying my patience.

Removed Subject’s first fingernail, Left hand.

Revived Subject.

(pleading)

“Where did you first meet Tom Riddle?”

(pleading)

“When did you take his mark?”

“A…a few months ago. During the summer.” BR

Removed subject’s second fingernail, left hand.

“What is your name?”

(weeping)

Question repeated.

(unintelligible pleading)

Question repeated

(weeping) “The rose isn’t working. Please! I promise it’s not working. I’m telling the truth!” BR

 

Session interrupted in order to apply new corianthis rose.   
Applying rose to subject’s right inner knee.

 

** ** **

 

 

(translated) Transcript of interview recording 

Recording #2 (of 8)   
Day 2. 1130   
Dr Green.

1.2ml Scopolamine applied intravenously.

Five minutes after application, subject appears to be extremely relaxed and drowsy. Speech and blinking slowed. Subject is sufficiently lucid to begin.

 

“Other people seem to be extremely attracted to you. Is this an accurate description?

“Yes.” WR

“Why are they so attracted to you?”

“don’t know. magic?” WR

“When did you first notice this condition?”

“don’t know” GR

Question repeated

“I…I’m not sure” WR

“You have said that it was the result of a potions accident..”

“A potions accident? No… or…I don’t remember. There was something about…about a potions accident” GR

“Is your condition the result of a potion’s accident?”

“I…think so?” BR

“When was this condition first noticed by anyone other than yourself?”

“don’t know” WR

When was the first time that someone made a reference to your condition, that you know of?

“I… don’t remember” BR

“When did the condition first start?

“don’t know” WR

“When did you first notice the condition?”

“I don’t.. I’m not sure. I… Haven’t we talked about this already?!” WR

“Answer the question.”

“I… I’m not… I.. what was the question?!” WR

“Were you involved in a potion’s accident when you were a child?”

“I.. potions? No. My parents are..”

“Muggles. Yes. It seems extraordinarily unlikely that a mudblood might be involved in any potions accident in childhood, but it must be asked.

“When did you first notice that others seemed to be unusually attracted to you?”

“Ummm….When Lucius…or…or harry maybe... Or…. Maybe when… I’m not sure. Something was not right. And then later I knew” WR

“Who is Lucius?”

(Upset) “He’s …he’s dead. I’m so sorry!! It’s all my fault!!” WR

“What is his full name?”

“I don’t know. Probably has lots of muddle..middle names. I’m a terrible person!! I don’t even know his..his name! And he gave me his socks!!”WR

“Who is Harry?”

(subject seems frightened.) “He’s not here, is he?! He’ll hear me. Don’t tell him I said anything!” WR

“What is your name?”

“why do you keep asking me that?” WR

“Tell me your name and I’ll stop asking.”

“You won’t stop. You never stop.” GR

“I’ll stop asking if you tell me your name. You only have to tell me your first name.”

(long pause.)

Gentle tap to rouse subject.

“Huh?” WR

“You were about to tell me your first name?”

“Miney” WR

“Your name is Miney?”

“No. Maia. Or..something. I’m not sure. GR

“Think. What is your name? How can you go home, if you don’t know your name?! You do want to go home, don’t you?!”

“Yes.. I want to go home. Please let me go home!!” WR

“Then tell me your name”

“Ramioney” GR

“I didn’t quite catch it. Say it again?”

“mioney” WR

“Alright.. and when and where were you born?”

“You’ve…you’ve asked this” WR

“I know, but I’ve lost my notes. Tell me again”

“I… no. I don’t want to.” WR

“Why not?”

“I... (long pause) …I don’t really remember. I’m sure theres a reason though” WR

“When were you marked by Tom Riddle?

“I don’t want to talk to you anymore” WR

0.4ml Scopolamine applied

Session interrupted – three minutes.

Session resumed 12:04

“mioney?”

“Mmm?”WR

“You’re in the hospital. I need to take your information.”

“what happened?! I feel…”WR

“Don’t worry about it for now. What is your date of birth?”

“Um.. I …I can’t remember?!WR

“Where were you born?”

“’N’a Hospital” (giggling) WR

“What country were you born in”

“England” (hums unknown tune drowsily) WR

“And when was that?”

“In… On my birthday.” WR

“When is your birthday?”

“in September. September….september… um.. I don’t remember right now! Why can’t I remember?!” WR

“What year were you born?”

“in the year of the goat. Or.. the sheep.. or…the goat.”WR

“Thank you… what year was that again?”

“I’ve told you, haven’t I?! You’re really difficult to understand. Confusing..” WR

“Tell me about Tom Riddle then.”

“Tom’s brilliant… …terrible. I… I think….love. I shouldn’t, should I?! bad. The worst! Everyone hates me now. (repeated several times) And Harry! even worse!. And it’s all my fault and now they’re all gone and I’m… (gasp) .. Oh merlin. I’m not in Hogwarts! I’m in Grindelwald’s castle! I forgot. How could I forget that?! I’m…. I’m trapped! He’s… and they’re… And now I’m… And your’re his brother! You’re… you’re…Oh god. Please stop!! Please don’t do this anymore..” WR

(unintelligible babbling)

“Who is Harry?!”

(Unintelligible babbling and pleading)

“Have you ever performed magic that you knew was impossible?”

(subject repeating herself over and over Something about ‘toto’.)

Session interrupted.  
Scopolamine is not achieving the desired effect. May perhaps be too high a dosage. Associated memory and focus problems are rendering the corianthus rose unreliable.   
Will resume session in three hours with aldenhorst’s sleep suppressant delivered intravenously at a rate of drop/10s, 2 drams Nightmare draught taken orally and incentives of 1 drop cheering elixir for each WR response.

Note to self. Subject appears to respond more desirably to physical motivation than pharmacological. It may be possible to combine these approaches.


	80. Chapter 80

The first experimental series hadn’t been as bad as she had feared. It had almost been enjoyable in fact, after the preceding six days. 

The first four of those had been filled with her agony and the increasing frustration of Dr Green. She could only remember bits and pieces. What she could remember was a charnel-house. She had lost her voice several times from the screaming.   
Pain... pain... pain…embarrassment and shame …demands and questions she couldn’t answer… the damned black rose over and over. Different roses to check whether there might be something wrong with the first.

Her memory somehow only retained what amounted to snapshots from the whole nightmare. She could feel there was more, like an oily black bubble quarantined in her mind. She couldn’t seem to push past the debilitating sick horrified feeling to find out what lay beneath. All she had were isolated flashes and a persistent deep sense of unease. 

A metal claw holding her eyes open while the ‘good doctor’ heated a needle. “We can do this as often as you please. I’m starting to think you enjoy the sensation.” 

Begging and pleading and raving inanities. 

Having her finger and toe nails torn out for the third time, while she screamed for Tom... For Rodolphus... Uriel… She might have even screamed for Gellert at some point in there. 

With the periodic passing out from the torture and then the increasing use of muggle drugs and wizarding potions when the torture wasn’t enough to keep the blasted rose white, she wasn’t even sure what had actually happened and what she had hallucinated.

… She remembered some things that obviously weren’t possible. 

She had fleeting flashes of Lucius disembowelling her and force-feeding her pieces of her own entrails with a knife and fork. She remembered Harry standing behind Dr Green smiling as the doctor burned her inner thighs over and over with an electric wire and screamed questions at her. She… she remembered Dr Green’s black gloved hand touching her between the legs, fucking her with his two middle fingers while he leaned over her with a cold expression – then somehow his hand turned into a rat that was biting and trying to crawl up into her.. 

There were other things. Horrible things. 

It was quite hazy toward the end. She thought she recalled the sound of Grindelwald’s voice yelling at some point, but it might have been another hallucination. 

She wasn’t even sure how much she had even managed to keep from revealing. She only hoped that the growing rage and frustration of Dr Green in her vague memories meant that he hadn’t succeeded in getting the worst out of her. 

And then it had been over. 

When she’d been woken after the healing, it was the evening of the sixth day and she was tired. Her entire body ached and her head felt filled with filth encrusted cotton wool. 

Dr Green had been restrained and furious when he had informed her that they would be moving on to experimentation. He had not given any indication whether this was because he couldn’t’ get the answers, had gotten all the answers, had been instructed to do so or had decided to so do. He was thin lipped for that evening and the food that was shoved through the door flap was cold.   
She chose to take that as a good sign.

And so today the experiments had begun. 

What with the kind of questions the doctor had asked in the part of her questioning that she could remember, she had expected that it would be a lot worse. 

All day long today, people of all kinds had been brought in, one after another, to sit with her in her room for half an hour each.   
Just sit. 

Of course, Dr Unpleasant hadn’t granted her the grand privilege of clothing. But he also hadn’t stopped her from wrapping herself in her blue blanket for the day, which was at least something.

Sometimes she was allowed to talk to the person who was in the room. Other times they were sternly warned not to even look at each other. Sometimes they were instructed to sit together on her bed without touching, and other times the person was led to a seemingly random place on the floor and told to sit there and not move. It all seemed quite random.

She was sure it wasn’t at all random. Doctor Green was indisputably a sadistic, psychopathic arsehole, but she didn’t have the impression that he was an incompetent fool or a madman.

The people seemed all quite different to one another, although they all wore the same dark blue full body overalls. Almost all were adults. Most, but not all, were male. A few of them looked terribly gaunt and emaciated but most seemed in tolerable health and some even had an air of wealth and polish to them. Some of the people seemed very frightened to be there, some seemed excited and others could have been sitting in a waiting room, for all they interest they showed. 

With the ones she was permitted to talk to (There were fifteen of those. Exactly half. She’d been counting.), the impressions she’d gotten varied broadly. Most of them were quite friendly and said that they knew they were taking part in an experiment. Some were doing it for money and some for their studies and some simply out of interest, while others were quite cagey about why they were doing it (Generally, those ones also stared at her in a somewhat unsettling manner). 

The ones who didn’t seem to think they were taking part in an experiment were also generally the more frightened ones. One young girl who couldn’t have been older than seven spoke in German about a man who came to her room in the middle of the night and stole her voice and took her away from her house. She didn’t know where she was and wanted her mother. She was frightened of the noises at night and it smelled funny. She didn’t like the man with the stick.

And that was the other part. From what she could tell from the ones with whom she did speak. All of them were muggles.

Which was troubling in and of itself, obviously. 

If what she suspected was what the Doctor had planned, these people would be utterly useless to her – they had no magic.   
So these people…these thirty people – two of them children…essentially represented people she might be forced to …do things…with, against her will, for absolutely no valid reason whatsoever.

And she couldn’t exactly just tell Dr Green not to bother. How would that work, without explaining exactly what was ‘wrong’ with her?!   
But she didn’t much fancy having to so much as touch any of the people she’d met today – even the adults – friendly and pleasant though some of them had seemed.

So it was a dilemma. 

…At least it was infinitely better than the days she spent being tortured.

Hermione mused on this as she spooned her lukewarm porridge with raisins.   
This was her dinner.   
She hated raisins, but she had the feeling she would need the sugar. 

 

The quiet tick of the door lock releasing snapped her eyes in that direction and had her entire body tense and shivery in half a second, tucking the blankets around herself tightly.  
She liked it when she was alone in her room. When the door opened, anything could happen. Perhaps Dr Green was going to continue with his interrogation now. Perhaps the next phase…or what she suspected was likely to be the next phase... was about to begin right now. 

She clenched her spoon when Dr Green walked in. He seemed even more irritable than he had been earlier when he had taken away the last test subject and told her that she would be fed in an hour.

“You are …apparently... to be permitted a visitor, at our Lord’s insistence.”   
He pronounced the word ‘visitor’ as if it were serving synonym for ‘pus-filled boil’

Hermione blinked back at him warily. If it was someone that Dr Green was not pleased to be bringing her, it was probably not going to be something terrible.

She just about dropped her bowl and jumped out of bed in joy when Uriel walked in.   
His unrealistic doll-like perfection was even more conspicuous in this place. His hair was bound back in a queue and he was wearing what probably passed for muggle attire for him – stiff collared shirt, silver cravat, black waistcoat and pants and a grey velvet frock coat. He looked about half a century too late for the ball, but he was unquestionably breath-taking. He might as well have trotted in on a white charger! 

She was saved! Uriel could take her out of here! He could tell Grindelwald what was happening at least. Or… come up with a plan…or…

Rationality returned with a dissonant clang and was about as welcome as a swift kick in the teeth  
No. No he wouldn’t do any of those things. He had told her when he left her in that bedroom that she would have to play up to Grindelwald and get on his good side. He couldn’t or wouldn’t take her out of here – he’d made it quite clear.

He was probably just here for her blood.

She slumped again.

“Such an enthusiastic greeting.” an accented voice drawled, amused. “One might think you are not pleased to see me.”

She raised her eyes briefly and lowered them again to her porridge, poking at it with the spoon before laying it to the side where she couldn’t fiddle with it.

“I am...” she argued listlessly. “I just…” She shook her head.

“-Is there some reason that you are still here, Josef?” 

She glanced up again. Uriel was peering with distaste at Dr Green, who stood to the side with his hands clasped behind his back and did not appear to have any intention of leaving.

“Gellert has insisted I show you to her. He has not specified that you are to be left with her. A lot of time and effort has gone into controlling conditions around the girl. You, vampire, are not part of those calculations. You may see her. Speak with her. No more.”

The dark haired youth snorted in amusement. “You will need to recalculate then, it seems. I am here for dinner. It was rather expensively purchased and I wish to enjoy it without your ghoulish presence hanging over me. Go and…do whatever else it is you do when you are not in this room.”

Hermione actually cowered down in the bed at the venom on Dr Green’s face. This was not good. She wanted to start pleading now just to save time later.

And the Doctor knew it, too. He flashed her a nasty little tight lipped smile before turning on his heel and stalking from the room.

Horrified, she glared at her ‘guest’. “God… why did you do that?! Do you have any idea what he’s going to do to me?! You could have… have… been polite. I don’t know. You could have just…not done THAT. He is going to beat me twenty shades of black and blue and then he’s going to heal me and do it over again! He’s-“ Hermione hyperventilated just a little while the vampire rolled his lilac eyes and moved to close the door.

“I see that your time here has not been spent in quiet meditation and contemplation” he observed wryly, drawing his wand and pausing a moment to cast several wards and, what she assumed, from the context, were probably privacy spells. He seemed satisfied after a while and sheathed his wand again.   
“I also cannot help noticing that you appear to be nearing complete magical depletion. It was quite hard to miss, since it’s been grating at me half the week like a toothache.” “

Hermione blinked.   
“What?”

Uriel snorted. It sounded polite, if such a thing was possible. “You haven’t noticed?”

She frowned, feeling irritability rise up like a foaming wave. “How should I bloody notice?! In case you missed the memo, I can’t use my magic. I can’t even feel it. It’s not there! There’s no magic meter on my forehead which says my tank is running on empty. And…and even if there was – I’m in a bloody cage! There are no mirrors... And even if there WERE…” she could feel herself getting a bit hysterical now but ploughed on anyway “EVEN IF I KNEW – what the bloody hell do you suppose I should do about it here?! You heard the creepy bastard - ‘a lot of time and effort has gone into controlling conditions around the girl’ – If I’m magically depleted, then it’s because he wants me to be for whatever reason. Otherwise he’d – “ She stopped.   
“Oh.” She mumbled discontentedly. “That’s why.”

The vampire just looked confused. “Memo? Yes… I must have missed that. What exactly is it?”

“Oh shut up” she snapped grumpily. 

She flinched back automatically from the man towering over her a fraction of a second later, crawling backward on the bed to get away. There was a dull crash and splot as her porridge shattered on the floor as it was swept from the bed in her haste.   
“Respect...” The vampire warned in a low voice. “It was necessary for me to demean myself again in order to persuade Gellert to allow me to come here. You will remember your place!”

“I’m sorry” she whispered quickly. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I didn’t mean-“

“Enough” he muttered irritably. “Your simpering is almost as bad as your insolence. This is an unsavoury place for you to be. It is not benefitting you – and it is far more inconvenient for me to reach you here.”   
With a sigh he lowered himself gracefully to sit on the edge of the bed. “Stop cowering now. You are…safe. For the present, at least.” He rubbed his forehead and pinched the bridge of his nose as if tired and frustrated. 

Hermione watched him warily.

After a while he glanced up at her and sighed again. “What did you mean? The... memo… or whatever it was that you mentioned. You seem to be suggesting that Josef is deliberately allowing you to become dangerously magically depleted. Does he realise? Is he thinking to try to render you a squib?”

The idea was one she hadn’t considered. Was it even possible? Could she just become a squib and no longer have this problem?! Surely if she had no magic, she wouldn’t be using it in whatever way she did to attract others to desire her.   
Of course… without magic, she would also never be going home.  
She discarded the idea a moment later. It didn’t seem like something that Dr Green would be interested in doing. He wanted to study her. He wasn’t interested in solving the problem quickly. Neutralizing her right now wouldn’t be his plan.

“I think he just wants me to be motivated to leap into bed with a lot of random wizards” she told the vampire quietly. “That’s probably the point.”

Uriel digested this silently.   
“There have been a number of unexplained disappearances in Britain this week.” He remarked, out of the blue. “Hogwarts students. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it. The Aurors apparently have no suspects…”

Hermione’s mouth went dry.   
“Do you…know any of the names of the victims?!”

He turned to her with a raised eyebrow as if questioning her intelligence. “Of course. All of them. And those who will soon join them. ”

“You’re-!” She squeaked but he interrupted her with a dismissive wave.

“Oh not personally, obviously. I do have better things to do with my time than jaunt over to England and hunt a handful of children.”

She bit her lip “… Abraxas Malfoy isn’t-“

“Not yet. Those that are marked as your close acquaintances still live. For the present. …I believe the Malfoys are among the families offering significant rewards for alliances with the Dark Lord.”   
He frowned at her chastisingly, when she looked relieved at this.   
“Surely you must realise that there is no real prospect of such an alliance?! Did Gellert seem the kind of man to you, who shares his toys with foreign schoolboys?! And, more to the point, it is not in your interests that they continue to breathe. They will continue to drain you.” His expression darkened at that and he seemed to become distracted.   
“You say you believe that Josef is intending to expose you to many men in this experiment?”

He’d called him that before too, she recalled. Joseph. Zeph. Dr Green. Josef Green. Didn’t sound familiar. How could Grindelwald’s brother have just been forgotten in the history books?!! Surely someone must know?!   
She filed the thought away even as she offered the vampire a grimacing nod.   
“I…yes. I think so… “ She swallowed and looked away, feeling irrationally embarrassed at having to talk about it. As if it was somehow her fault! As if she wanted this or wasn’t bothered by it.   
“And it’s not just wizards” she whispered unhappily. “It’s probably muggles too! There were thirty of them here today.”  
“- Nothing happened though!” she added hastily. “They were just…here. I didn’t have to... do anything…” ‘Yet’…hung unsaid on the end of her sentence.

“So many?!” Uriel sounded deeply disturbed. “This will quickly get out of hand. So many drawing from you… it is dangerous.” 

They both sat in silence for several minutes, neither looking at the other but both deep in thought.

Hermione broke the quiet first. She couldn’t help it – she couldn’t sit here and think rationally about what was coming any longer. Something inside felt cold and quavery when she did.   
“I… I don’t know if I can do this.” She tried to say, but it came out as more of a squeaky choked whimper   
she thought about what she’d just said and snorted bitterly.   
“Oh - I’m sure that he can find ways to force me to do it. All he really needs to do is tie me down – I don’t have to be willing for what he wants.” She took a breath and paused, steadying her voice. She was not going to burst into bloody tears right now. She wasn’t!   
“What I mean is - I’m not sure I can do this and not lose my mind.”

Looking down she examined the palms of her hands with interest that she didn’t feel. “Please… Please Uriel!! You have to help me! I can’t – “ She stopped, feeling her throat close and her voice quaver.

The vampire did not reply. 

When she eventually looked up, she saw he was staring at the wall with narrowed eyes. He appeared to be thinking.

“It is…impossible” he said finally, sounding frustrated. “There is simply no way. Or if there is, then I cannot think of it. There is nowhere...”

“Hogwarts!” she pleaded. “You could take me back there!!”

He snorted disbelievingly. “You do know that Gellert had an army poised to attack Britain mere weeks ago?! It is the first place he would go to look for you. And that professor…Albus Dumbledore… He would not risk the children or the British wizarding population, just to hide you. He has some personal affinity with Gellert, I think. Hogwarts is the last place I would venture to go.”  
He huffed, sneering, but he looked quite perturbed.   
“There is nowhere I could take you in the mundane world that would be far enough to stop Gellert from finding us. And as for the world of my kind… No. Your discovery would be immediate and your death swift. And I do not intend to throw my life away just to prevent an Epshani from being fucked. It is what you are made to do. Do not be so dramatic. You will enjoy it – whether you wish to or not. You will not be able to help it. The magic will see to it! Josef is not entirely foolish. And he will be quick to interpret his measurements soon enough and start disposing of his problem.”   
He swallowed, looking as if he was mainly trying to convince himself.   
“The real difficulty will be that he may quickly realise what you are. That will change matters.” He looked worried again. “And…of course if he does… Gellert may believe that I was unaware of your nature… but the inquisitors of the Concilate will not be so credulous. The discovery of an Epshani is an event that occurs perhaps once in an aeon. To have been intimately involved with the last known specimen and then claim not to have recognised another when I was known to have been drinking from it...” The vampire snorted humourlessly and got up from the bed to pace restlessly around the room. 

Hermione watched, biting her lip hard and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. There was something in the other man’s movements that reminded her of a tiger in a cage. She had the fear that he might suddenly decide that the best thing for him would be if she were no longer alive to be a problem.   
It was arguably true, she admitted to herself reluctantly, but that didn’t mean that she was ok with being killed as a matter of convenience. 

She really….really… needed to think of a plan that the vampire might consider feasible. Before he got to the point where he was ready to cut his losses.

“Are…are you...hungry?” She tried, but it came out thinner and higher than she’d intended, and she cursed herself for how obviously frightened she sounded. 

The pretty youth’s head had swung around to her as if she had waved a red flag at a bull.   
His mouth pulled up into a cruel sneer. “Do you think you can blind me with your blood?! It could be ambrosia... milk from the bosom of the goddess herself and I would still not give up my life for the taste!”

Hermione swallowed as the vampire stalked slowly closer. He looked sinister.   
“I… I’m sorry!” she tried, hurriedly. “I wasn’t - I just… I mean... yes. Well obviously I was trying to...what you said… um…a little bit. But…but... my life is important to me too! I don’t want to die. Please don’t –“

She yelped as she found herself abruptly on her back, pinned with such speed that she hadn’t even registered the movement. She caught only a flash of narrowed lilac eyes and vicious bared fangs and then he was tearing into her throat and she was writhing and whimpering in sheer agony. Whatever influence he could use to make the feeding pleasant, he was not using it now. She had thought that it had been the cruciatus effects when his first feeding in the darkened bedroom had been so painful. Clearly it had not been. He could obviously make the feeding as painful or as pleasurable as he chose.   
She was being punished again for her ‘insolence’.

It went against her every instinct but she knew she had to be still and let it happen. It was too late now for ‘the right words’ or ‘a plan he might go for’. If Uriel had decided to drain her – realistically, there was nothing she could do to stop him. She hadn’t been able to stop Rodolphus and Uriel was so much stronger…

She closed her eyes and tried not to flinch away from the sharp digging…the choking press…the insistent throbbing pain that seemed to be igniting her nerves all the way down to her toes. It was not as bad as the cruciatus. That, of course, didn’t say much. Every other pain known to man was not as bad as the cruciatus. 

To her overwhelming relief, a short while later the pain began to ebb away and she felt the uncomfortable sensation of the vampire detaching himself from her throat. He raised himself up on his hands, the lower half of his face painted in red, and mustered her. His jaw was slack, lips parted to display the wicked daggers within, and his lilac eyes were dilated, giving him a somewhat dazed expression.   
“You do not taste as appetising this way” he growled discontentedly.

Hermione only had a second to comprehend this promising conclusion before her mind was fraying into threads of bliss. She writhed again, moaning, but for a very different reason now. She could not try to remain still. She was no longer in the position to exert any kind of control over herself. She wasn’t even aware of herself undulating and straining toward the creature above her. She was a being composed of delight and awe, lost in the throes of worship. Uriel lowered his head once more and she felt him lapping gently at her throat, as if testing the temperature of water with a toe before plunging in.

She would have been surprised, had she been in any fit state to register much of her environment at all, to feel one of his hands move from where it had been restraining her, to the crotch of his pants.   
The vampire stilled momentarily, as if surprised himself.

Hermione, in her helpless rubbing and whining registered none of this. She only knew that she was full of ecstatic, desperate need… and then…she was being filled and her need was being slaked with every wondrous plunging thrust. She screamed as she was brought to fall again and again. She felt the deep tearing bite. It seemed to complete the indefinable circuit of their bodies, and she couldn’t distinguish the climbs from the blinding climaxes any longer.

…and then, without warning, she was abruptly extremely dizzy and tired – awareness and sensation guttering like a candle.   
The euphoria seeped away like water through her fingers while, above her, Uriel spat words in a foreign tongue that sounded like expletives. His wand was at her throat healing her and a phial was forced to her lips so insistently that it knocked sharply against her tooth.

She swallowed the iron sour liquid, managing not to choke on it.

Only then, with her mind returning to her, did she mentally process the fact that the other man did not appear to be wearing any clothing.   
There was no time to muse on the way his irrationally well-proportioned upper body matched his unnaturally perfect features, as she was swiftly struck by the shocking realisation that the man…the vampire who claimed he was beyond caring about rutting… was currently buried balls deep in her.   
As if her noticing it had reminded the other of their position he shifted, withdrawing slightly.

Hermione moaned involuntarily at the delicious slick friction of the movement, instinctively straining upward with her hips and clenching as if she could keep Uriel where he was by grip alone.   
The question of whether she should be doing this was not up for discussion right now. It wasn’t even on the table. It was not so much as in the same hemisphere…universe…dimension…as the table. Her want was like a rabid creature inside her, thrashing about for anything that might slake its hunger.

The too-perfect face grimaced in unexpected pleasure and she heard him groan, low and needy. Then he was sliding back into her, slow and deep and hard and she saw stars. She felt the vampire’s influence shading in around the edges of her perception again, blurring her mind slightly, but he did not lean down to bite her. He rode her skilfully to a final, most satisfying climax before he gasped, his entire body taut, and came, with a muffled broken moan against her throat. Only then did he take a final, delicate bite, drinking slowly with low growls of enjoyment. Afterward, he rubbed his face against her neck like an affectionate cat, and let himself relax upon her.

Her higher reasoning functional once more, Hermione considered what had just happened.

She felt better now, in some way. Something…some ache that had been unnoticed – like a sound that is so faint and constant that one ceases to hear it at all – was indefinably lessened now.

The thought of Tom rose reluctantly in her mind and she felt the faint stirrings of the guilt she would no doubt drown in when she had hours to obsess over this later.

Uriel shifted slightly, curling his arm more tightly around her.   
She wondered whether it had anything to do with the direction of her thoughts. He obviously didn’t feel moved enough to comment either way.

“Dr Green is going to know” she whispered,

There was a long silence and then, murmured next to her ear, “yes.”

“Grindelwald is going to know” she concluded.

Silence.

Hermione fumbled for how to ask what she most wanted to know. As it turned out, the vampire was listening to her inner turmoil, because he responded to her question before she could even formulate it.

“I wanted you… I found I wanted more than I had expected.”   
“With what I am risking for you, I saw no reason to deny myself” he added almost defensively. “Perhaps it was your magic seeking to replenish itself. My rationale seemed…most convincing at the time.”

She wondered whether or not she should resent that. She felt…troubled…when she thought of Tom… and she felt more than a little worried about what would happen when Dr Green, and thus Grindelwald…learned of it. But for the fact that it had happened at all, she felt nothing. Relief, if anything. She was feeling better now... and the warm smooth body lying against her was comforting.

“What will you-“

Uriel groaned under his breath in irritation, beginning to rouse himself and move from her. She had to stop herself from putting her arms around him and pulling him back down. He had made it clear that he did not welcome liberties taken on his person.

Standing, he was breath-taking. She wondered at what point he vanished his clothing – it had all seemed to happen in a blur.  
Uriel’s hair had loosened itself from its queue during their exertions and he combed a hand through it distractedly as he paced again, wand in his other hand.

“I will have to go to him. Inform him before Josef does. Take my…punishment...” he snarled the last and it turned his angelic face into a demon rictus for a moment. 

“You could kill Dr –“

The vampire glared at her and shot her another expression like she was stupid. “His brother?! Half though it might be, Gellert would end me, one way or another – he could twist the arm of the conciliate with the agreements most of them have made to him. He is very protective of his brother, for all that it seems that it is the other way around.” He clenched his eyes shut and massaged his forehead. “I don’t know what he will do to me for-” he snorted nastily “- defiling you. Despite our long years of acquaintance, or perhaps because of it - I am certain that it will be momentously painful and unpleasant. There are very few ways to kill my kind and he is familiar with all of them. It leaves him a lot of room to exercise his creativity.”

He flicked his wand perfunctorily and a pile of clothing appeared on the bed next to her. The shirt was inside the vest and coat as if the man inside had vanished and not the other way around.

Uriel moved to her side, disentangling it and dressing himself, with an aura of distracted impatience.

She watched, wondering why the thought of Rodolphus’ punishment had made her so upset while this merely left her concerned about what might happen to her.   
Had she changed so much? Had Rodolphus helped her any more than this vampire had? 

Perhaps she had changed. Her former self would never have questioned the degree to which another had been of use to her. It wouldn’t have even entered into her calculations. She would have felt empathy for the pain and guilt for her part in it. 

“What will happen to me?” she asked, hating herself for the fact that that was her primary concern now.

The vampire seemed to shrug. “Perhaps he will be somewhat infuriated, but I doubt that he will punish you. How could you be expected to restrain me…helpless as you are?!   
Perhaps he will even see the error of his ways regarding this …research… that he has permitted his brother to undertake. If he cannot stand the thought of me having you… how should he tolerate the thought of countless wizards and muggles pawing at you?! Actually…this could all work in your…our…favour, if I am able to present the situation convincingly.”

Hermione nodded slowly, considering this. It did seem plausible. Perhaps Gellert had not realised what his brother was truly intending to do.   
But then….he had said that it would be uncomfortable for her. He had looked uncomfortable about it. She wasn’t entirely convinced that he was completely in the dark.

Uriel fastened the last button on his vest and brushed his hands down the material, smoothing it.   
“Well.” He said with reluctant resolution “-I suppose I cannot delay it further. Josef will be stalking around outside the door, beside himself with fury. No doubt Gellert will soon be informed of any measurements he has taken of the magical levels within this room - Josef is a petty, vengeful man. I had better hurry to pay the piper before that happens.”

Hermione nodded again thoughtfully and was startled when the vampire moved to her side and leaned down to press a gentle kiss to the corner of her lips. Despite what they had done, she was certain that it was the first time that Uriel had kissed her. 

“For luck” he murmured against her skin, lingering as if he might kiss her again. She turned her face slightly in anticipation, but he had already stood and moved away. He looked at her with uncertainty, as if he were questioning himself, before he spun on the balls of his feet and strode to the door, flinging it open and sweeping out of the room.

There was a long moment of silence and the beckoning dark rectangle of the open door.

Then Dr Green slunk around the doorframe and into the room. 

 

The doctor’s lank hair hung over his eyes and he wore a smug expression that boded ill for her.   
“That was…unexpectedly informative…” He observed quietly. At Hermione’s horrified expression, he continued and confirmed her fears.   
“This is an observation room, foolish girl – I had thought you would realise that. It is similar to a glass box, if one is standing in the right location to observe. Your vampire may have warded the room against eavesdropping, but I could watch and measure the changes in magical reserves.” He smirked knowingly and Hermione was reminded unpleasantly of exactly what the ‘good doctor’ had just observed. Suddenly, to her mind, it was as if the man had been standing over them the entire time, taking notes and making observations with that smirk plastered across his sallow face.

“…I should have thanked the animal - I had not thought to include any magical creatures in my plans. Do you think, perhaps, they might be more severely affected by your…condition?!” The man paused as if distracted by another thought “-It did seem the timing was unusually convenient.” He frowned mildly but brightened as something else seemed to occur to him.   
“Now of course… I may have to rearrange matters to bring you back to the point you were at before.” He smirked evilly. 

Hermione curled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around herself, minimising her exposure. Even though the doctor had seen her naked for an entire week now, she felt vulnerable.

“Why?!” she whispered. “Uriel said – He said I was severely magically depleted. Why do you want that?! What difference does it make?! You’ll force me to do what you want either way.”

Dr Green snorted in amusement. “Are you impatient to start draining them? Oh…you are hungry, are you not?! The vampire gave you a taste… “

He stepped further inside and Hermione felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck as her fingers clenched white on her arms wrapped around herself.   
He knew! He knew he knew he knew!! He wasn’t interested in an odd condition caused by a potions accident. Somehow…he knew what she was. She couldn’t remember. She must have told him. During the questioning - somewhere in there, she must have revealed it. Oh god! 

The sinister man turned purposefully and closed the door with a quiet, final, click. “But I do not think you are hungry enough to be obedient. You were…almost there yesterday…but now you have a spark in your eye again. You will be difficult. Typical Gellert. Always interrupting at the worst times. Even by proxy.”

“What do you want?!” she breathed, although she thought she knew.

Dr Green smiled and drew his wand.

“Not everything I would investigate can be examined by force.” He raised his wand slowly, as if he were attempting not to spook a frightened animal. “I can coerce you… but it will distort my findings. I will have no true measure of your ability to control your influence.”

Hermione frowned. Control? That was what he was interested in?! There was no control! Did the idiotic man truly think that she would be in this mess if she’d had a choice?! Nothing…none of it…would have happened if she had been able to stop others from irrationally desiring her. She had been a prisoner from the moment she discovered her ‘influence’. 

There was hardly any point in keeping the information to herself now. He knew what she was. 

“I can’t control it.” She told him with as much conviction as she could inject into her voice. “I can’t control anything!! If I could, Gellert would never have even noticed me – I wouldn’t be HERE.” She shook her head to emphasise her point. “This isn’t something that can be controlled! It just happens! I don’t want it to, but it does! The more I am around men, the more I…I…infect them! When they touch me it gets worse. It doesn’t ever stop! They kill each other just to put me in their own private prison cell and keep me to themselves. Tom…Gellert… none of them listened when I warned them. I know what you’re planning and it’s going to go horribly wrong. You’re not rational anymore either! “

The man’s lips twisted into an ugly sneer. “I am rational. And you are ignorant.” His sneer softened marginally as he approached her slowly. “They must teach nothing in your school in Britain. Do you believe that vampires –creatures that in many ways parallel your kind – do you believe that they do not learn to charm their prey?! For the first five to ten years of their …life… for want of a better word, their influence is mere instinct, uncontrollable, unreliable. They are closeted away because they are unable to blend in with their environment. Muggles wander about like drugged sleepwalkers in their proximity. Wizards irrationally fear or desire them. They threaten the exposure of their race. This is why centuries of experience has fostered the bond between a vampire and its sire. They must be raised by a skilled vampire; taught to sharpen their awareness of the new sense they possess.” He smiled tolerantly, as if she were a slow child. “Incubi and succubi…another distant relative of your species – can only breed among their own kind or with captive witches or wizards. Why? Because halfblooded offspring are so easily detected in the wizarding and muggle worlds that they rarely survive puberty to learn to control their instincts.  
Your breed is rare…so rare. I am fortunate to have the chance to study such a creature.”

Hermione realised that she was gaping at him. 

Was that true?! It sounded plausible! Could she somehow learn to control this?! Why hadn’t Tom…Voldemort…known about that?! He must have known! He was a Dark Lord and a magical prodigy. He knew a lot. He would have realised the similarities to other creatures if he had known what she was.   
Had he known about it and not wanted her to be able to control her ability!? Was it possible? It was possible but – “

“Ah… you are thinking about this.” Dr Green observed, pleased. “Perhaps you might even be amenable to cooperating… now that you understand that it might benefit you.”

Hermione took a breath and tried to be calm  
“What…exactly… do you want me to do?!”


	81. Chapter 81

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING!!

Hermione turned in the bed uncomfortably. For what had to be the fiftieth time. She had no way of knowing what time it was. The room was always lit with a diffuse matt white light. The only indicator of time were the meals and for all she knew, Dr Green could be arbitrarily selecting the length of day and night in her limited reality. She measured her days simply as the time between sleeps. For whatever it was worth.. it felt like she had been tossing and turning for hours now.

She couldn’t sleep. She knew she really needed to – but it just wasn’t happening. Her mind refused to stop turning over the events of the previous week and the things that might happen tomorrow.

Although… that was probably today already. 

Growling under her breath she turned over again and punched her thin pillow furiously into a marginally less uncomfortable shape.

The only way out of all of this was through. It was simple and logical and utterly abhorrent to her.

She needed to learn how to control …whatever it was that she did to others… whatever it was that she was. She needed to, if she was ever to stand a chance of getting out of here – and more importantly, of getting Tom out of here.

That was what it boiled down to in the end. She could almost rationalise herself into accepting her fate and becoming whatever Grindelwald wanted her to be – to accepting this new awful situation without further fuss and escape attempts, if she knew Tom was safe and far away from all of this.

The problems were of course Tom and Grindelwald themselves. She suspected Grindelwald would never accept the notion of releasing Tom back to Hogwarts to do who knew what, irrespective what promises and commitments she might make to him. And she was absolutely certain that Tom would never just let her go and stay out of this, regardless of reassurances and pleading. It just wasn’t in his nature to give up something he saw as his own, even in the interests of self-preservation. 

Even if he were obliviated of her memory – and wasn’t that a rosy thought – it probably wouldn’t make a difference to whatever intangible connection she had with him (or any of the others) and Tom was never one to ignore a mystery. He would notice changes in his magical potency. He would eventually get to the bottom of it and then he would likely be killed by Grindelwald when he insisted upon investigating further. For all that Tom was a magical prodigy and far more knowledgeable than his years – he was 18 years old and did not yet have armies and magical creatures at his beck and call.

So…she needed to find a way to selectively influence or release those who came into contact with her. If it could be learned or trained, she needed to find a way.

And, repugnant slither of a man that he was, Dr Green was the means by which she could work on that.

Knowing it was what she needed to do and actually being prepared to do it were two entirely different things. 

It had been unpleasant – barely tolerable the last week. It seemed to get worse every day in fact. 

The week started with magical test subject exposure trials on the first day, that essentially mirrored those she’d had with the muggles. Those were fine. She sat in her blanket all day and thought about the brief but decisive conversation she had had with Dr Green about her voluntary participation in this whole process and the difference it would make to his methodology. 

Then there were two days of tedious repetition of the proximity trial Grindelwald had had her perform on Tom, with countless different candidates, some muggle and some magical. Those had been all kinds of awkward. Most of the subjects were adult males, for obvious reason, but not all.   
It was very odd to be instructed to touch another women’s breasts. Infinitely worse to be ordered to touch a child in a manner that she considered inappropriate. 

Another factor that generally caused her discomfort was the willingness of the test subjects. Most of the subjects were obviously there voluntarily and seemed quite amiable – others however were evidently not there voluntarily and seemed more terrified than anything else.   
And then there was the other issue of the attractiveness of the subjects. She couldn’t decide whether it was worse to be required to touch a naked man she thought was quite handsome, or one she found repulsive. It was disconcerting to acknowledge that in some cases she was quite attracted to some random naked male and that it wasn’t at all difficult to persuade herself to caress his hip or stroke his shoulder. It was just plain frightening to be obliged to do the same to a leering gorilla of a man and see written all over his face that he was just avidly awaiting the first opportunity to shove her down and fuck her.

The next few days had been worse again, as she’d been strapped into the interrogation chair naked, with some kind of muggle devices wired to her measuring something or other, while different test subjects were directed about the room, and then were ordered closer, and finally to touch her, much as she’d touched Tom. It had been so much more distressing to be immobile and vulnerable, alone in a room with some virtual stranger touching her. Of course, none of the subjects were complete strangers now, since she’d met most of them a couple of times already in the last two series of trials, but it wasn’t as if they had gone to dinner and a movie together. A couple of the male subjects had gone further than directed and Dr Green hadn’t really done a lot to stop them. One of them had started to grope her enthusiastically and she had called out several times before the order was given for the man to stop and to move away.

Tomorrow though, things would become a lot worse. Tomorrow she was supposed to proceed to full intimate contact.

In her mind she just couldn’t get away from the thought of a prostitute, or – perhaps more aptly – a sex slave, in a room servicing clients all day long. 

Dr Green had said that they would not advance too much further than what had already occurred this week, but he had said it with that thin little smile of his that inspired no confidence that anything he said could be believed. 

She didn’t want to do this.

She didn’t want to do any of this.

She huffed and turned over onto her back, staring up into the darkness.

Uriel had not returned. No word from Grindelwald either. Perhaps he had punished Uriel severely – in which case it was probably good that she hadn’t seen the vampire again. He certainly didn’t respond well to mistreatment the last time. He would in all likelihood pass the buck on to her, if Grindelwald had injured so much as his pride.   
Unless Grindelwald had killed him…

Would he do that?

Could he afford to do that to a high ranking ally? Surely it would damage his relations with the vampires if he just executed one of their ducats. Uriel had said something about him being one rank from the top – or..one shift.. or something. At least that was what it sounded like.

Surely Grindelwald would have returned to throw a strop or punish her or express disappointment in her or something, if he had learned that Uriel had slept with her.   
slept… It was really a bit too delicate a word for it. 

And so easily her mind was back on the possible scenarios for her coming day.

Ugh.

It seemed to take a very long time of tossing and turning before she was able to finally drift off, and then almost no time at all later she was jolting awake as the grating sound of the locks on her door drawing back sent such a flood of adrenalin through her body that it almost hurt. She was immediately wide awake and shaking

She breathed out in a huff of not-quite relief when it was Dr Green who entered.

“You look exhausted.” He gave a wan smirk “I take it you were up all night looking forward to it?”

She half shook her head, knowing the question was rhetorical but unable to prevent it. “Please don’t do this!!” she whispered. “Please!! More time. Just… don’t let them….don’t make me…”

The oily man’s smirk widened. 

“I do wonder whether it is the nature of the act that horrifies you so, or simply the menu on offer. Would you be more amenable if I brought you a meal you could sink your teeth into?” he looked at her thoughtfully even as she grimaced and shook her head again harder.

“No – that’s not…not… what it is. Please! I don’t want to – with any of them. I…I…can’t. I don’t…”

She felt she might be losing her mind a little. It seemed like the light was too bright. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart was racing.

“You will stop acting out immediately – or you will not like what happens next.” Dr Green looked irritated and took a half step toward her, pursing his lips.

“I…I…I… I can’t!!” she gasped. “I…”   
She felt light headed. Probably the hyperventilating. Any second now she was going to pass out, if she couldn’t stop somehow.

The ringing slap she collected actually tossed her down on the bed like a doll and everything darkened sharply for a moment, the world narrowing to a circle of light like an old television switching off.

“Have you yourself under control again?”   
the question promised that there would be something worse than the slap if she hadn’t. But she couldn’t help it. Even pain was better than…

She shook her head, lying limp on the bed, wide eyed. Her breath was already speeding again.  
“No… I… Help. Please… I can’t – I can’t stop.”

Dr Green’s expression darkened further and he seemed to be about to take a step toward her when he frowned suddenly, as if shocked and instead took two steps back. He narrowed his eyes as if she had spat at him and then, incongruously, a small smirk of amusement twisted his thin lips before it faded as if it were never there.

“You must be very hungry indeed” he mused quietly.

“Perhaps we will start with something a little more challenging, than I had originally planned”

Hermione barely registered it. She had her eyes clenched shut and she was trying to stop taking desperate gasping breaths, her fingers gripping the cover white knuckled.

It took a long time of silence before she was able to get herself under some semblance of control again.

She had had panic attacks before – even when she was back in Hogwarts – but never that bad. Never to the point that she’d almost passed out.

Trying to count her breaths helped a little. 

And then she opened her eyes and fell straight back into the maelstrom

Dr Green was gone. And in the centre of the room stood a man. Naked. He was pale and thin and tall with a shaved head

But that wasn’t what held her gaze.

He…he had no eyes. He was looking around, twitching and cocking his head like a hideous bird. 

And where his eyes should have been there were…reddish pink pits. He had no eyes. He had no eyes. He was looking around as if to try and find her but he had no eyes. She thought she might be going mad. Her mind just gibbered and repeated it over and over.

The man shuffled slightly, turning to the right wall and she saw a thin trail of red sliding out of his ear. 

The ghastly idea rose up in her mind like some kind of disease ridden boil. She knew what the point of this exercise was. This experiment. 

The man was blind and deaf. She would be willing to bet that the Doctor had done something awful to his sense of smell also. 

She watched with horrified fascination the way the man peered about, twitching his head as if trying to navigate by the temperature of the air alone.

To her shock, she realised that she had stopped panicking. No… she suddenly found herself preternaturally still. The thought bothered her more than anything else. Was there some truth to the horrid taunts of the wretched man?! Was some part of her watching like a spider in a web?!!

And then the man’s head swung around to her as if turning toward a bell ringing. He took a half shambling step in her direction, arms out as if to catch himself if he fell. 

Ah – there was the panic. She was on her feet and pressed up against the wall in about half a second. Because if that man touched her… if he touched her, even a little – a fingertip…a brush of her hair – she just knew that he would fall upon her in madness like an inferius and she would not get away. And the thought of…that… that person….holding her down and…. 

No.

No no no no no no no.

The man took another step in her direction.. a shuffling half stumble.

She shifted on her feet, prepared to leap from the bed and run to the other side of the room.

He shambled closer. Slowly, but inexorably aligning in her direction, as if he were a compass needle and she magnetic north.

And then he spoke

“Hallo?”

He cocked his head again. There was something birdlike about it.

“Is’ wer da?”

He had a slightly gravelly voice, as if he had been shouting for a long time.  
Or screaming, more likely

She edged further into the corner, sliding along the wall.

‘go away!’ she thought.

‘Go away! Go away! Go away! I don’t want you!! Don’t come closer’

It had no effect at all. He came nearer, reaching out with blind fingers. 

She started to move away along the other wall, thinking maybe she could just keep him circling, never finding her. But he moved more sharply in that direction, as if pulled on strings. He would reach her before she could get past him. She feinted experimentally in the other direction, finding the same effect. She was in a corner... 

Maybe she could rush him. Fight him? He was blind. Surely…  
But there was no point. It was a moot question. He was here to do what he was doing now. What he would no doubt do to her when he found her. She couldn’t fight him. Even if she somehow managed to stop him, Dr Green would only restrain her and repeat the experiment. 

A great wave of terror and despair and hopelessness rolled across her mind. It felt like her mind was drowning in it.

She slid down the wall until she could wrap her arms around her knees and bury her face in her arms.

After a minute, she could actually feel a looming presence above her.

And then there was a soft brush of fingers over her hair as of someone waving their arms around in the dark. She whimpered and curled tighter around herself. 

It felt like he moved closer. Lower. He was right in front of her now and cold fingers brushed down gently over her hair, onto her shoulder and down the line of her back, seeming to startle at first at finding her naked skin. The other hand joined it now and felt gently over her front, finding her arms, her legs,

She clenched her eyes shut and concentrated as hard as she could on wishing the man would just go away. Stop touching her.

For a moment he stopped, and she looked up in surprise and hope.

Only to find empty pits of eyes inches away from her own, as he leaned down over her, mouth slightly open, as if he was trying to taste her on the air.

She screamed. 

She screamed and screamed until she lost her breath, as he suddenly fell upon her, hands reaching, grasping, dragging her roughly out of the corner and pushing her down, forcing her body to uncurl. She was pressed into the ground, a larger body over her own, her wrists easily clamped in one of his hands as he reached for her ankle and dragged her leg up, opening her to him. 

She screamed until her voice died into a painful squalling croak, struggling and fighting to no effect. 

And then he was already angling his body and driving into her with animalistic instinct beyond the senses. It was much…much worse than Lucius. She turned her head in maddened panic, as he rose and fell in frenzy. She couldn’t move! she couldn’t twist or escape. He was in her! Inside her! And all she could see was the carnal pleasure on the ruined face, hear his panting and grunting and moaning. All she could smell was sour sweat. And all she could feel… all she could feel was him all around her and in her. 

And beneath the horror and the disgust and the panic and the pain  
there was pleasure.  
She couldn’t make it stop. The pleasure. The arousal. It was the worst thing of all.

She sobbed and stopped fighting. Simply gave up and let herself go limp, let him rut. When he leaned closer and licked her jaw, tried to kiss her, she just clenched her eyes shut harder and turned her face away, letting the tears burn hot and wet into her cheeks.

It took forever for him to come. And when he did, she felt it gush against her, suddenly wet and hot, as if it were scorching her within. It was the final horror.

She was peripherally aware of the man…creature…being pulled off her and dragged from the room a short time after that. Then Dr Green came and talked at her for a while. She just tried to lie very still and concentrate on not thinking.

Then she was alone again.

After a few minutes she turned painfully onto her side and curled up into a fetal position, wrapping her arm around herself. She wanted to crawl under a blanket, but there was no blanket here. In this room there was nowhere to hide. She could feel a liquid wetness dribbling out of her pussy onto the crease of her thigh. She bowed her head against her knees and cried so hard, she thought she might break something in her chest. 

She had had sex with so many men now. So many. And she hadn’t always had a choice… and some of them had hurt her badly.. but she’d never felt like this before. So used up and empty and ruined.  
And disgusted. She felt physically nauseous.   
As if her skin itself was ingrained with filth and tainted, like she’d been rolling around in excrement. It was all over her and inside her, and she would never get it off again.  
For the first time she didn’t want to see Tom - was glad he couldn’t see her…didn’t know. She couldn’t stand the thought of him looking at her now.   
nothing…nothing… would ever be right in the world again.

…Distantly, she heard the door open again.

There were more slow, uncertain, shambling steps.

And only then did she truly begin to fathom the depth of the hell she was in.


End file.
